Our role as masterplanners for Stratford City, with Arup and West 8, evolved into a further position leading the masterplan for East Village for the London 2012 Olympics.

Fletcher Priest’s role in the transformation of Stratford is one of the deepest and most longstanding of all the designers who have contributed to the area. They acted as masterplanners before, during and after London’s Olympic bid, retaining a strategic position while multiple clients came and went, with a clear remit to focus on the long-term ambitions for the area.

Designed from the late 1990s, the original Stratford City masterplan was the largest planning application ever submitted in London. It was conceived and planning submitted prior to the 2012 bid and intended to grow with market demand over 20–30 years. Fletcher Priest were joint masterplanners alongside Arup and West 8 with LCR, Stanhope and Chelsfield as clients.

A key principle from the outset was of long-term city making, creating connections with the existing town centre and into the Lea Valley, seeding regeneration in every direction. Transforming inaccessible brownfield land, the plan created new open spaces, connections and social infrastructure within mixed-use neighbourhoods including significant retail, employment and new homes

When London started bidding, the role evolved into coordination and joint working, each project aligned but not obstructing the other. This ensured success for the original plan should the Olympic bid fail, as widely expected.

Winning the games rapidly accelerated the scale and pace of change and the nature of the clients. Fletcher Priest led the masterplanning of the residential districts throughout, working with ODA, Lendlease and numerous public bodies to shape the Village. It was designed to briefly host 17,000 athletes and convert into 2,800 homes, forming the basis of a new community.

Fletcher Priest were joined by Vogt landscape architects and over a dozen architectural practices, shaping and coordinating the rapid evolution of the site, integrating with the wider Olympic Park, setting the framework for ongoing change.

‘It is a matter of huge pride for us as a practice that the strategic ambitions we helped bring to life, from our first involvement more than 20 years ago, have proven so robust and successful. Over more than a decade we were trusted to act as a consistent guiding hand, maintaining a clear eye on ‘legacy’ before that term was widely used. The process of change is ongoing; we remain excited and optimistic as the mixture of uses deepens even further and the area takes its rightful place as one of London’s key urban centres’

Jonathan Kendall, Partner, Fletcher Priest Architects