dRMM’s re-design master-move was to create a strong, well-serviced platform that could support endless uses; from big-top circus to major music events, local fishing to international markets. It offers flexibility, material and functional sustainability, and an uninterrupted vista of the natural and built surroundings of the special seaside town of Hastings.You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! It was designed by Eugenius Birch, who also designed the West Pier, Brighton and Eastbourne Pier, both west of Hastings, and it is often seen as an innovative design considering the technical constraints of the late Victorian period. dRMM has described its ‘dismay’ at the fate of its Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier as a row rages over the unexpected closure of the attraction The pier – which was hailed as an exemplar of community-focused regeneration when it scooped the prestigious award in 2017 – was shut to the public shortly after Christmas for ‘essential repairs’ and will not reopen until March. There was a highly credible contender in the form of Boxpark, whose resources and track record appear to greatly outmatch Gulzar’s.
Now it’s shut…For a community asset to pass into private hands was, says Steve Wilkins, who worked first as a volunteer and then as a paid supervisor on the pier, like a bereavement. They rank 35th and 36th out of 41 listed for the town, even though their average score is pushed up by a number of five-star ratings. We owe our reputation to an incredibly talented and resourceful team, who work in the belief that outstanding architecture comes about through client collaboration, creative design, environmental awareness, and building innovation. For the sake of six weeks, in a project that has taken many years, whose benefits could last for decades, the most convincing bid was ruled out.The administrators, says Boxpark’s Roger Wade, were “extremely unhelpful. As Emma Harwood reported recently in the At stake is, in part, a divergence of views about ownership. They say that they are trying to make their point calmly. Gulzar hasn’t responded to several requests to interview him for this article, but he has made it clear to previous questioners that the pier is his personal property and it’s his business what he does with it. Different users can bring their own architecture to plug in. Certainly the HLF and the administrators were put in a difficult position by the rapid failure of the previous set-up.
Many resigned soon after. After local stakeholder consultation it was clear the Pier would be expected to host many different populist scenarios. The view last week of Hastings pier, closed for repairs by the owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar. The 2010 destruction of the 19th century Hastings Pier by fire was an opportunity to redefine what a pier could be in the 21st century; transforming the shanty town of commercialism it had become in the 20th century. In its absence the pier’s programme would be hostage to the weather – a 90s festival held in September 2017, for example, lost two of its three days to storms. “It was 100% the administrators’ decision,” she says.As for the Heritage Lottery Fund, they now tell me that “it was a matter of following the legal administration process. In January, 250 people attended a “peaceful march”. The HLF grant enabled extensive foundation and structural repairs covering fire, sea and storm damage (£9M). We didn’t feel it was a level playing field. The focus was on creating a well-serviced, strong platform that could support a variety of events and uses from circuses to music events, fishing to markets. His Mercedes, the domes of Eastbourne pier, the pineapples and signs of his hotels in the same town and the hotels’ Ford MPV, are all painted gold. Yet Smith and Williamson stated that he had “demonstrated the best immediate financial capability as well as the operational capacity and experience, including from running Eastbourne pier.”Hastings borough council, as they didn’t own the pier, were largely bystanders in the process, although Roger Wade says they were “very supportive” of Boxpark’s efforts to make a bid. All rights reserved. We go out of our way to understand and realise client needs through detailed research and careful practice.
dRMM’s conceptual basis for the re-design of the pier was not to create the predictable unnecessary hero building at the end, but instead providing open space to allow universal access.
From time to time exceptional storms wreak exceptional damage. It meant that where possible the process of administration should serve their interests. The sale of Hastings pier is at best a case of the sudden imposition of commercial imperatives on a project that until then had been based on an idea of the common good. A small portion of the grant was used to convert the single remaining derelict Victorian Pavilion on the pier into a revitalised, open plan, fully glazed and extended version of the past.dRMM’s conceptual basis for the re-design of the pier was not to create the predictable unnecessary hero building at the end, but instead providing open space to allow universal access. In its current format, the new Pier is a catalyst for urban regeneration. There have been county court judgments against his companies for non-payment of debts. You’re not selling a corner shop. They say that is was “not possible to fund the administration indefinitely”.It’s understandable, given the failure of the initial community-led initiative, that the administrators and the fund might look askance at another, even though that would have been in the spirit of the original investment. But the funny animals distract from the more serious question, which is Gulzar’s capability to own and run the pier. It’s Hastings pier, a Stirling prize winner, yet they seemed hell-bent on pushing one buyer. 600 guests sat down to lunch on the pier immediately following the opening ce…
Hastings Pier dRMM Architects . He likes lions too, with multiple images of the beast appearing outside his Mansion (Lions) Hotel and Albany (Lions) Hotel, their eyes, claws and tail-tips picked out in gold.
A storm during the construction works, which caused £1m of damage, made it less likely that the funds would be found to build it.
“It is like an earthquake environment 24 hours a day,” says Wheeler.