CASE STUDY // Playing
Lyric Theatre
Ridgeway Street, Belfast
Project
Lyric Theatre
Location
Ridgeway Street, Belfast
Client
Lyric Theatre
Contractor / Lead Consultant
Gilbert Ash | O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects
Sectors
Playing
SCOPE
The project involved the demolition of the existing theatre building and its replacement with a new performance theatre, along with external landscaped spaces. We were appointed to draw up a planting and grassing scheme for the outdoor spaces around the new theatre.
Although the site lay outside the adjacent Stranmillis Conservation Area – and therefore had no formal tree protection designation – the footprint lay within the Stranmillis Village Area of Townscape Character. It was therefore recognised that the existing mature and semi-mature trees should be retained and protected during the construction period.
Key features:
- creation of safe pedestrian, and cycle linkages into the site from Stranmillis Embankment and Ridgeway Street
- dealing with the significant change in level from the Stranmillis Embankment to the theatre’s ground floor level
- anchoring and integrating the new building into the steeply sloping site by retention of the existing tree presence and supplementing them with new tree and shrub planting
- screening of undesirable views by tall shrub and tree planting
OUTCOME
The outdoor terraced amphitheatre (designed by the architects), was turfed and retained in its sculptural simplicity, with drifts of snowdrops and crocus under nearby existing retained trees. The large embankment facing the River Lagan was planted out in ground cover, with periwinkle, cotoneaster and Christmas box providing winter fragrance. Existing trees were pruned and crown lifted as necessary and supplemented with new semi-mature tree planting of native alder and oak.
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