Crest Nicholson, Maida Vale commission

Plan Projects and the developer Crest Nicholson worked together to commission an important piece of public art along Maida Vale to satisfy a planning condition set down by Westminster Council.

Client: Crest Nicholson Residential (South East) Ltd
Artist: Julian Wild
Landscape Architect: EDCO Design
Local Authority: Westminster, London

Plan worked closely with the client and their landscape architects, EDCO Design, to establish a public art strategy for this high profile site that faces directly onto Maida Vale. Although entering the site after all the rest of the building works had been completed, it was nevertheless essential that the public art should engage intelligently with its context. The brief to the artists was therefore to consider the architecture of the new building and the surrounding landscaping which included a series of mature trees.

Having commissioned a number of proposals from artists, the client selected Julian Wild. Julian is note-worthy sculpture who was short-listed for the prestigious Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2004. It was felt that Julian’s work would provide a powerful icon that would give definition to the front boundary of the development and co-exist well, on account of its fragmented appearance, with the trees around it.