August 2017

We are delighted to announce that the Fuse-designed, mixed use redevelopment of the Hudson House site in York was unanimously approved by City of York Planning Committee last night. The project, for our client Palace Capital, will see the demolition of the former railway headquarters building and in its place the creation of 127 new homes, a 4,000sqm grade A office building, plus other retail/commercial uses.

The site is in a very sensitive location: only a few metres inside York’s historic City Walls. The design development therefore required a positive working relationship with a number of local stakeholders, including officers within the City Council – whose offices actually over-look the site! 

The scheme features four new buildings, arranged around a central courtyard space which will provide private amenity space for the development’s residents. The proposals also include a new pedestrian route through the site, which will create a new connection between the main rail station and residents and businesses of the Micklegate neighbourhood. Fuse worked with landscape architects, Re-form, to design a public realm concept which knits the development into its surroundings and provides a far more attractive setting for the adjacent City Wall.

The site represented an interesting challenge to the Fuse team; as it lies within an area synonymous with large, railway related buildings and yet on the West is bounded by smaller, compact buildings which are more typical of York’s historic city core. The resultant scheme sees four brick clad buildings that respond to their context through massing, materiality and roofscape.

Members of the City’s planning committee commented favourably about the “exciting and innovative” design approach.

We very much look forward to working with Palace Capital and the rest of the design team to develop the detail design and get the project on site in 2018….