The architects behind the Commonwealth Games stadium in Kuala Lumpur are set to transform Oxford city centre.
Gillespies Landscape Architects and Planners, which has an office in Bagley Croft, Hinksey Hill, Oxford, designed the National Sports Centre, in Malaysia, which hosted this year's Commonwealth Games.
The company, also a respected urban design consultant, is expected to win the contract to revamp Oxford city centre as part of the £2m Oxford Transport Strategy next week.
It will be responsible for pedestrianising Cornmarket Street and introducing a host of other measures over the next two years to make the city centre more attractive. The firm, which has its head office in Glasgow, has been involved in award-winning projects in Glasgow and Cardiff, and is helping to pedestrianise part of Watford city centre.
Work is due to start on the Oxford Transport Strategy, to reduce traffic entering the city centre, in January.
Following initial road improvements, Traffic orders will be made in April to create pedestrian-only zones in Cornmarket Street and Broad Street and close High Street to private traffic.
A special panel of city councillors and members of the Oxford Civic Society and Oxford Preservation Trust has spent two months talking to leading urban designers interested in the project.
An initial shortlist of nine was shortened to four and interviews were held last month.
The panel was impressed by Gillespies' work in Buchanan Street, Glasgow, which has won awards from the Landscape Institute and the Planning Institute. John Walker, the city council's director of environmental services, said: "The panel was impressed with Gillespies, who have a great deal of experience in this field. We will be looking for them to produce something similar to what they did in Glasgow."
Mr Walker has written to Gillespies indicating the council's interest and is expected to offer the firm a contract once fees have been agreed.
However, other companies could still be employed for smaller elements of the project.
Paul Taylor, a partner at Gillespies' Oxford office, said the firm had been "in conversation" with the city council but he was unsure of the formal situation.
He said: "We specialise in quality design, using natural materials to reflect historical settings. In Oxford, our brief would be to install new paving and street furniture, as well as lighting and street signs." Meanwhile, highways officers are giving motorists maximum warning of disruption to be caused by work on the Oxford Transport Strategy.
The most severe roadworks will be in Park End Street, where work to realign the junction with Hythe Bridge Street will last two months. Elsewhere in the city centre, work to change the configuration of junctions will cause delays.
Mark Jarman, principal planner for Oxfordshire County Council, said: "All the work is designed to drastically improve the city centre. The danger is that this will be lost on people and they will forget what all the disruption is for."
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