The Bridges – Sunderland

AEW Europe

Sunderland

Bowman Riley has been working at The Bridges shopping centre in the city centre of Sunderland since 2006 providing architectural and interior design services working initially for Landsec and subsequently for AEW Europe after they purchased the site in 2014.

The shopping centre contains over 100 stores and receives 21 million shopping visits in 2012 and provides employment to 2,000 people.

Bowman Riley designed a striking new extension to The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland city centre as part of a wider £15 million development.

The development’s aim was to enhance the retail experience for The Bridge’s 21 million annual customers by ensuring that the most popular high street brands are located within the shopping centre.

The extension was designed to bring Primark into the shopping centre providing the retailer with larger floor plates not available elsewhere in the city.

Twice the size of their former Sunderland store at 60,000 ft2 arranged over three-storeys, the new development provides Primark with an enhanced retail space.  The new store significantly improves the retail opportunities and boosting the local economy with the creation of 150 jobs for local people.

A bold new High Street West entrance was created through the Primark store to replace two 1960s concrete streets of shops updating the streetscape and creating greater footfall for Primark and the Bridges.

Bowman Riley was involved from the project’s conception through to tender stage for Land Securities and from tender to completion with Morgan Sindall, under a design and build contract. The project achieved a BREEAM rating of Very Good.

Following the success of the development, we were appointed to replicate the design across the shopping centre’s three other entrances.

We also designed a new contemporary Café Nero featuring a 180 degree glazed façade.