We want an architect like Calatrava for Old Oak, says development chief

Old Oak Common chief Victoria Hills said she wants a world-class architect “like Santiago Calatrava” to design the development’s station.

Hills, chief executive of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), was setting out her design ambitions for the west London backlands site which is set to be transformed by 25,500 new homes, a high street and a transport interchange for Crossrail and HS2.

Hills praised Calatrava’s transit hub at the World Trade Centre in New York, which opened in March a dozen years late and £1 billion over budget, making it the world’s most expensive station.

The Spanish architect is interested in working on HS2, she told a property industry gathering hosted by law firm Fieldfisher, though whether Old Oak could afford him is another matter, she admitted.

The World Trade Centre interchange was “a cathedral, almost” and made the kind of “statement” that the Old Oak Common station should mirror, she said.

“Clearly there’s a reason why the federal government have provided the funding for that level of design in this location. We’re not completely deluded: we know we’re not going to get $4 billion – which is what that’s cost – at Old Oak,” she said.

“Nevertheless, we do hold it up as an opportunity to say, ‘We do want a world-class design at Old Oak, something that really helps to make the place and a real statement’.

“It might not be that, although Santiago would love to come and design a station for us. It might be something as aspirational.”

Hills said that while Calatrava “hasn’t done a lot in the UK”, he saw HS2 as an opportunity to make his mark.

“Whether we can afford him or not, I don’t know,” she added.

“That’s very much a conversation for us and the Treasury.”

The mayoral development corporation footprint covers 650ha of brownfield land and will centre on the interchange between High Speed 2 and Crossrail, but it will also feature other new overground stations.

Yesterday Sadiq Khan, the new mayor of London, said Old Oak Common could be the temporary terminus for HS2 while problems at Euston are ironed out.