Interview with Tony Southard
Tony saw the job of Landscape Architect for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation as an exciting project. He recalls a first visit with Stuart Mosscrop to the CMK site: ‘it was a very high plateau, very windy and very open to the sky …very little vegetation really’. They were able to preserve a section of the old Green Lane at the back of the Library, the location of the local Hundred. Of the CMK design, he says: ‘I thought it was a very brilliant idea because it had these three boulevards, it was very clear, very easy to find your way around.’ Discussing CMK landscaping issues, he talks of the choice of the London plane trees on boulevards; sub-division of the car parks using groups of plants; the big oak tree in the middle of the Midsummer Place extension to the shopping facilities – ‘a hell of a fight to keep that’. He talks of the difficulties with maintenance firms doing too much cutting back, or paying no attention to initial maintenance drawings.
Tony was persuaded to do the design for interior planting of the Shopping Building himself, doing a lot of research with advice from Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Topics covered are: budgeting – ‘it proved to be just about right but I have to say it was more by luck and instinct than anything’; the choice of, and sourcing, different plants for north and south; and the lack of doors, which led to cold winds killing off £26,000 worth of plants within the first year. He remembers after the opening, many other landscape architects wanted his advice … ‘a movement had started to have major internal landscape in commercial projects.’ He describes in detail how the planters were made suitable to support major trees in the long term.
On completion of the Shopping Building: ‘Well, you felt: ‘My golly, we’ve achieved something.’ Considering all the CMK landscaping, most of which he designed, he says: ‘I still think it’s very successful despite my irritation at the way it’s maintained.’ Looking at CMK today, he feels that the visionary ideas have been lost. He was very disappointed that his proposal for a statue of Jock Campbell in Campbell Park was not accepted.
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