Atkins

2005 – 2011

Principal Landscape Architect

Ludwig was employed soon after arriving from Australia by the Transport Planning business to help develop Atkins’ multidisciplinary public realm design offer.

Ludwig started at a time when best practice in the design of public space was being redefined. Many of the old ways of managing behaviour were being reconsidered, for example corralling pedestrians with guard railing or lining footways with bollards to stop illegal white van parking. He acted as a cross-over between professional silos, enhancing multidisciplinary working and was later transferred to the emerging London Landscape and Urban Design team. 

Ludwig was quick to get innovative projects delivered including inground LED intuitive wayfinding at Waterloo and later Brixton Stations, a first for public land, based on his low maintenance design methodologies. Following the London bombs he became lead landscape architect on the integrated security project at Whitehall and had the pleasure of having his plans signed off by HRH Queen Elizabeth II.

Ludwig then started his long involvement with The Crown Estate in earnest, working on the Oxford Circus diagonal crossing and later undoing the Piccadilly, Pall Mall and St James’s St gyratory, freeing Piccadilly Circus for its own improvements. He also worked on international master planning projects leading the public space design and escalating the issues around local regulations that would see the built designs unadopted and not maintained. When working on Crossrail, Ludwig’s central London experience was invaluable in understanding the impact of this step change in public transport. His extensive experience in pedestrian movement, behaviour and levels of service have continued to be invaluable to more recent placemaking projects where a 50% increase in peak pedestrian volumes was expected due to the ‘Crossrail Effect’.