Previously ‘Atkins’
2013 – 2020
Consultant Client Agent for The Crown Estate (TCE) and Placemaking Specialist
Ludwig was invited as a proven client agent and placemaking specialist to assist Atkins (now SNC Lavalin Atkins) in developing ‘place shaping and making’ strategies and proposals for The Crown Estate’s central London portfolios, as well as other projects in London, the UK and internationally.
After re-uniting with Atkins in 2013, Ludwig began formulating a public realm design guide and strategy (App and Website) designed to inform development partners of the ‘The Crown Estate and Westminster Way’ to reduce errant optioneering within individual redevelopment projects.
Concurrently he developed placemaking strategies and proposals for The Quadrant (Glasshouse, Air and Brewer Streets), New Burlington Place and Waterloo Place historic areas. Through the approval process, Westminster waived regulations relating to placing private kit on the public highway based on the quality of The Crown Estate’s proposals and legal and management agreements. This paved the way for the development of London’s newest and most innovative suite of street furniture since the red telephone box.
Ludwig designed and delivered the Glasshouse Street ‘Boulevard of Trees’, housed in bronze and LED illuminated tree planters and a co-ordinated an alfresco terrace for Whole Foods Market defined by bronze moveable planters. At Waterloo Place he devised innovative socketed cantilevered umbrellas and historic barriers as well as moveable bronze planters to define alfresco dinning terraces in John Nash’s historic set piece. At New Burlington Place, an ‘Urban Oasis’ off Regent Street, he delivered high quality alfresco dining, office forecourts and bespoke street tree planting in a compact environment which includes multiple delivery points and loading requirements.
Ludwig also worked to deliver the second phase of Glasshouse Street project, namely the alfresco terrace of Hotel Café Royal (London’s iconic 5-star hotel), including large bronze garden planters and lazer etched glass blade walls (on hold due to the pandemic). He also developed concepts for a Haymarket ‘Boulevard of Trees’, which was responding to potential changes associated with the St. James’s Market Phase 2 development and broad pedestrian space generated by the earlier improvements to Haymarket as part of the ‘Piccadilly Two-Way’ project that undid the Piccadilly, St James’s Street and Pall Mall gyratory, which he was also involved in