The joint project of London architects and development company Hammerson is intended to continue and bring to a new, modern level the rich trading traditions of the third largest city in the UK. Many notable buildings in Leeds of the second half of the 19th - first quarter of the 20th centuries were used as sources for inspiration: the famous Victorian passages, and the classicizing town hall, and the oval grain exchange, now turned into a shopping center (both buildings were designed by Cuthbert Broadrick), and the houses of Reginald Blomfield on the main street of Headrow, showcasing a variant of the Art Deco style. The architects tried to refresh this whimsical, prim "cocktail" without violating its integrity.
The central part of the site is occupied by the five-story John Lewis department store with a rooftop restaurant. The pillars of the building, vertical at the bottom, gradually "tilt", forming a diagonal grid of so-called reconstituted stone. Some of its rhombuses are covered with glass, and some are filled with bronze and ivory ceramic inserts.
The adjacent Victoria Gate shopping center has combined facades: in the lower part, the architects used terracotta and brick, using computer modeling to assemble a unique volumetric plastic surface from 460,000 parts, and above they added metal panels either in brass or with imitation of rust.
The light space of the passage is organized by two inner streets with steel and glass ceilings. A spectacular oculus above one of them emphasizes the idea of constant movement, which continues outside the building - the same streets, connecting, form a kind of high (22 m) gable atrium between the shopping center and the department store. The floor in all this sheltered, but inherently outdoor space is paved with natural stone in 15 shades of gray. Its vibrating pattern, together with the floor structures, creates an intricate light and shadow play.
Multi-storey parking for 800 cars is tightly adjacent to the department store building on the opposite side. It is she who logically goes to the intersection of important transport arteries and conducts the main dialogue with the city. Its façade is made up of hundreds of aluminum ribs, the turns of which form an intricate pattern that vaguely resembles the grid of department store structures and provides natural ventilation.
