Phase one plans for the £160m St Georges development in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter have been submitted to the city council by developer Chord Deeley. The first stage of the 6.8-acre mixed-use development is the conversion of the Kettleworks, a former factory, into a 262,000sq ft office, residential and retail space fronting a new 60m x 50m public square. Over the next three to five years the scheme, designed by Wolverhampton-based

Proposals for the £20m Casa Hotel and Office scheme on the outskirts of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, have been given planning consent by the borough council. The scheme, designed by Carey Jones Architects on behalf of Bradbury Hall Developments, comprises a 100-bedroom hotel with a banqueting suite, conference rooms, restaurants and bars and exterior landscaping. The top two floors (1,500sq m) will be dedicated office space. Mike Harris, director at Carey Jones

Architects have been appointed for the proposed redevelopment of Helsinki Zoo, on Korkeasaari Island, in Finland. The project is intended to improve the zoo's profile internationally and to develop the island as a centre for education and research concerning nature and conservation. The winning design, called Beluga, was created by French architect group Beckmann-N'Thepe and comprises new animal enclosures and viewing rooms, greenhouses, auditoriums, an outdoor theatre, a reception, offices,

A developer which has failed to start work on a multi-million redevelopment project in Dorset is to face legal action from Weymouth and Portland Borough Council (WPBC). Howard Holdings was selected from a shortlist of three companies as the preferred developer to lead the revamp of Weymouth Pavilion, but in November was issued with a demand for £23,000 in consultant's fees owed to the council. However, the council says that

Nordic Wellness, a new health club operation in Sweden, opened its first club on 7 January this year. Located in Gothenburg, the 570sq m club – which cost US$500,000 to build – targets a middle-aged audience with a wellness, rather than a fitness, philosophy. As owner Henrik Ask explains: “The club has a friendly, cosy environment. It’s hard to explain, but it feels more like a hotel than a gym.”

The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Durham, has received a £250,000 cash injection towards its five-year redevelopment programme from the Garfield Weston Foundation (GWF). Established more than 100 years ago by John and Joséphine Bowes, the French-style château houses thousands of objects, including furniture, paintings and sculptures from across Europe. Work began on the transformation project in 2005, with repairs made to the building's leaky roof. The second and third

Peel Holdings has been given a green light to build a £30m hotel at The Trafford Centre in Manchester. The four-star facility will comprise 210 bedrooms, a 200-seat restaurant with a bar, a 500-seat banquet/conference area and meeting rooms. Fitness facilities will include a swimming pool for guest-only use, as well as a spa and a gym. Environmental aspects to be incorporated are living grass roofs, a sustainable drainage system

Proposals to build a £35m museum at the site of the 16th century Mary Rose warship in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard have been met with approval by the city council. The permanent museum — designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and interior designers Pringle Brandon — will house the ship within a structure akin to a black, wooden, jewellery box. Almost 70 per cent of the artefacts (19,000) recovered from the Tudor

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has announced that it will invest more than £11.5m in a scheme that will enable 385,000 spectators to walk or cycle to events at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Two new walking and cycling trails will be established, while six others will be upgraded, to create a network of paths between Finsbury Park and Victoria Park, and from Epping Forest and the Wanstead

Plans drawn up by the London Development Agency (LDA) for the £100m regeneration of Crystal Palace Park in south London have been called in by communities secretary Hazel Blears. A masterplan for the scheme – drawn up by German-based architect Latz and Partner, the LDA and Design for London – was launched in October 2007 and has been designed to guarantee that the park has a sustainable future. Proposals include

Amended plans for a new £35m casino, hotel and leisure complex on the Great Yarmouth coast in Norfolk have been given the green light by the local authority after English Heritage withdrew concerns over the scheme. Great Yarmouth Borough Council (GYBC) approved plans for The Edge after the heritage organisation decided to drop its opposition over concerns that the proposed development would have an impact on views of Nelson Monument

New revised plans have been announced to build a £200m tourism and leisure attraction on the site of three former mines in Northumberland. According to Widdrington Regeneration Partnership (WRP), the joint venture behind the scheme, the development will now include a holiday village with chalet accommodation, an indoor leisure complex with a 50m swimming pool, a man-made sailing lake, a 150-room luxury hotel, a health spa and a championship golf

Work is set to get underway on the major refurbishment of Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey following Mole Valley District Council's (MVDC) decision to approve the proposals. Enabling work is scheduled to start by the end of the month, with the first phase of the 22-month revamp, designed by A+G Architects, set to begin in March provided the final tender for the scheme falls within the council's budget. A new

One of the first rural academies in England and Wales will open this autumn in Wiltshire. Wellington Academy in Tidworth will house a theatre, a floodlit all-weather sports pitch, ICT facilities and the community radio station, as well as boarding for around 100 students and a Combined Cadet Force. Built on the site of the existing Castledown School, the new academy will benefit from a set of new buildings scheduled

A £1.22m linear park is to be built on a derelict railway line in Padiham, Lancashire. The ten-month project will create a 2.4km surfaced footpath/cycleway with new access points and a central parkland area featuring extensive wildflower grassland and more than 1,000 native species trees and 8,000 shrubs. The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA)-funded initiative, spearheaded by Lancashire County Council’s REMADE in Lancashire Team, forms the first part of Sustrans

Two of England's most historic cricket grounds, Lord's Cricket Ground in North London and the Brit Oval in Vauxhall, London, will have "semi-permanent" telescopic floodlights installed this year to enable the venues to host one-day cricket matches late into the evening. Nottingham-based lighting specialist Abacus has secured two deals, worth a total of £3.7m, which will see the company deliver four masts at both grounds. Each mast will be 47.6m

Work on a multi-million pound artificial surf reef at Boscombe near Bournemouth, Dorset, is set to resume in the spring after poor weather conditions this winter delayed the scheme. ASR, the contractor behind the scheme, has confirmed that work is expected to resume in April once weather conditions allow the company to continue with the creation of the first facility of its kind in the northern hemisphere. The reef, located

Work has got underway on a major 10-month scheme to regenerate Peterborough's Cathedral Square as part of the first phase of the city's Streets, Squares and Spaces project. New fountains and grassed seating areas will be installed as part of the scheme, which is being led by urban regeneration company, Opportunity Peterborough, on behalf of Peterborough City Council (PCC). LDA Architects and engineers Pell Frischmann are behind the design of

Donald Trump's plans to establish a new £1bn golf resort on the Menie Estate in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, are continuing ahead of schedule despite the news that the American tycoon's casino group had filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. Trump Entertainment Resorts (TER), which owns three casinos in Atlantic City, US, filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy code having failed to meet a US$53m (£37m)

A decommissioned German U-boat has opened to the public as a visitor attraction on Liverpool Docks. One of only four remaining in the world, the vessel was acquired by Merseytravel when its previous owner, the Historic Warships Museum in Birkenhead went into voluntary liquidation. The ship has been completely restored and cut into four sections with glass panels at the end of each section to allow visitors the chance to

Plans to build a new swimming pool in Worthing's Aquarena in West Sussex have taken a step forward after the local authority confirmed the sale of 1.13 hectares (2.8 acres) of land to a housing developer. A resolution to grant planning permission for the development of land at Sea Place and Eirene Road, which was issued in December 2007, was approved by Worthing Borough Council (WBC) on 5 February after

Gloucester City Council (GCC) and Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company (GHURC) are inviting developers to put forward proposals for the £350m redevelopment of the city centre. The 28-acre (11.3-hectare) King's Quarter development is set to include new leisure facilities and new public spaces, as well as the creation of at least 25,000sq ft (2,323sq m) of retail floor space, in a bid to increase the area's use into the evening.

Nearly 30 regeneration schemes across Britain have been named as finalists for the 2009 Waterways Renaissance Awards by The Waterways Trust (TWT) and the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA). Nominations were judged by an independent assessment panel comprising a range of waterway, conservation and regeneration experts, with the awards incorporating 10 categories, including recreation and tourism, and historic environment. Among the finalists for this year's awards is a waterfront regeneration

Plans put forward by seven shortlisted architects for the refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool have been put on public display until the end of the month. Designs for the revamp of the 1,250-seat theatre, which has one of the biggest revolve stages outside the West End of London, can be viewed until 27 February in the Architruck, the Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) purpose-built