St Helier Waterfront
- Client
- Ports of Jersey
- Services
- Landscape Architecture
- Sector
- Masterplan
- Location
- Jersey, Channel Islands
- Collaborators
- Make Architects
A landscape-led competition response for St Helier’s waterfront
St Helier’s waterfront has long been one of Jersey’s most contested planning sites, a stretch of potentially transformative land severed from the historic town centre by the six-lane Esplanade highway, with a succession of development proposals dating back decades rendered economically unviable. Benoy was shortlisted, working alongside Make Architects, in a design competition run by the Jersey Development Company and the Design Council to develop a new masterplan framework for the site.
11.5 hectares
Reconnecting town and waterfront
The proposal centred on addressing the Esplanade’s role as a barrier. Improvements to the highway itself would create a greener, more pedestrian-scaled environment, supported by defined crossing points designed to reduce the physical and perceptual severance between the town centre and the water’s edge. New pedestrian and cycle connections would stitch the site back together, establishing clear routes between the historic town and the waterfront for the first time.
A beachfront leisure destination
At the heart of the proposal, a beachfront promenade with seawater lido, art gallery, pier, and activated promenade, would establish the waterfront as a destination. Residential neighbourhoods were organised around a green wellbeing spine, providing a continuous landscape framework for community life. Climate resilience and flood risk were embedded into the design from the outset, with all intervention’s future-proofed against the impacts of rising sea levels, a particular concern for a low-lying island community.
