SLR CONSULTING has strengthened its integrated approach to placemaking with the appointment of experienced masterplanner Louise Fountainas associate director for urban design.
With more than 20 years of experience in masterplanning, urban design and architecture across both the public and private sectors, Louise has held senior roles at AECOM, Planit, Taylor Young (now Arcadis), and PRP Architects and led on major regeneration projects.
Her portfolio includes 1,500 homes within the Greater Manchester Places for Everyone (PfE) plan, Jackson’s Brickworks in Manchester, 2,500 homes at New Eastern Villages near Swindon, and the historic Woolwich Barracks site in Greenwich.
Based in Manchester, Louise will enhance SLR’s Place team in the North West, which includes 15 masterplanning and landscape specialists.
The team is involved in some of the region’s most significant projects. These include the South Warrington Eastern Urban Extension for Homes England, Bold Garden Village in St Helens, Droylsden Town Centre Masterplan, Leigh Civic Square, First Street and Bootle Strand.
Louise said: “I admire the creativity and ambition of the place team at SLR, the combination of visionary design with technical excellence uniquely positions the team to deliver sustainable, people-focused places. By bringing my own experience together with the established team, we’ll strive for outstanding placemaking that positively impacts both communities and the environment.”
She also brings leadership experience in town and city centre regeneration, having worked on frameworks and strategies such as the Warrington Growth Ambition, Sheffield City Centre Priority Frameworks, and Northwich Development Framework, alongside regeneration schemes in Radcliffe and Ashton, and residential capacity studies in Sheffield and Leicester. She has also delivered design codes in Prestwich and Keighley.
Alongside her practice work, Louise serves as Supporting Chair of the RIBA Places Matter design review panel, providing independent design advice across the North West. She intends to use this experience to strengthen SLR’s internal design review process and its advocacy for design quality.
Pol MacDonald, director of the place team at SLR Consulting, said: “Louise’s extensive masterplanning expertise and commitment to raising design quality will play a key leadership and mentoring role for the Manchester studio and beyond, as we continue to expand our place team across specialist disciplines and levels of experience.
“Since fully merging OPEN with SLR in 2022, our place team across the UK has gone from strength to strength, benefiting from the support of SLR’s wider disciplines such as ecology, transport, heritage and infrastructure – combining creativity with technical rigour to ensure that placemaking projects are deliverable and sustainable.”
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