AN EXCITING vision of the future for Woolston is today unveiled by architects behind a £350m regeneration scheme on the former VT warship factory next to the river Itchen in Southampton.

The artist's impressions show a bustling new centre for the suburb created by extending Victoria Road down to the riverside.

Next to the water will be a public square, which is shown with a library on one side and dramatic, futuristic modern art dominating its centre.

Those features are just an indication of what bosses of the 35-acre site hope to see created for residents, but the actual details are still to be decided. Regular markets and public art are both likely uses for the area.

Residents will have a chance to inspect the plans during a two-day public consultation on the project starting today.

As previously revealed by the Daily Echo world renowned architects the Richard Rogers Partnership have designed three towers of steel and glass to create a modern, waterfront gateway for Southampton.

These images offer a first close-up look at the lead tower, which reaches 12 storeys, and dominates the entire development.

Lord Rogers of Waterside, boss of the RRP and world famous architect behind such projects as the Welsh Assembly, Paris' Pompidou Centre, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Millennium Dome in London has been keeping a close eye on the project.

He hopes the site will drive a riverside "renaissance".

He said: "I hope it will become a vital area once more. I believe that we have created a very exciting project."

Plans for the site, now known as Woolston Riverside, include building up to 1,500 homes and facilities for marine industry, which could provide as many 1,000 jobs.

A planning application will be submitted to the council in April and work is expected to start in January 2006, with phase one of the project complete in the summer of 2008.

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