A landscape architecture and urban design practice founded in Glasgow in 1962, with UK studios in London, Oxford, Manchester and Leeds.
Gillespies is a practice of landscape architects, landscape planners, masterplanners and urban designers. In plain terms, they design parks, squares, gardens, roof gardens and the spaces between buildings, and they plan how large areas of land and new neighbourhoods fit together. Its projects named on its own site include the Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street and the Google headquarters roof garden at King's Cross in London, Elephant Park in London, Mayfield Park in Manchester and St Andrew Square in Edinburgh. It also does landscape planning for infrastructure clients such as National Grid, HS2 and Scottish Power.
Bill Gillespie founded the firm in 1962 as a small garden design business in Glasgow. In the 1970s it became William Gillespie and Associates, and its first work outside the UK was a regional plan for the Suez Canal in Egypt. Early landmark jobs included the Liverpool International Garden Festival in 1984, the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and the redesign of Buchanan Street in Glasgow. In its own words, the firm's mission is "making nature accessible to all", and it says it designs "intelligently with nature to build human stories while protecting the earth's equilibrium".
In the UK, Gillespies has studios in London, Oxford, Manchester and Leeds. Manchester was added in the 1980s. The firm also has offices abroad, including Kuala Lumpur, which opened in 1996, and in the Gulf region, so some UK staff work on international schemes. A UK practice of this kind sits in the middle of the property, planning and public sector worlds, working with councils, developers, transport and energy bodies and architects.
The firm describes itself as a diverse, free-thinking team and says it has no single house style, shaping its advice around each client and place. Its careers pages talk about turning human stories into exceptional places. These are the firm's own descriptions, and the culture page we read gave few details beyond that, so we have not added claims about working hours or benefits.
People in a practice like this have different jobs. Landscape architects design and draw the spaces, landscape planners assess how projects affect views and land, masterplanners and urban designers plan whole areas, and specialists handle planting design, wayfinding and signage, and BIM, which is the shared 3D digital model used on building projects. If you like art, geography, biology, design or being outdoors, and enjoy turning ideas into drawings and models, this is a field where those interests meet. Details of current openings are on the firm's own website.
Website: www.gillespies.co.uk
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE