Open adds to senior team with Turley hire
Design studio Open has hired Mark Blain as an associate in its Manchester office.
Blain has close to 20 years’ experience in urban planning, urban design and masterplanning. He joins from Turley where he was an associate director in the design team, working across the North and Midlands.
In recent years he has led a series of masterplan frameworks across the northern fringes of Manchester city centre; preparing supplementary planning documents for the proposed Garden Village at Halsnead, Knowsley, and supporting large scale infrastructure investment by Tata at its Port Talbot steelworks.
Open, short for Optimised Environments, was established by ex-Turley director Jaimie Ferguson in 2016.
Ferguson said: “Mark is someone who we know well, with a number of us having either worked or collaborated with him successfully over the years. We are really pleased to be able to bring him into our growing team. He is a thoughtful and talented designer who we feel can bring another dimension to our work, as we tackle more complex challenges on behalf of our clients.”
Open is working on a range of projects in the region, including a 1,500-home urban extension at East Halewood in Knowsley and its recent appointment to prepare a masterplan for Town Centre West on behalf of Stockport Council.
