Cabe to set up Crossrail design watchdog

A source said: “The intention is to have an independent review panel, and the feeling is that the Cabe route is the best. It needs to have a proper relationship between government departments.”

The panel will supersede the peer review panel that was set up to look at the scheme’s original designs. This included Ken Shuttleworth, engineer Alan Baxter and Maurice Green of Scott Brownrigg, as well as David Ubaka of Design for London. It is not known how many of these will be on the Cabe panel.

The panel will advise the Crossrail team on the quality of proposals on a continuing basis, much as Cabe’s 2012 panel advises the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The creation of a dedicated team to look at Crossrail’s designs will appease those who are concerned the project lacks a design champion along the lines of Roland Paoletti, who was responsible for hiring architects such as Will Alsop and Wilkinson Eyre for the stations of the Jubilee Line extension.

The intention is to have a design review panel, and the feeling is that the Cabe route is the best

Industry source

It is understood the head of the design panel will act as a design champion of sorts, but whoever it is will be unlikely to have the power or the influence of Paoletti, who was directly employed by Transport for London.

Shuttleworth had been tipped as a potential design champion for Crossrail, but sources said it was unlikely he would head the panel as well as the one set up by Cabe to vet school designs.

A spokesperson for Crossrail said: “There are internal discussions going on with Cabe, and we are likely to make an announcement within the next few weeks.”