An architect and project manager who is currently completing a £9m. heritage project in Bath and has delivered other major projects in London and Monaco is to lead the development of Cyfarthfa Castle in Merthyr Tydfil as a major visitor attraction.
Anna Baker, currently Project Director for the Cleveland Pools Trust in Bath, has been appointed Project Director for the Cyfarthfa Foundation, the charitable organisation established to carry out the Cyfarthfa project. She will start later this month.
Geraint Talfan Davies, Chair of the Foundation, said: “We are delighted to be able to make this appointment after a very competitive process. Anna brings to the table not only high design and organisational skills, as well as commercial awareness, but also a real understanding of the importance of community engagement in making a success of the Cyfarthfa Plan.”
Anna Baker said: “What drew me to this role was a chance to use the incredible heritage story which underpins Merthyr Tydfil, to the town’s advantage. The Cyfarthfa Foundation has ambitious plans to develop a locally driven but nationally significant art gallery, museum and landscape within the wider context of the Valleys. It’s a hugely exciting project which I’m looking forward to leading.”
Anna, who is from Glasgow, studied architecture at Dundee University and London’s South Bank University. For the past three years she has been leading the restoration of the UK’s oldest open-air public swimming pool in Bath – built in 1815 - with the help of an £6.4m grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and support from Historic England and the local authority.
“What I have particularly enjoyed is driving the Cleveland Pools project beyond its original scope, taking it from a heritage project to a scheme that engages with culture, wellbeing, sustainable energy and nature. These are some of the elements that make Cyfarthfa such an exciting challenge,” she said.
"In projects like this, local engagement and volunteer input is crucially important. This needs to be backed by and developed with the local community" she added.
Prior to working in Bath, Anna managed major store development projects for Harrods in London, the building and installation of an interactive pavilion for Samsung in Monaco, and the building of a large movable sculpture – the Mobile Orchard - intended to raise awareness of environmental issues and to act as the centrepiece of the City of London Festival.
The appointment follows the publication of a masterplan for the Cyfarthfa area prepared by internationally renowned architects, Ian Ritchie Architects, and leading landscape planners, Gustafson, Porter and Bowman, together with the receipt of a £1.2m grant from the Welsh Government to begin the planning process.
The 20-year masterplan envisaged an international quality museum and art gallery set in an expanded 100-hectare public park that would have the capacity to attract nearly half a million visitors a year. It placed social renewal and community engagement at its heart. The masterplan exercise was funded by Merthyr Tydfil Council.