Marcus is Managing Partner of JTP with responsibility for the strategic planning and management of the practice and studios in London and Bristol. He is supported by the practice’s Board of Partners, enabling him to maintain a hands-on approach to projects.
He is an architect and urban designer comfortable across all scales with substantial experience of working with private and public sectors to lead the design and delivery of major new mixed-use neighbourhoods, new towns and garden communities, large-scale regeneration, and strategic placemaking projects in the UK and internationally.
He believes places should be distinctive, memorable and responsive to context and establish an authentic and ambitious vision to guide long-term and large-scale development. Marcus has developed the concept of Staged Placemaking in presenting how large-scale places evolve, curating the growth of a new community in a sustainable and viable way; knowing where to start and achieving a sense of place at each stage.
Through his work on new settlements, garden communities and urban extensions, Marcus has pioneered JTP’s Design Code methodology across an increasing range of major projects, and has spearheaded JTP’s as leaders in the field of masterplanning and placemaking at strategic scale – driven by a commitment to creating and sustaining quality in new places.
He has had a key role in a range of Urban&Civic projects including the regeneration of the 580 hectare airfield at Alconbury Weald; Houlton at Rugby Radio Station; Wintringham Park in St Neots; and a thriving community of up to 3,520 new homes plus community facilities, schools and a new 250-acre country park set to be created at Manydown in Basingstoke. Other new communities include a sustainable mixed-use suburb at Kings Barton in Winchester, and new settlements at Harrington in Oxfordshire and at Worcestershire Parkway for Summix. This experience is set out in JTP’s research paper, Creating New Towns.
Marcus’s work also includes the major brownfield regeneration at The Green Quarter, in Southall which is one of London’s largest regeneration projects; Poplar Riverside on River Lea, and the former gasworks at Beckton Riverside. He is also leading a number of shopping centre to town centre regeneration projects including The Nicholson Quarter in Maidenhead.
His extensive experience of the creative reuse of historic buildings and complexes includes former hospitals, asylums, military barracks, and naval yards including the mixed-use redevelopment of St Clement’s Hospital in Bow, east London, London’s first Community Land Trust and the award-winning residential and mixed-use neighbourhoods at The Village at Caterham, and Queen Elizabeth Park, Guildford. His insights into the importance and role of Community Land Trusts is captured in JTP’s Creating Healthy Communities brochure.
Internationally Marcus has worked on major new settlements and sustainable neighbourhoods in Ireland, China, Abu Dhabi and Russia.
Marcus has been at the forefront of pioneering the use of development frameworks and Design Codes for large-scale strategic projects across the UK and regularly gives presentations on new ways of controlling the quality of large-scale, mixed-use projects. He is a passionate believer in environmental and social sustainability including the delivery of nature recovery networks and biodiversity net gain. He brings this passion and experience to every project he works on, including the vision for 100 Miles Wilder – a new landscape-vision on the Oxford-Cambridge corridor.
He is a committed placemaker and drives design excellence and innovation throughout the practice through our charrette methodology, internal design reviews and JTP’s refreshed participatory and community planning processes with JTP Engages – reimagining how we connect with communities, blending creativity, technology and collaboration. In celebration of JTP’s 30th anniversary, Marcus led the production of the Future of Place publication, showcasing our research and findings on what the next generation want from their future communities, engaging younger and more diverse audiences.
Marcus led the team for the design and refurbishment of JTP’s award winning new studios at Pennington Street Warehouse at London Dock, which is captured in the book ‘Changing Places’.
He is a member of the Academy of Urbanism and is a Trustee of the London Wildlife Trust Board, as well as being a keen cyclist and a season ticket holder at Port Vale.
