The regeneration of Liverpool was one of the most spectacular urban projects the UK has ever seen. And one of the most successful ...
This new award will be presented to the construction project, completed between September 2007 and November 2008, that has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to the built environment. Projects were judged on design, sustainability, innovation and construction performance.
Winner
- Liverpool One, Paradise Street
Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture may be over, but its legacy lives on in the form of Liverpool One, the £1bn regeneration of the city centre, which is recognised as one of the most significant schemes of its type in Europe. The development has breathed new life into a city with a rich history but a recent record of neglect. It involved delivering 30 buildings, 160 shops, more than 500 apartments and two hotels across a 42-acre site, while allowing Liverpool's landmarks to stand proud. The result is a seamless integration of scheme and city, so you are completely unaware you have ventured into a shopping centre. Since it opened, footfall across Liverpool has increased by 17% and it has brought thousands of new jobs to the city. “It's a real triumph,” said the judges. It was submitted by: Grosvenor, Building Design Partnership, WSP Group and Waterman Group.
Runners-up
- Colchester Garrison
Sir Robert McAlpine's £522m refurbishment for the Ministry of Defence was planned and executed with military precision. Delivered seamlessly, 21 weeks ahead of schedule and on budget, the base is the first entire garrison to be built in 100 years. With room for 3,500 military personnel, it provides first-rate living, working and leisure facilities. The scheme's scale meant off-site prefabrication and teamwork was required at every stage.
- Highcross, Leicester
Hammerson decided to revitalise The Shires, a 46,000m2 shopping centre in Leicester that was losing customers to neighbouring towns. After £350m of investment, the retail quarter now attracts 150% more people to the area and has stimulated a family-friendly evening retail and leisure economy. One of its most striking elements is the John Lewis anchor store, with its distinctive net curtain facade.
- New Street Square
The £193m New Street Square office and retail scheme, submitted by Bennetts Associates and Pell Frischmann, links the City with the West End of London. The concept of sustainability was embedded in the project from the start. Its green roofs and walls contain 50 varieties of plants and the fins on the side of the building were made from timber rather than aluminium to cut embodied energy. Nearly 400 internal bicycle parking spaces were installed to encourage sustainable transportation.
- Terminal 5, Heathrow
The challenge of building on an extremely congested site with a fully operational airport alongside was tackled by using a lot of careful planning and off-site working. The project teams were so interwoven that it is hard to pinpoint where the design part ended and construction method began. And despite being the largest free-standing building in the UK, T5 fulfilled the client's brief of being sustainable. This entry was submitted by Arup.
- The Curve
Leicester's state-of-the-art theatre, built by Bovis Lend Lease, has already become a landmark. Rafael Viñoly turned the typical theatre inside out, exposing the technical components inside to the public. This has helped the city become a cultural powerhouse for the East Midlands and a flagship of cultural diversity. It has already kickstarted regeneration, with £70m of local schemes under way.
- The Yellow Building
The Yellow Building, designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, is a seven-storey mixed-use building on the edge of Notting Hill that has transformed the site into a vibrant new urban quarter. Used as a headquarters for clothes retailer Monsoon, the internal open spaces in the building are designed to maximise visibility and collaboration between its departments. The striking concrete lattice that wraps around the building provides structural rigidity, while on the inside it is revealed in its full glory as the lining for the large, open atrium.
- Paul O'Gorman building, UCL
Located at the heart of one of the largest biomedical facilities in Europe, Grimshaw's Paul O'Gorman building provides state-of-the-art facilities for more than 350 scientists. The client wanted it to make scientific research visually accessible to the public. The result is a structure with a glass, aluminium and terracotta facade with terracotta blades that can be individually rotated in each bay to control solar gain.
