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THE
COMPANY
BUILDING
AWARD
New
City Architecture Award for 2008
AWARD
ANNOUNCED AND CERTIFICATES PRESENTED AT THE LIVERY BANQUET AT DRAPERS
HALL on 1 April 2009
The Company
of Chartered Architects make an annual award to the building which
is judged by the Assessors to have made the most distinguished contribution
to the streetscape of the City of London in the calendar year of
the Award.
The
requirements that must be met for the building to be considered
are as follows:
i) The building
should be a substantially new work of architecture - buildings which
include a minor element of refurbishment along side the new work
will be considered eligible.
ii) The building must be located in the City of London.
iii) To be considered eligible a building must have been deemed
by the City Corporation Planning Department to be complete free
of all Town Planning Conditions during the 12 months leading up
to the call for entries on 1 September of the year of the Award.
The Corporation make available to the Company a list of such completed
projects against which applications will be judged for eligibility.
iv) Any building which has been completed prior to the start of
the relevant 12 month period will be considered provided that it
has not previously been the recipient of an Award or Commendation.
The assessment
of the Award is carried out by a panel including the Master and
Renter Warden and up to two other members of the Company and will
be Chaired by an independent Assessor - in the current year, Paul
Finch OBEt.
Programme:
i) Applications
will be invited for submission by 31 October in the year of the
Award.
ii) Short-listing will be carried out by a Sub-Committee of the
Company during November with a view to final judging being carried
out in Early December.
iii) Announcement of the selected building will be made in January
iv) The Award, in the form of Certificates will be presented to
the Building Owner, the Architect and the Main Contractor at the
Company's Livery Banquet which will be held May. The Award Plaque,
tailored to suit the character of the building, may also be presented
on this occasion but may be presented on another occasion at a reception
at the building.
Requirements:
i) Entries will
be submitted accompanied by the attached Request for Details of
Entry Form and accompanied by the documents set out on the Form
to the Clerk to the Company at the address given.
ii) All photographs submitted will be returned to entrants after
the assessment has been carried out provided that a stamped addressed
envelope accompanies the Entry Form. It may request electronic versions
of the images for this purpose.
iii) The Company reserves the right to use images of the winning
and any commended buildings for the purpose of any press release
or articles in its own newsletter.
Any questions
concerning the Award may be addressed to the Clerk from whom Entry
Forms can be obtained.
ASSESSORS
REPORT FOR 2008 AWARDS
This year's
judging panel comprised: Paul Finch OBE - Emeritus Editor of Architectural
Review -(Chairman), The Master, (Ian Head) The Renter Warden (Edward
King), Dr Mervyn Miller, Mrs Anne Markey assisted by the Clerk,
David Cole-Adams
Judging took
place on Thursday 12 February; eight buildings and public space
projects were visited.
The schemes
referred to above are illustrated on the blogsite.
The jury wished
to give high commendations to two projects:
1,
Wood Street,
an office and retail development. Architect: Fletcher Priest Architects;
client Land Securities
Comment:
From its Cheapside elevation one could scarcely have guessed at
the scale of the 16,000sq m building and the welcome variation introduced
by its architects to break up the large volume. On Cheapside a simple
stone façade reveals the office uses at upper levels, while
the ground floor retail has generous volumes. The three units give
animation and vibrancy to the street and contribute well to the
City Corporation's desire to make street frontages here as active
as possible.
The main office
entrance is on Wood Street, and here the main elevation has a series
of features which might appear fidgety in less skilfull hands. The
stone clad structure moves to steel, and louvres change from metal
to glass, while curvature is introduced to give emphasis to a landscaped
open space; a public route runs through the building from Wood Street
to Milk Street.
The judges felt
the architects had worked very hard to make what might have seemed
a monolithic building a welcome addition to its area. They admired
the way in which the composition had improved the ambience of Wood
Street in particular.
St
Paul's Churchyard (south-west), landscaping and Grade 1 railing
replacement.
Architect: Martin Stancliffe, Purcell Miller Tritton; client, Dean
and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral.
Comment:
At first sight a modest piece of cleaning up around the cathedral
(the site was formerly a masons' yard), this project is a real delight.
It reveals an immense amount, in a subtle way, about the original
building, through a combination of excellent design and first-class
workmanship.
The new layout
to the South Churchyard, necessitated by the cathedral's ongoing
programme to improve access for disabled people and wheelchairs,
inspired a display of the footprint of the Chapter House of the
medieval cathedral much of which survived the Great Fire and is
now beneath the site.
The footprint
demonstrated by use of stone inserts in the paving layout and in
the tops of stone walls which define grassed areas. An inlaid stone
plan of the two cathedrals, by the artist Richard Kindersley, is
a brilliant graphic device showing how Wren re-oriented and reduced
the scale of the pre-Fire building.
The quality
of work here is a real homage to the 14th century master mason of
the original cathedral, William Ramsey.
The 2009 winner
New
Street Square, an office and retail development comprising
five buildings and a new public space. Architect: Bennetts Associates;
client Land Securities
Comment:
This is a very
significant development (more than 100,000sq m in five buildings)
on a formerly obscure backlands site off New Fetter Lane. The mixture
of office, retail and public space is contained in a 'family' of
buildings, each of which has an architectural identify of its own,
but which contribute to a successful ensemble, bearing no resemblance
to the dull 1960s complex it replaces.
As one would
hope for in a development of this complexity, the whole is more
than the sum of its many parts, which include a low-rise management
block, complete with vegetation walls, as well as large commercial
blocks. The retail element feels a natural part of the development
rather than an imposed addition. Similarly, sculpture, lighting
and artwork has been incorporated into the development to provide
a sense of place, which is as evident at night as during the day.
The decision
to produce a cluster of buildings surrounding public space, with
typical City short routes leading in and out, has also allowed the
architect the possibility of responding to different site conditions
in different ways, for example by animating the Fetter Lane faced
with an impressive layering of louvres.
Overall, the
development provides huge added value to its area, and is a welcome
addition to the City of London, prompting comparison with Broadgate
and Paternoster Square. A very worthy winner.
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