The Portsmouth Society is delighted that two new buildings are winners in their Design Competition. The city’s new Bus Station on the Hard, with its soaring roof sheltering waiting passengers, who can see their buses arriving through the transparent walls. Interchange with the train station and ferry terminals is easy through 3 well-positioned entrances/exits. Designed by AHR Group and built by Osborne it is a clear winner.
Canoe Lake Leisure’s Tennis Pavilion in Canoe Lake Park, Southsea also wins a Best New Building Award. Its delicate gull wing roof and pale walls in Danish brick link a first floor cafe/bar to a generous outside terrace – the place to watch the tennis action ! On the ground floor a popular wood and glass lined dividable hall is for community events. Wendy Perring of PAD Studio Architects was the designer .Construction was managed by Rice Projects. This beautiful addition to our seafront was funded by a philanthropist and tennis enthusiast who lives nearby.
Commended in the Best New Building category was University Technical College Portsmouth. Internally there is an exhilarating triangular atrium, with exciting breakout spaces for students to congregate, surrounded by engineering workshops and science laboratories for teaching engineering and design skills. Sponsors include many local high-tech companies, plus the Royal Navy – who have played a key part in the project. The architects were Stride Treglown.
Europa House, the tall office block just back from the Hard in Portsea, formerly the offices of Pall Europe Ltd, won the Best Reuse Award. It has been transformed by Midas Construction from offices into luxurious student rooms and communal areas with spectacular views across the harbour and beyond. The fresh and light interior design by architects Boyle and Summers is popular with the university students who occupy it.
The bringing of South Parade Pier back to life by the Wares, father and son, received a well-earned Commendation in the Best Restoration award category. The repair of the badly-decayed sub-structure of the abandoned pier was a complex job which took four years, followed by a complete external and internal refurbishment. We look forward to seeing realization of their visions for the future of the pier – including the re-instated boat jetty and hotel rooms.
The challenging conversion of the eighteenth-century Cell Block, (originally used for reprobate dockyard workers), into starter offices at the Historic Dockyard’s Victory Gate by architects Walters and Cohen was awarded a Best Restoration Commendation. They previously converted nearby Boathouse 4 into a boat building college, to spectacular effect. Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust and the University of Portsmouth collaborated on the Cell Block project.
No Awards were given in the Best Landscape Project category this year.
The 2018 judges were architects Ruth Butler, Peter Stephens and Martin Critchley, led by Society president Celia Clark, The short listing and the two-day itinerary were organised by David Baynes. Committee member Matt Hinks skilfully drove the judging panel around the city on often complex routes to all the locations to be visited.
The blue plaques and commendation certificates were presented by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor David Fuller, at the Society’s Awards Evening at the Royal Maritime Club on Wednesday 24th October.