The Portsmouth Society - News
| Portsmouth Society Design Awards 2003
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| News Earlier news Awards home 2002 results |
Best New Building - University of Portsmouth Students' union Portsmouth University Students' Union was the outright winner of the Best New Building for 2003. Designed by Hawkins\Brown, winners of a competition, it's a sparkling new club with four food outlets, five bars, a 1600 capacity night club, offices and shops. The Union acts as the social hub for Portsmouth's thousands of students. Builders were Waites Construction Southern. The facade facing Mercantile House has a colonnade fronting Blackwell's bookshop, which dramatically announces the university's campus. The building's elegant grey ship lap zinc cladding has a translucent box floating above which houses the nightclub, with special colourful lighting effects designed by Martin Richman. The perforated steel gates draw you across a granite threshold to a major pedestrian route through Ravelin Park to the university library, with the student union on your right and the refurbished Victorian Gun House which now houses Bewley's cafe, bars and billiards on your left; the two buildings bridged in glass with giant letters identifying the Union. The processional staircase rises through brilliant colours on windows, walls and ceiling to the bars, meeting rooms and offices. The light and colour make the union feel special, an enhancement in the university's image, which has attracted significantly more students to enrol since it opened a year ago. Best Restoration - Art in the Park Art in the Park, the brilliantly creative hub at the corner of Victoria Park in the former park keeper's lodge is the winner of the Best Restoration prize. This pretty building in random stone with red brick quoins, paired lancet windows and red tiled roof has been through some rough times - used for night sleepers, or lying empty, and frequently set on fire. Mark Lewis and his partners at Art and Soul Traders have spent eight months repairing the fabric, and installing a cafe, two artists' studios, a multi-media suite, an enclosed garden and tree house, lively all day long, seven days a week, with children's activities, community events and artists' shows. Portsmouth City Council reroofed it and put in funds which allowed Art and Soul Traders to raise matched funding from SRB Round 5 - in the course of three years negotiation and contract time, but much of the tremendous work that has gone into the building has been hours of voluntary labour. In case you are wondering where it went, the Chinese bell has found a safe haven in the fireplace! Art in the Park has animated Victoria Park by adding to it a dynamic new dimension. Commended - New Buildings Two buildings are commended in the Best New Building category: New Downland Housing Association's new houses on the Milton Canal towpath at Gurney Road, designed and built by Kier Partnership. Mike Leighton of Welling Partnerships from Millbrook Southampton acted as the site agent. The judges liked the houses' red and brown brick, a modern version of the local vernacular, and the pleasant internal planning. The other Commendation was Rosie's Wine Bar in Elm Grove, Southsea, which has a lovely new garden and garden restaurant designed by Ed Caush, ingeniously fitted onto vacant land. Commended - Restorations Commended in the Restoration category was the Tourist Information Centre on the Hard, which has been successfully reorganised and elegantly extended on the seaward side by Richard Partington and Ewa Maciekewsa for landlords, Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust with EU KONVER funding. Jane Lewis and other city council staff who work there are full of praise: the building is a joy to work in and for tourists to come into. The judges also commended the landscaping along the Hard including the witty bollard and chain and the wood boarded cafe/ Hard fishermen's club designed by city architect Stefan Jakobek. Commended - Landscaping There were three commendations in the Best Landscaping category: the city council's landscape architect Susan Whitehead has opened up the old no-go area in Isambard Brunel Road, south of the station by removing a stairwell, pedestrian bridge and aggressive enclosure, now replaced by an elegant rank of steps with tiny blue LED lights, delicate silver birches along a sinuous draining channel; York stone paving. Pedestrians now feel they have priority across the road, and bollards are removable for processions into Guildhall Square. Also commended is the new Hilsea Lido bridge, one heroic span of 32 metres across the moat, the rebuilding of the sharp military profile of Hilsea Lines and the accompanying history and wild life leaflets and interpretation board for which Peter Burrand-Lucas of Portsmouth City Leisure department has been responsible. The seafront Naval War Memorial with its moving lists of names of naval personnel who gave their lives in two world wars has recently been beautifully restored by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This work too has been commended. Other entries Other buildings the judges saw included Trafalgar Hall, the new student hostel in Winston Churchill Avenue, Fratton's Asda store and B & Q - both by local practice HGP Partnership, the Technopole at the end of the M275 and Portsmouth Housing Association's new houses in Wymering by Andy Kerr of Kerr Livingstone. Designed as Lifetime houses, their design anticipates changes needed as people age. The Judges The judges were Professor Peter Faller, University of Stuttgart, Deane Clark, former head of the Historic Buildings Bureau, Hampshire County Council, Dr. Celia Clark, chair of the Portsmouth Society, and Revd. Terry Carter, member of Portsmouth Society's executive committee. Background Judging for the Design Competition takes place each September where our panel of judges decide which is the best new building, best restored building and best landscaping scheme completed in the City during the previous year. Celia Clark |
New Buildings Winner Portsmouth University Students' Union. Commended New houses on Milton Canal towpath at Gurney Road. New garden restaurant at Rosie's Wine Bar, Elm Grove, Southsea. Restorations Winner Art in the Park, Victoria Park. Commended Tourist Information Centre on the Hard and associated landscaping. Landscaping No Winner Commended Isambard Brunel Road landscaping. The bridge at Hilsea Lido. Naval War Memorial, Southsea Seafront. |