Owner: Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust
Developer: David Wilson Homes
Landscape Architect
Landscaping of the various open spaces within the development and the belt of parkland around it – including various types of natural landscape ponds, playground, etc.
Integral part of the development whose buildings won an award in the new-residential category last year. It providing landscaped context for the housing development; recreation spaces for the inhabitants. It includes a variety of ecologies. As well as the familiar cut-grass parkland and carefully arranged trees of many varieties, there are areas of meadow flowers and shrubs, a network of waterways and a pond that serve as part of a sustainable Urban drainage and flood prevention system. The landscape serves not only as a recreational green belt to the development but also serves to minimise the impact of the development on the environment.
In this regard as well as others, the estate is a model for residential developments for the future. It is gratifying to see many of the Prince of Wales initiatives on planning and urbanism finally bearing fruit.
Owner: Lendal Engine House Syndicate
Contractor: Gem Construction
Architects: Crease Strickland Parkins
Conversion and addition to the Lendal Engine House to make a successful high-class restaurant.
Conversion and extension of an unprepossessing group of Victorian Buildings that occupy a prime site next between the Lendal Bridge and the Museum Gardens – originally the pumping station for York’s water supply.
The design is a bold combination: the original pump house and offices have been sympathetically restored; a broad open terrace has been formed overlooking the river; and a spectacular new crystalline dining room has been created opening onto the terrace overlooking the river and the Museum gardens. Its star-shaped structure is supported on slender timber columns – like the masts of some glass ship sailing into the Museum Gardens. The interior complements the architectural contrasts with an excitingly eclectic mix of finishes, furniture and fittings – both witty and engaging. It is no surprise that the restaurant is booked out for weeks to come.
Developer/Client: St Peters School, Clifton
Architect: Harmer Fitz
Extension and refurbishment of both buildings and landscape to improve the reception area, the library and the outside play areas.
These alterations and refurbishment of the original 1980’s building, involve a small amount of new building to reform the entrance, some remodelling of the interior and the reordering of the external approach and play areas. The design shows considerate and witty invention at every level, from the laying out of the new building and landscape down to the design of the reception desk, the graphics in the new library and even the choice of the story-telling chair.
All the new features large and small are integrated into the whole in a way that is practical, original and delightful – and clearly gives great satisfaction to the users and client.
Owner: Lendal Engine House Syndicate
Contractor: Gem Construction
Architects: Crease Strickland Parkins
Conversion and addition to the Lendal Engine House to make a successful high-class restaurant.
Conversion and extension of an unprepossessing group of Victorian Buildings that occupy a prime site next between the Lendal Bridge and the Museum Gardens – originally the pumping station for York’s water supply.
The design is a bold combination: the original pump house and offices have been sympathetically restored; a broad open terrace has been formed overlooking the river; and a spectacular new crystalline dining room has been created opening onto the terrace overlooking the river and the Museum gardens. Its star-shaped structure is supported on slender timber columns – like the masts of some glass ship sailing into the Museum Gardens. The interior complements the architectural contrasts with an excitingly eclectic mix of finishes, furniture and fittings – both witty and engaging.
It is no surprise that the restaurant is booked out for weeks to come.
Owner/Occupier/Architect and Developer: David and Kate Morland
Conversion, Extension and refurbishment of a small 1860s terrace house
The rear extension to this tiny Victorian terrace house has been rebuilt in a sympathetic but uncompromisingly contemporary style – using prefinished metal sheet with traditional brickwork to make a surprisingly bold architectural gesture. The new bathroom and kitchen are elegantly fitted into very small spaces.
The existing fabric is completely lined with insulation and finished, decorated and furnished in a simple but elegant way.
Tiny garden laid out with ingenious triangular beds to give a useful patio for eating out with plants all round.
Many of the details made us smile. The pleasure of creation is evident in the many ingenious and delightful details. This is an extremely fine example of a modest Victorian house given a new life in the 21st C.
Owner/Occupier/Architect and Developer: David and Kate Morland
Owner/Occupier/Developer: Ben Shaw
Architect: Dale Rhodes
Conversion and refurbishment of disused Methodist chapel to domestic use including self contained apartment and workshop
This highly inventive conversion provides the owner-occupier with a wonderful open living space, a generous sleeping gallery, two separate bedrooms and a spacious workshop where the owner pursues his interests as a designer and maker.
The house is full of inventive and delightful detail – a semi-circular galley kitchen, an automated wine cellar, a flying staircase and a miniature rooftop garden. The artwork, furnishing and decoration are mildly rebellious and whacky.
The design is the product of collaboration, clearly extremely successful, between the owner and his architect. They clearly share a sense of humour as well as contributing their own particular skills and foibles. The style is contemporary but completely free of the aggressive tone of some minimalist design.
Client: The Dean & Chapter of York Minster
Architect: Andrew Arrol
Contractor: Paragon Creative
This project is an offshoot of the dismantling and restoration of the glass and stonework of the gigantic East Window.
It gives the general public a unique opportunity to appreciate the extraordinary craftsmanship of the mediaeval glaziers and masons and understand the remarkable complexity of the process of restoration
This might have been a more or less mundane display of the various techniques employed, but by presenting the material in this slightly other-worldly flying saucer, it can be seen as the wonderful magic it actually is – the exquisite drawing and colouring of the glass, the amazing complexity of the detail and assembly, the astounding scale and ingenuity of the engineering and execution.
Client: The Dean & Chapter of York Minster
Architect: Andrew Arrol
Contractor: Paragon Creative
Client: The Dean & Chapter of York Minster
Architect: Andrew Arrol
Contractor: William Anelay
Construction of new steps and ramp to the South Door of the Minster integrated with a wholesale reworking of the streetscape.
The South side of the minster had long been a problem with a set of steps crammed between the roadway and the South Front and a crummy temporary ramp for wheel chair users.
This wholesale reworking of the entire area reduces the roadway to a series of delicate alterations in the surface treatment – in place of the clumsy kerbs, tarmac and double yellow lines. This required a complex collaboration between the city traffic authorities, planners and conservationists.
The steps and ramp are replaced in a permanent form that is at the same time simple, practical and extremely elegant – using the ancient geometry of the vesica piscis to make a carefully managed formal gesture in an irregularly-shaped space.
The detailing is simple and robust. The entire project greatly enhances this side of the Minster. We were delighted to learn that a similar treatment is to be further extended round the South and West sides of the Minster.
Client/Project Management: University of York Estates Department (Helen Stephenson)
Specialist Advisors and Contractors: Hirst Conservation
Restoration of the sculpted stonework and painting of the coat of arms over the main door to the King’s Manor York, Exhibition Sq. York YO1 7EP
An extremely delicate and highly skilled operation to restore the stonework and the decoration of the Royal Coat of Arms originally carved in the 1630’s. It involved the removal of various later repairs, the reforming of missing parts, extensive cleaning of the stone and the repainting of the whole in its splendid heraldic colours.
The initial study of the stonework and the preparation of a brief for the restoration was itself a highly sophisticated exercise employing the latest techniques.
Owner: Associated British Foods plc.
Developer: Oakgate (Monks Cross) Ltd
Architects:
Master plan etc.: DLA Architecture
John Lewis Unit: Brooker Flynn Architects
M&S Unit: Benoy
Next Unit: Stanton Williams
A very large and complex development that has no doubt raised difficult questions about the role of out–of-town shopping centres. But we are asked to judge the quality of what has been built rather than the decision-making behind it.
The design team, comprising four different architectural practices, is to be congratulated for making such a large and complex group of buildings so elegant and simple to grasp.
The four major buildings are quite different from each other but are handled in such a way that they work together rather than shouting each other out – as is frequently the case in developments of this sort. The M&S incorporates a delightful green wall; Next is a fine example of an all glass façade; John Lewis uses a complex sculptural form.
When Hentie Louw and I were students, we all read a book called ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ – that made us look with fresh eyes and open minds at the problem of large bill-board frontages to otherwise ordinary commercial buildings. The buildings of the Vangarde centre are a remarkable example of what careful, intelligent design can achieve.
Owner/Occupier/Developer: Lee Hellewell & Jane Baxter
Architect/Designer/Builder (timber frame): C L Parker and Sons
Fitting out: Lee Hellewell
