Tuesday 27 July 2010

Awards we've won in 2010

So far in 2010 the Practice has won awards from the Civic Trust and the RICS.

The Royal Hall, Harrogate

The Royal Hall, Harrogate was awarded a Commendation at the Civic Trust Awards 2010.

The Royal Hall, Listed Grade II* is a rare example of a ‘Kursaal’: a multi-functional entertainment venue normally associated with spa or seaside towns. The construction of the building employed an innovative, at the time, fire-proof material built of clinker concrete filler joist construction on a steel frame. However, the concrete had subsequently failed and was crumbling away, undermining the highly ornate and decorative finishes within the building which had additionally become badly water damaged over time.

Burrell Foley Fischer LLP approached this sensitive conservation and restoration project by focussing on the authenticity of historic details through careful research. The project was carried out within a functioning international conference centre without detriment to the programme of conference and exhibitions and was completed on time and on budget.




Visit the Royal Hall Website

Norwich Cinema City

Norwich Cinema City was awarded a Commendation at the Civic Trust Awards 2010.

The re-modelling of Norwich Cinema City, the Regional Film Theatre for Norwich and Norfolk, has secured its future by developing it from a single-screen to a three-screen venue. The cinema occupies a converted medieval hall house, Listed Grade I, that was extended in the 1920s to create an assembly hall on the footprint of the garden to the house.

The assembly hall had been converted into a single screen cinema in the 1970s and the challenge was to provide three screens on the same footprint in a manner that respected the historic significance and setting of the medieval building. Excavation created space for the additional screens below a main screen similar in size and capacity to the previous single screen.




Visit the Norwich Cinema City Website

The Scala Cinema and Arts Centre

The Scala Cinema and Arts Centre was given a National Panel Special Recognition at the Civic Trust Awards 2010. It also recently gained a RICS Wales Community Benefit Award and now goes forward to the National Awards to be held later this year.

The Scala Cinema & Arts Centre project, aims to help revitalise the town centre in Prestatyn and provides access once again to film on a site with strong local memories of cinema-going. In addition to a 150 seat cinema, it also provides access to new social and training facilities, exhibition spaces, meeting and training rooms and a flexible multi-use auditorium suited not only to cinema exhibition but performing arts, dance and exercise classes, fairs and markets.

The integrity of the High Street frontage, which contributes to the character of the conservation area, has been reinstated through restoration, and further adapted to suit the building’s new use. The ornate red brickwork arches, damaged by a 1960s panelled façade installation, were reinstated, whilst the first floor cills to the large window openings were cut down to the floor level to better reveal the new upstairs café.





Visit the Scala Website