85 R I B A A w a r d s panel, that is exactly what this scheme delivered. The construction of the new Eurostar Terminal and the renovation of St Pancras were undertaken in the context of enormous logistical complexity, having to maintain the service of five train operators. The primary intervention was to remove a significant part of the concourse at platform level and allow those entering the station at ground level an uninterrupted view of William Barlow’s 1868 train shed roof and the trains, a design strategy that serves to establish the magnificence of the architecture. The RIBA CABE Public Space Award Now in its second year, the RIBA CABE Public Space Award celebrates publicly accessible external space. It may be green or grey, urban or rural, privately or publicly owned, designed or redesigned and refurbished for public use. The shortlist for the RIBA CABE Public Space Award 2009 included: Liverpool One by Building Design Partnership The Liverpool One Masterplan singlehandedly reversed the fortunes of the city by bringing a new social and economic vibrancy to what was 42 acres of derelict but historic buildings at its heart. The result is a vibrant and economically successful retail, leisure and mixed-use quarter: an entirely revitalised city centre that now connects properly with the docks. BDP set down generous public space networks and rigorous yet flexible design briefs and have worked with a broad range of architects to evolve the plan and deliver buildings of a very high quality. That one project has been able to deliver sufficient critical mass to regenerate a city of such importance is the result of an outstanding client with vision and commitment to delivering design excellence and urban coherence. Brendan O’Connor is assistant director of the practice department at the RIBA, where his work includes administrative support for the RIBA planning and conservation architecture groups. St Pancras International, London, Alastair Lansley (Photo: Paul Childs) The Liverpool One project, Building Design Partnership (Photo: Grosvenor Limited) Recent Crown Estate Conservation Award winners include: The Midland Hotel in Morecambe by Union North (winner 2009) Commenting on the restoration of the Midland Hotel in Morecambe the judges reported that they ‘were particularly impressed by the adoption of a creative and intelligent approach to the conservation of a major modern movement building, reflected in the retention and reinstatement of the most significant qualities and features of the original building’. St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, by Eric Parry Architects (shortlisted 2009) Building Design’s Ellis Woodman wrote: ‘This project has been a truly epic undertaking and its completion is doubtless as much a tribute to its architect’s powers of negotiation as to the intelligence it has brought to the design. Faced with a fantastically complex set of challenges, it has somehow maintained a real singularity of vision throughout. Integrating architecture new and old, art commissions, landscape design, a high level of technical invention and a hugely optimistic social programme, it is a scheme as impressive as any realised in central London in decades’. St Pancras International by Alastair Lansley (winner 2008) The scale and complexity of the project demanded an exceptional response from all those involved and, in the view of the judging
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