Rogers beats BDP to Stirling Prize
Richard Rogers' cancer respite facility, Maggie's Centre in West London, triumphed at the RIBA Stirling Prize, with the Liverpool One masterplan by BDP among the runners-up.
BDP was the first practice to be nominated for a masterplan rather than a building in the most important competition in British architecture.
Maggie's Centre was commissioned by Charles Jencks, whose wife Maggie died of cancer 12 years ago. Accepting the award at a televised ceremony broadcast live on Saturday evening, Rogers said: "The one person missing here is Maggie. She will certainly be the person I am thinking of."
RIBA judges said Liverpool One was a "vibrant and economically successful retail, leisure and mixed-use quarter. The masterplan co-ordinates and manages the development of 42 acres of rundown land. Achieving implementation within nine years is a triumph of skill and commitment."
- Liverpool One won the RICS Regeneration Award for 2009 at a ceremony on Thursday. Gorton Monastery in Manchester was commended in the Building Conservation category.
Nice that a centre that does so much good has won, but I am not impressed with its looks and would have preferred Grosvenor’s Liverpool One to have won, but that’s the way it goes – I suppose.
By Barbara Dutton