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Gherkin Wins Architecture's Top PrizeThe City of London's "Gherkin" has taken top honours in an awards ceremony honouring the best in British architecture.
The tower, officially called 30 St Mary Axe, beat five other finalists last night to the £20,000 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.
Lord Foster's design had been the favourite to scoop the prize for buildings in Britain or by a British architect anywhere in the European Union.
Dublin's Spire monument, the bulbous Kunsthaus arts centre in Graz, Austria, a special school in the London suburb of Bexley and a project redeveloping the centre of Coventry made up the rest of the short-list.
George Ferguson, president of RIBA, presented Spencer de Grey of Foster and Partners with the prize at a ceremony in London last night.
For the first time in the award's nine-year history, the jury's decision was unanimous.
A spokesman said: "This 40-storey tapering building is already a popular icon on the city skyline, so the jury tended to concentrate upon the degree to which this iconic object did in fact provide a pay-off in terms of facility, ambience and interpretation of the basic mathematics of the project.
"The entrance is suitably elegant and impressive in scale. Similarly, the bar area at the top promises to respond to the challenge and opportunity of elevation, situation and view: it will be one of the very best
more: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht... (322)
October 17, 2004 | Viewed 18,246 time(s)
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