The team at Lewis and Hickey Architects is celebrating after winning another coveted industry award for its work on the grade II listed Westfield Folkhouse in Mansfield.
L & H’s most recent award is the Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities’ (SCALA) Civic Building of the Year National Award 2012.
L & H was congratulated for the way it sensitively brought the rundown building back to life – creating a ground-breaking facility for young people and community in Mansfield.
Nigel Badcock, chairman of the Civic Building of the Year Assessment judging panel, said: “It is an absolutely beautiful scheme – and really unique. Lewis and Hickey did a fantastic job – and so did the contractor GF Tomlinson.”
The SCALA award is the latest accolade in a long list of awards the partnership team has collected for the Westfield Folkhouse. Others include the Community Recognition Award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Best Community Development from the Local Authority Building Control (LABC), the Civic Trust Community Award and just last month, the Best Regeneration Project at the East Midlands Property Awards.
Adrian Hollis, director of architecture at L & H, said: “We are delighted to have won this prestigious award from SCALA in recognition for our participation and efforts in the regeneration of the Westfield Folkhouse.
“The awards mean a great deal to L & H because they mark the success of a hugely successful project – not only in terms of its design, but because of the importance the Westfield Folkhouse has for young people in the local community.
“Although the brief was complex, the building delivers all the key elements and the design has certainly inspired the young people. The centre will successfully sustain community groups for many years to come.”
The £6.5 million project included refurbishment of the listed building as well as creating a large and contemporary new-build extension. It now features multi-media gaming zones, DJ booths, a dance studio, as well as outdoor graffiti walls and skateboard ramps. GF Tomlinson was the contractor.
Nick Banks, construction director at G F Tomlinson, said: “We are so pleased to have been entrusted with the unique building project by Nottinghamshire County Council and thoroughly enjoyed working with the client and the designers Lewis & Hickey to deliver this well used community facility. To be recognised nationally with this prestigious SCALA award is the icing on the cake, and tops off a fantastic year of awards for this scheme.”
L & H was appointed by Nottinghamshire County Council to develop designs for the project, which was part-funded by the council and the Department for Education myplace programme, using funds from Big Fund, the non-lottery funding operation.
An important part of L & H’s role was to ensure that the council, myplace, and voluntary sector partners were fully involved in the design of what is seen as a ground-breaking youth facility.
“A sense of ownership for the young people was considered to be important from the outset,” added Adrian. “Therefore a range of consultation workshops were done through the design stages to embrace their ideas and suggestions.”
L & H’s design approach was to carefully restore the existing listed house, while also extending the facility with a new building and surrounding activity gardens. The building was stripped back internally, and refurbished to high quality standard using traditional methods of remodelling and conservation throughout.
The house now provides a suite of offices, meeting rooms and designated areas for specialist youth and community services.
Stuart Risk, Nottinghamshire County Council project manager for the new development, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with the team at Lewis and Hickey. Their enthusiasm and commitment has helped drive through the successful delivery of the project and their design expertise has delivered a building that both Lewis and Hickey and Nottinghamshire County Council can be genuinely proud of.”
