Joe Stenson from our Leeds office has been awarded a Merit in design for his Part II thesis. Joe says:
“heartiest of thanks to all staff for the help and support offered to me throughout the “hard fought slog” – (Geraldine) that was my Part II. The feedback and commentary received from colleagues throughout were invaluable to the general design process.”
Joe’s scheme is a Crematorium complex that amalgamates the existing facilities in the Leeds metropolitan area onto a secluded site bordered by the River Aire and the Leeds / Liverpool Canal. Key to the thesis was investigating the provision of bespoke buildings for semi-outdoor cremations, as required by those of Hindu, Sikh & Buddhist following. A few images of the scheme are shown here:

The Final boards Joe presented are available here: X:\Resources\Students\Presentations\JJS Thesis Boards if you are interested.
Congratulations Joe.

Construction has started on Porch Close (The Ardens) in Northallerton for Broadacres Housing Association. Accommodation comprises 10 apartments for rent to people over the age of 55. The project is due to be completed in February 2011.

The site is located to the rear of Porch House, the oldest house in Northallerton, and falls within the conservaton area. The building is largely traditional in appearance with some modern features such as the double height curtain walling and a glazed canopy to the entrance.

The building will achieve Level 3 under the Code for Sustainable Homes, using solar panels for water heating and high standards of thermal insulation. Each apartment has also been designed to meet Lifetime Homes, with full disabled access and storage for mobility scooters within the hall.

One of me because Steve will be disappointed if I don’t include this photo!

More updates to follow as work progresses…

The Yorkshire Post Environment Awards 2010 took place last night at the Queens Hotel in Leeds. There were a total of 89 entries, and in our category of Built Environment for Projects over £1M there were three projects shortlisted;

Morrisons Halifax, designed by Bauman Lyons
Safety Central, Bramley, a pioneering £3.5m safety education centre.
The Regional Agricultural Centre, at The Great Yorkshire Showground.

Presented by Hilary Ben MP and Julia Bradbury (of Countryfile fame) the title gives away the winner.

Along with Nigel Pulling, (YAS, Managing Director) and Heather Parry (YAS, Deputy Chief Executive) I was delighted to accept the award on behalf of P+HS Architects.
Photographs to follow (of me being hugged by Julia!)

Thanks again to all those who work on the project, not least Eamon, Mike & Dave.

Wendy de Silva BSc (1st Class Hons) Dip Arch RIBA

Wendy was born in Sri Lanka, immigrated to England in the 70’s and studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, (University College) London.

She started her career as a trainee on a building site with John Laing Construction. Shortly after qualifying, she went back to Sri Lanka and worked with the RIBA gold medalist Geoffrey Bawa on the ‘Ruhunu University’ Project. Wendy is a RIBA Client Design Advisor and has spent most of her professional life in London where she has amassed a wealth of experience across a range of developments in Education, and Residential, but she has particular expertise in Healthcare design.

Great news! Financial Close has been achieved for the Doncaster NHS LIFT health centre in Conisbrough, with start on site anticipated in March.

The facility will serve as a Neighbourhood Health Centre within the historic town of Conisbrough, which lies about six miles south west of Doncaster.

This is one of several LIFT buildings planned to provide health services as well as contribute to the regeneration of Doncaster.

One of the main challenges was in trying to strike a balance between providing a contemporary stand alone health centre which is also reflective of the local character. This was achieved through numerous community consultations which assisted us in the selection of materials.

Particular to the project is the design of the building fabric to provide thermal mass for night-time cooling as part of the natural ventilation strategy.

Circulation within the building is kept clear and simple with internal spaces planned around a shared central area with double height spaces, plenty of natural light, views out and artwork.

Having established that the Regional Agricultural Centre is a much loved development within local circles, it seems that national experts agree. The building has won an EG Green Award for sustainability: declared a joint winner alongside Cabot Circus (a £500m development from Land Securities and Hammerson), the Centre was highly praised by the judges for its ‘thoughtful design’. Not bad for a ‘small’ development!

Washington Primary Healthcare Centre has scooped the LABC National award for Best Healthcare Building.  Developed for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust with Laing O’Rourke, the Washington building is also shortlisted for the Building Better Healthcare Awards next month.  Congratulations to the team!

P+HS is delighted with two new appointments to its management team.

Joining the Board of Directors is Phil Bentley based in Leeds, whilst in the Stokesley office, Adrian Evans is appointed as an Associate.

The announcement comes as P+HS celebrates its 25th successful year in business, and indicates its commitment to maintaining the stability and growth of the company.  Congratulations and good luck to both Phil and Adrian in their new roles.

The Good Employer Guide 2009 is out and P+HS is the only company to be in the top five for all categories – Social Responsibility, Working Smarter, Feel Good Factor, Inspiration, Leadership, Ability to Contribute, and Current Market Conditions.

 

Editor David Rogers commented: ’Congratulations are owed to architect P+HS…this company made it into every top five for which it was eligible, the first firm to do so..the (architect) profession comes top of the feel good factor and also the smarter working index.   This may be explained in part by the fact that they have also come top of the new market condition index (a new rating, which measures how well employees believe their company is dealing with the recession).

 

Geraldine Pinder and Diana Cole were in London yesterday for this year’s Good Employer Guide announcements:  Geraldine commented:  ‘we are immensely proud of our staff and achieving this accolade from the industry is a mark of what can be achieved, despite difficult times within the construction sector, by sticking with an open, inclusive and team approach.’

 

Thanks to all staff who took time to complete the survey: the survey company tell us that they had a superb response from you and we are very grateful that you took part: results like this send out a clear, positive message to the industry about the strength of P+HS.

 

The guide is published with this month’s copy of Building and extra copies of the supplement are on order for both Leeds and Stokesley offices. A digital copy can be viewed here.

 

 

The shortlist for the Building Better Healthcare Awards has been announced, and we’re on it!

Washington Primary Care Centre is shortlisted in the Best Primary Care Design category: developed for Sunderland Teaching PCT with Laing O’Rourke, this superb building is certainly attracting attention and recently scooped the award for Best Healthcare Building at the Northern LABC awards.
To see the full shortlist for Building Better Healthcare 2009 clickhere.

The BBC recently had a days filming at the new ‘Fodder’ farm shop and cafe building we designed for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society on The Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate.
Apparently, they filmed for 12 hours and somehow this has been condensed into 3 full minutes! and this will be aired this Friday 21st August on the BBC1 One Show (7pm start).

For those of you who have not been, here’s a chance to see it.

The Regional Agricultural Centre has been short listed for the 2009 EG Green Awards in the category Retail/Leisure Development of the Year.

This is a fantastic achievement for the team (Yorkshire Agricultural Society, P+HS, Houseman & Falshaw, and DKP) who all worked so hard to make this highly sustainable building a reality. Other short listed finalists in this category are Land Securities,Tesco, and Hammerson – all £multimillion/billion operations with national and international presence: so I reckon our team from Yorkshire have done pretty well!

The building was conceived as a green development from the start and it’s about sustainability right through from its timber frame upwards; using local teams, skills and materials wherever we could, and incorporating more special sustainable features than you could shake a stick at, making it one of the most sustainable buildings in Yorkshire.

It’s now down to the public vote, so here’s the link for you to show your support for what small, regional alliances can achieve with vision, creativity and honest hard graft.
Vote Here.

I attended the York Design Awards 2009, last Monday evening, which were held in the new £60M York College campus.

There was a strong field of entries this year and there were categories for new build, conservation, open space/public realm and mixed (those that do not fit elsewhere).

In the new build category there were 20 schemes which ranged from simple house extensions to our development at Heworth Green, a real mixed bag. 3 prizes were given out in this category and the winner for the large development was the recently completed York Eco Business Centre.

Whilst we did not bag a prize the Chairman of the panel of judges (Mr. Ken Powell,MA,Hon.RIBA) said of our building ‘it is a slick well finished building rarely seen in the city with a feeling of international architecture’

The Lord Mayor’s Prize went to York St. John University, De Grey Court (which is also a Yorkshire RIBA 2009 winner) if you have not seen the building follow this link.

We are delighted to share more news of our students. We first met Shoaib Mahmood when he spent a year with P+HS during his year out from University. Shoaib is now back in our Leeds office having completed his degree, and has just received his results: a First Class Honours Degree and the C.I.A.T. Award for Outstanding Achievement with the highest class mark this year! Congratulations to Shoaib and welcome back to the P+HS team.

Richard Waite, AJ News Editor, has noticed that Leeds Met has changed its approach to teaching architecture and the shift is bearing fruit. At the recent select exhibition for the school’s end-of-year show, Richard said “the projects closest to the door, drawn up by post-graduate students, are impressive…Tom Potter has created a sweet, colonnaded Chipperfield-esque model for a micro brewery in Leeds.” Nice one Tom