Birmingham City Council’s flagship office building last night scooped another prestigious national award, six years after first opening its doors. 10 Woodcock Street, which opened in 2011 after the local authority consolidated 25 buildings into one, received the Test of Time award at the British Council for Offices (BCO) annual national awards.
Wolverhampton-based Marston’s House was also successful, having been recognised as Highly Commended in the awards’ Corporate Workplace category.
The BCO’s respected National Awards programme recognises top quality office design and functionality and sets the standard for excellence across the office sector in the UK. More than 1,300 of the country’s top developers, occupiers, architects and designers, who won their category in the 2017 Regional Awards programme, attended last night’s National Awards dinner, hoping to take home the National Award for their category.
The judging panel, comprising Turner & Townsend’s Matt Viall (Chairman), Glenn Howells Architects’ Davinder Bansal, Anticus Consulting’s Simon Carter, CBRE’s Theo Holmes and Cundall’s Rob Van Zyl, invites previous BCO winners to apply for the Test of Time award to demonstrate how workplace design has continued to live up to original aspirations and measures of success.
The panel said that the Birmingham City Council office had performed “incredibly well”, securing closer collaboration and interaction between the council’s services and teams, maintaining its flexible working environment and providing an agile workplace that has been fully adopted.
The judges were impressed at the building’s transformation, and with how well it is continuing to deliver as a workspace for the council and its staff. The judges highlighted that as a direct result of deep research and strong engagement into planning the design, there have been no design changes since occupation, which is considered highly impressive given the scale of the project.
In the Corporate Workplace category, Marston’s House in Wolverhampton appealed to the judges with how it has transformed the obsolete 1960s Marston’s offices into a “superb” modern and creative workplace. The Judges concluded that Marston’s House is one of the best examples today of blending great pub design with the requirements of agile, flexible and inspiring workspaces.
The panel praised the architects for creating multiple working spaces, ranging from informal meeting areas to multi-functional work spaces on the ground floor, plus “pub style” meeting areas.
Matt Viall, Chair of the BCO Judging Panel in the Midlands & Central England, commented: “It’s great to see two really well-designed and used buildings in the West Midlands being picked out by the judges in the national awards. It’s particularly heartening to see that Birmingham City’s Council’s multi-award-winning office has remained true to its original intent and objectives, delivering a superb work space for staff.”
Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive of the BCO, said: “After six years since its completion, Birmingham City Council’s building has exceeded expectations. The building continues to provide the occupiers with a highly flexible space, fully accessible to those with disabilities, and centred around a large atrium which provides a welcoming hub space for employees and customers to interact. In winning the Test of Time award, the building has demonstrated how the principles of increasing collaboration and facilitating agile working remain key to modern office development.”