GRAND Designs presenter Kevin McCloud Hosts Stirling Prize at ACC Liverpool

6 Oct 08

GRAND Designs presenter Kevin McCloud will run the rule over one of the grandest designs in the conference industry when he presents this year's Stirling Prize from the Arena and Convention Centre, Liverpool.

The presenter of the Channel 4 show, which has helped to popularise architecture and design issues, is fronting the awards ceremony this Saturday (Oct 11) at the BT Convention Centre on the city’s King’s Waterfront.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) event will be broadcast on Channel 4, with McCloud visiting the six shortlisted buildings competing for glory before presenting live coverage from Liverpool.

ACC Liverpool, home of the ECHO Arena and BT Convention Centre, itself won a prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award earlier this year, when judges described the building as a ‘significant contribution to the historic river frontage of the Mersey’ and part of an ‘elegant and sophisticated composition’.

Jacquie Rogers, BT Convention Centre general manager, said: "Securing the Stirling Prize is a massive coup for us because the event attracts the most senior decision-makers and influencers in the world of design and architecture and is a real opportunity for us to show off our facilities.

"It also gives us nationwide TV exposure which is hugely valuable in terms of us raising our profile across the UK."

Nominees for this year's awards are the Accordia in Cambridge, Bijlmer Arena Station in Amsterdam, the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Nordpark Cable Railway in Austria, and the Royal Festival Hall and Westminster Academy, both in London. The architects of the winning building will receive international acclaim and walk away with a £20,000 cash prize.

Now in its 13th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is the UK’s most prestigious architecture awards. It is run in association with The Architects' Journal and is presented to the architects of the building which has been the most significant for the evolution of architecture in the past year.

ACC Liverpool opened in January 2008 on the city’s King’s Waterfront. It comprises the 10,600-seat Echo Arena and the state-of-the-art BT Convention Centre. The latter features a 1,350 seat auditorium, a 3,725 sq metre multi-purpose hall 18 meeting rooms and total exhibition space in excess of 7,000 sq metres.

Full details of the six shortlisted buildings are:

Westminster Academy at the Naim Dangoor Centre, London, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Manchester by Denton Corker Marshall

Nord Park Cable Railway, Austria by Zaha Hadid Architects

Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena Station, Amsterdam, Netherlands by Grimshaw/ARCADIS Architecten

Royal Festival Hall, London by Allies and Morrison

Accordia, Cambridge by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios/Alison Brooks Architects/Macreanor Lavington

The 2008 judges are: Eva Jiricna – architect, Eva Jiricna Architects; Gordon Murray – architect, Murray Dunlop Architects; Shelley McNamara – architect, Grafton Architects; Kieran Long – Editor, The Architects' Journal and Diarmuid Gavin – garden designer, Diarmuid Gavin Designs.