Westgate wins BCI Award

Westgate Oxford has won commercial property of the year at this year’s British Construction Industry Awards from a strong shortlist of eight.

The BCI Awards celebrate the very best in construction and engineering and are the longest standing most rigorously judged and highly prized in the UK construction sector. The judges said the project “shows off the best of great placemaking design.”

BDP was masterplanner and lead architect for the scheme which comprises four retail blocks designed by different architects. BDP also designed the common elements including the bridges, glazed roofs and the public spaces between the blocks which integrate with the building fabric to tie them all together into a cohesive and harmonious development.

Project director Peter Coleman said: “With the scale of such a project came the responsibility to balance achieving a commercially and operationally successful shopping centre while integrating seamlessly a large new building into the city fabric and historic skyline. Its successful implementation was only possible due to the collaborative nature of the entire design team.”

Writing for Architecture Today earlier this year Ian Latham commented: “To achieve an overall outcome of such a high order at Westgate must have required relentless determination, and BDP’s careful orchestration of the architectural teams has resulted in a series of rich and engaging contributions to the city.”

The Oxford Design Team consisted of BDP, Dixon Jones, Allies and Morrison, Panter Hudspith and Glenn Howells Architects. Landsec and Crown Estate were the client and Laing O’Rourke was main contractor.