Victoria Gate and WestQuay Watermark have been shortlisted in the Mixed Use and Retail categories at the AJ Architecture Awards 2017. The AJ Architecture Awards seeks to highlight the very best UK projects across a range of key categories – from community schemes and cultural projects to tall buildings and workplace designs. Winners will be revealed on the 7th December.

Victoria Gate and WestQuay Watermark have been shortlisted in the Re:new and Re:lax categories at the Revo Gold Awards. The Gold Awards celebrate the best examples of development and innovation in the retail property and placemaking sector. The winners will be announced on the 6th of December.

Over the last 6 month, extensive earthworks have taken place to dredge Folkestone Harbour and raise the land levels behind the beach as future flood defence. These works have now been completed and a new boardwalk has been installed at the crest of the raised shingle beach. The 800m long wooden walkway connects the Lower Leas Coastal Park and the Folkestone Harbour Arm. 
The boardwalk is made from 1960s railway sleepers, made from extremely tough tropical hardwood that is saltwater resistant. The shape of the boardwalk corresponds to the Folkestone Harbour masterplan which will be built behind it. 
During the Folkestone Triennial (2 September – 5 November 2017), several artworks are accessible from the new path, including Out of Tune by A K Dolven, a holiday home by Richard Woods, Jelly Mound Pavilion by Lubaina Himid and Casa Anacaona by Sol Calero. 

We are delighted that Robina Town Centre has won the Queensland Retail Property of The Year for 2017, and Excellence awards for marketing and food retailing.

The expansion of Robina Town Centre seeks expands the previously indoor nature of the Town Centre to create a new civic square. The Kitchens, the new fresh food market works with local artisans and food producers to shape a new destination that combines fresh food shopping, cooking, tasting, learning and eating.

Coles Mall, Central Market and South Mall are unified by an undulating timber clad roof creating shaded apertures. A series of south-facing notches, like gill slits, brings daylight inside with minimal solar gain. Inside, the volume evokes a reversed nave, defined by the regular ribs and layers of locally sourced honey-coloured timber.

Victoria Gate and Eastland have been shortlisted for best Shopping and Mixed use buildings at the WAF Awards 2017.
Eastland Melbourne is a new town square surrounded by commercial units and restaurants, a new David Jones department store, the public realm and a new central library as part of the extension of the existing Eastland Centre. 
The Victoria Gate Arcade is designed as a two storey, twin arcade with a complex roofscape continuing the grand history of Leeds’ 19th century arcades.

We are delighted that Victoria Gate has been shortlisted for three categories, Urban Regeneration,Commercial Building and Innovative Use of Brick and Clay Products at the Brick Awards 2017.
The exterior of new arcade building evolves from the 19th and 20th century language of the surrounding Blomfield and Victorian brick and terracotta buildings in Leeds, and consists of sculpturally pleated brick elevations, changing in rhythm and scale to respond to the context. The bricks have been specially selected with Ketley to ensure that they will weather well when exposed to Yorkshire rain, and have been pointed off site as prefabricated units with concrete backing by Thorp.
The winner projects will be announced on the 9th of November 2017.

Construction works have started in Muscat/ Oman for ACME's new Harbour Plaza. The Wave is a new urban quarter of Muscat, expanding the city along the coastal strip towards the airport, with a new Marina and Harbour at its heart. The Plaza is designed as an auditorium type event space for the new quarter and a place to enjoy view from the new restaurants out to the boats and the sea. The first steel structure have been installed to set out the position of the eleven canopies, which will create shade and shelter across much of the plaza.

ThinkCity was founded in 2009 as a subsidiary of Khazanah, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, and has been working as a key placemaking agency involved in the regeneration and urban planning of a number of projects in Penang, KL and other parts of Malaysia. ACME, Lacaton & Vassal and Kayoko Ota have been invited as part of the current lecture series to speak on the subject of creativity in construction. Friedrich Ludewig will explore as part of his talk the contemporary use of regional references and materials and construction methods in our buildings. Please join us on Monday 24th of July at the main lecture theatre of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) - the Malaysian Institute of Architects. 

Our Minories construction site in Aldgate, within the financial heart of the City of London, has started construction. Following detailed planning consent for an office building, a 360-bed Hilton hotel and an apartment tower, and following demolition of existing buildings last year, McAleer and Rush have completed the shared basement under the entirety of the site. The basement will serve all three new buildings and provide a route to the back of house areas of each typology whilst keeping disturbances for residents in the area to an absolute minimum. A landscaped park will be created over the basement to provide green grass, allotments, shade and playgrounds, open to all residents and workers of the local neighborhood.

In the coming weeks, Leeds Victoria will get two new rooftop restaurants with great views over Kirkgate. A spiral stair and oak lined atrium connects them to the new arcade, lit from above by a sculptural ceiling. The computer generated dome design was built with 18,000 pieces of stained oak. The offset in three dimensions between the oak pieces allows daylight through and creates sensations of levity and movement, despite the weight of 4 tonnes. The continuity of oak on walls, balustrade and the domes seeks to unify walls and ceiling, to evoke the visual sensation of a tall and mysterious contemporary grotto.

The mock-up for our footbridge over the Berlin-Spandauer Schifffahrtskanal has arrived on site. This footbridge will connect the newly developed Europacity area to the east, across the canal where the Berlin Wall separated Berlin from 1961 to 1989.

The 2m long mock-up gives a first  impression of the steel work for the laser cut balustrade which forms the main structural beam of the bridge. The degree of openings of the perforation reflects the gradient of forces within the structural balustrade, more solid to the abutments, more open to its centre.

At last night's awards ceremony in Hull, RIBA Yorkshire awarded Victoria Gate the award for Best Building of the Year and an RIBA Regional award. It is a great honour to see a decade of work from many people at Hammerson, ACME, McAlpine and the wider design team recognized in this way. 

The RIBA Yorkshire awards follows on from recent success of Victoria Gate at Mipim in Cannes where it won the award for Best International Shopping Centre and from the Irish Concrete Society where it won the award for Best International Project.

We look forward to the next award ceremony in Melbourne, Australia, where our Library and Public Square in Eastland has been shortlisted for the Victorian Architecture Awards by the Australian Institute of Architects.

Victoria Gate Arcades has won the award for best building of 2016 at the Leeds Architecture Awards. We are delighted that the building has been recognised in this way to acknowledge all the work from a large group of dedicated people across Leeds City Council, Hammerson, Waterman Structures, Hoare Lea, Gardiner & Theobald, ACME and others. 

Construction works have started on site in Leipzig for our new headquarter building for SAB. Concrete guide walls have been installed to set out the position of the diaphragm walls around the site, making the extent of the 100 m x 100 m site visible for the first time. Contaminated groundwater is expected 3m below ground level, so a watertight wall around the site has to be installed before any further works can commence.

Following the soft launch of the Watermark Westquay in December last year most of the restaurants and the bowling alley at Watermark are now open. This Friday, 10th February, the project reaches another major milestone with the opening of the ten screen Cinema. From it's elevated position the foyer offers fantastic new views to the waterfront and the plaza below, between the curving stainless steel tubes of the facade.

More than 12 years have passed since the inception of the project, we can't wait to see this last key piece of the Watermark puzzle in place and the people of Southampton enjoying a new corner of the city and a stroll through the new square along the medieval city walls.