Top architectural award for iconic Victorian building
Former museum and ex-ironmongers site Treadgolds recognised for ‘triumphant’ £3m restoration project
A CITY venue was celebrated for its great architecture after scooping an award.
The 2022 Royal Institute of British Architects South Award-winning projects included Treadgolds in Portsmouth by Pritchard Architecture.
It was one of a number of buildings across the country to be honoured in the prestigious awards.
The Victorian site is undergoing a £3m restoration project after being bought by the John Pounds Project in Portsea in 2013.
It was formerly homes and the William Treadgold ironmongers, which closed in 1988, and then the Hampshire County Council-owned building was used as a museum from 1995 to 2003.
The 13 projects were selected by the expert jury, who visited all 18 shortlisted projects.
Regional jury chair Matthew Barnett Howland said: ‘At first glance, there is a wide range of distinguishing qualities across the 13 buildings that received a RIBA South Award this year.
‘There is intense spatial ambition and delight; sophisticated urbanism and confident suburbanism; restraint and economy of means; creative relationship between architect and client; elegant simplicity in plan and section.
‘But beyond their own individual strengths, what binds them together as a group is the sense that their outward form is the result of
an underlying and hard-won clarity of thought, right from conception through to resolution. They are a triumph of both mind and matter.’
Last month businesswomen Naomi Harris and Sam Cooper from Southsea organised the first market to be held in the renovated building.
The RIBA Awards have been running since 1966 and are judged and presented locally.
RIBA Award-winning schemes set the standard for great architecture across the country.
RIBA Awards are for buildings in the UK by RIBA Chartered Architects and RIBA International Fellows.
The 2022 RIBA South Building of the Year, sponsored by Taylor Maxwell, will be announced on May 24.