Fort Dunlop takes Renaissance prize
Birmingham’s Fort Dunlop has won this year’s Renaissance Award. The award was presented to Nathan Cornish, director at Urban Splash Midlands and the South West, the company behind the regeneration.
The Renaissance Award, which was established by the Birmingham Civic Society in 2006, recognises the most successful restoration project completed in the city in the preceding year.
Paul Lister, chairman of the Civic Society’s planning committee, said: “It’s a great example of Birmingham’s industrial architectural heritage but had been left redundant and neglected for over 20 years. The conversion of Fort Dunlop by Urban Splash represents a brave and imaginative transformation of this massive structure in a truly sustainable way.”
The building was originally designed in the 1920s by Sidney Scott and WW Gibbings as a car tyre warehouse. It was refurbished by Urban Splash, and has been converted into 350,000 sq ft of space, including office, retail, bars and restaurants and a 100 bedroom hotel.
Lister said: “The success of this project is brought about through a winning combination of an enlightened client employing a brilliant architect to develop an imaginative brief for a great building on a landmark site. It is a totally successful marriage of the historic and the modern in a tough but stylish industrial aesthetic that should preserve this architectural gem for future generations.”
