Last night “College Court”:http://www.www.associated-architects.co.uk/projects/education/universities/college-hall/ won an AJ Retro Fit award, in the Hotels and Leisure category. The ceremony was held at The Brewery in London. The Retro Fit Awards celebrate design that prolongs and improves the built environment.
Originally completed in the 1960’s by Leslie Martin and Trevor Dannatt, College Court, a student residency hall at the University of Leicester, had lain vacant for over a decade. Associated Architects’ careful restoration and redevelopment of the site, which completed in 2013, has received many accolades, including RIBA and RICS awards. Associated Architects previously won a Retro Fit award in 2012 for the refurbishment of the “Met and Mat Building”:http://www.www.associated-architects.co.uk/projects/education/universities/met-and-mat-refurbishment/ at the University of Birmingham.
Duncan Baker Brown, one of the judges said, _“A mature and considered response to a much loved mid-20th-century masterpiece by one of our most accomplished Modernist architects. Confident without being brash, this is exactly the sort of informed intelligent scheme that AJ Retrofit Awards should be supporting.â€_