Station and Art House win top design awards

Judges chose Kirkgate Railway Station and the Art House and former Drury Lane Library as this year’s deserving design award winners after major work to restore the buildings.

And they also gave commendations to the new Eye Centre at Pinderfields Hospital, the new Household Recycling Centre on Denby Dale Road and the Unity Works Cafe Bar on Westgate.

The judging panel was impressed with the £5.6m refurbishment work at the grade II listed Kirkgate Station building and its forecourt.

They said the changes, including a cafe and indoor seating area, had made the station “a fitting arrival point for people visiting the city or starting their journey there”.

They were also pleased to see the completion of a £3m project to redevelop the Art House and link it to the former Drury Lane Library. They said it created additional facilities for artists while also delivering a “much needed restoration” of the library, exposing some of its original features.

Society president Kevin Trickett presented the awards with Mayor of Wakefield Coun June Cliffe at Wakefield Town Hall last night.

He said: “I am delighted that we have made awards to two very worthy projects that will, I am sure, be popular not only with our own members but with the public in general.

“ Both the Kirkgate Station refurbishment and the Art House/Drury Lane Library project show that the regeneration of our city centre continues.

“There is still much more to do, of course, and I look forward to seeing more schemes being nominated for awards in the years to come.”

The society presented its first design award in 1966 to Wakefield Council for the redesign of Castrop-Rauxel Square on Rishworth Street.

It has been giving out awards for new and refurbished buildings and environmental projects ever since.