Television Centre named Best Landscape Architecture project at 2019 AJ Architecture Awards

Last night, Television Centre scooped 'Best Landscape Architecture Project' at the prestigious AJ Architecture Awards, which were held at an awards ceremony at Exhibition London in Hammersmith.

The scheme beat off stiff competition from HTA Design, Churchman Thornhill Finch and Arriola & Fiol to take the top prize.

For the last six decades, Television Centre has formed the backdrop for breaking news across the world. Following the relocation of five divisions of the BBC to a new headquarters in Salford in 2007, Television Centre was sold to leading developer Stanhope in 2012, who had a vision to open up the site to the public for the first time in its history, creating a vibrant destination for new workers, residents and the wider community.

Stanhope brought Gillespies on-board at the beginning of the design process to work alongside leading architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) to create an open and welcoming environment, with new public spaces that would contribute to the setting and uses of the old and new buildings and to stitch the site back into the local area with access to Hammersmith Park and the surrounding communities.

'There's a completeness about it', said one judge on the transformation. The public realm has opened up the site, stitching the new development back into the surrounding communities after being so inward-looking for so long.

The judges also remarked that 'the team managed to create very successful links across the site using the landscape, with rich pockets of different spaces that have created an intimate human scale in the context of very large buildings'.

Stephen Richards, Partner at Gillespies, commented; "We are so pleased by this endorsement of the landscape and the contribution it has made to this great scheme. This has been a truly collaborative project and we are delighted to have worked with Stanhope and AHMM to show how powerful landscape architecture can be in transforming urban space; enhancing city living through access to beautiful spaces and nature."