2000
Sector diagram
2000
Sector diagram
A sector diagram is produced showing the six sectors that are of most importance. Retail, leisure, health, education, industry and offices are placed at the corners of a hexagon with other important work areas near the centre. Urbanism is at the core influencing all others. Links emphasise how our multi-speciality abilities reinforce each other.
Surge in retail activity
2000
Surge in retail activity
Retail and associated leisure continues to be the largest work sector with BDP’s position unrivalled in Europe. Retail work is won in six countries including Greece, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, Portugal, Spain and France. In the UK the Paradise Street masterplan covering the whole of Liverpool city centre is won after a very intensive and competitive selection process involving approximately 40 international developers. Other significant projects include Victoria Square in Belfast, Chapelfield in Norwich, The Shambles in Manchester, Jubilee Place in London’s Canary Wharf.
West Quay completes
2000
West Quay completes
West Quay in Southampton is the only major shopping centre to open in the UK. The design challenge was to scale the large development by dividing it into elements expressing the key retailers and internal spaces and responding to the varying scales of the surrounding streetscape. After its opening Southampton leaps from 27 to 12 in the ranking of the top UK cities for retailing and the project wins many accolades including awards for parking as well as a British Council of Shopping Centres Award.
Framework agreements
2000
Framework agreements
A number of significant framework agreement contracts are won with top clients Marks & Spencer, British Telecom, Royal Bank of Scotland and BBC. The trend towards framework agreements continues into the decade, and major contracts are won with the British Museum, Defence Estates, PwC, BAA, IKEA, Tesco and Crossrail.
AELTC Millennium Building completes
2000
AELTC Millennium Building completes
The Millennium Building on the site of the old No1 Court opens in time for the Wimbledon championships. The building integrates facilities for competitors, officials, international press, ball boys and girls and members, and houses a championship population of 4,000 people. The project wins a Civic Trust Award and BDP is also named Designer of the Year in the Contract Journal Construction Industry Awards. The judges agree the project is “fantastic” and “well co-ordinated”. BDP is singled out for its excellent long term involvement with the client and for working well with the contractor and supply chain.
BDP owned PFI school completes
2000
BDP owned PFI school completes
Campus Projects (Drumglass) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BDP, is selected to bid for a PFI school in Northern Ireland and makes a detailed response covering design, facilities management and finance. This is the first time that the practice moves beyond design to a role as investor/developer. The school completes in 14 months and wins the AJ Annual Award for Exceptional Achievement.
Skylid
2000
Skylid
BDP designs and patents a lightweight retractable stadium roof concept called Skylid. It slashes the cost of roofing stadia, weighing and therefore costing only a quarter of typical recent designs. The lightness comes from using a double-curved grid shell for the fixed element and four short-span, triangular moving petals. The front corners of the petals are supported and moved by cable loops between four towers.
First UK Big Brother
2001
BDP at Forty
2001
BDP at Forty
BDP reports solid financial performance, a good workload across all locations and some very high quality projects on site. The 40th anniversary of BDP’s formation is celebrated modestly in several ways: events for staff and clients are held by most offices; publication of the annual review in November contains a portfolio of BDP’s 40 best buildings.
Glasgow Science Centre opens
2001
Glasgow Science Centre opens
Three distinctive buildings combine to make up the Science Centre: the Science Mall, the IMAX Theatre and the rotating Glasgow Tower, Scotland’s tallest free standing structure. The project, won in national competition, is the first in the UK to be titanium clad. A major landmark on Glasgow’s waterfront, it is used as a backdrop to many adverts. It wins many awards including a RIBA award and Scotland's best family attraction.
National Football Centre won
2001
National Football Centre won
High profile success is achieved with the design for the National Football Centre in Burton on Trent for the Football Association. At the heart of the 141 hectare site is the UK’s first full-size indoor practice pitch, covered by the largest laminated timber gridshell roof in Europe, with a range of facilities unparalleled anywhere in the world. The project wins full planning permission and is due to complete in 2003, but funding is withdrawn by the FA in 2006.
Richard Saxon CBE
2001
Richard Saxon CBE
Chairman Richard Saxon is made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, for ‘services to construction procurement’. He has involved himself strongly in the movement for the reform of construction since the Latham Review in 1994. He is the fourth BDP leader to be honoured, after founder Sir George Grenfell Baines, Keith Scott CBE and Jack Rodin CBE. Roy Adams is made an OBE in 2006 after he left BDP.
AESOP
2001
AESOP
The capital reconstruction and offer for sale of shares in BDP Holdings Ltd is a significant event. BDP is one of the first firms to take advantage of the AESOP (All Employee Share Ownership Plan) concept. Finance Director, John Parker says: “I expect staff share take-up over the next three years to provide up to a quarter of the group’s capital... Staff will benefit from regular interest-like dividend payments and by growth in the share value. We see the share issue as part of wider moves to align our people’s motivation with the success of the group and its customers”.
Sustainability Group
2001
Sustainability Group
The Sustainability Group is set up to achieve a higher sustainability performance across all projects. The team grows quickly and puts its low carbon imprint on a large number of high profile schemes by acting as the interface between clients and design teams.
i-pod released
2002
Nick Terry appointed Chairman
2002
Nick Terry appointed Chairman
Architect Nick Terry is appointed chairman. He has been with the practice since 1990 and currently runs one of the London office’s three architectural groups.
Hampden Gurney up for Stirling Prize
2002
Hampden Gurney up for Stirling Prize
BDP’s first project to be shortlisted for the prestigious Stirling Prize is an innovative primary school developed on an inner city site in London. The 240 pupils six-storey school and 52 residential units, replace a former school on the site. Covered play areas on each level of the school provide the statutory amount of play area. “The planning is very creative, and the overall organisation and environment feels safe and spacious. We considered the design process which produced the impressive six floor educational establishment of Hampden Gurney School to be bold and dynamic.”
RIBA Award for Fingal County Hall
2002
RIBA Award for Fingal County Hall
Fingal’s aspiration for an open and transparent expression of local government has been realised in the new Fingal County Hall at Swords. Designed by Bucholz McEvoy in association with BDP's Dublin studio, the building wins several awards including a RIBA award. “New public buildings generally fall into one of two extreme categories: either lottery funded arts projects or the almost universally uninspired design/build PFI solutions. Most buildings for local authorities fit into this second category. By the most stringent standards one might choose to measure them against, Fingal County offices are a triumphant exception to such a generalisation”.
Piccadilly Station completes
2002
Piccadilly Station completes
Piccadilly station completes in time for the highly successful Commonwealth Games in Manchester, and subsequently features as the backdrop to TV news footage during the games. The project goes on to win a large number of major awards including a RIBA Award, a Civic Trust Award and British Council of Shopping Centres Special Award. “It is one of the few examples where a transport interchange is a pleasure to use. The whole team deserves congratulations for having pulled off the extraordinary logistical exercise of keeping the station going whilst such radical surgery was conducted.”
Cathedral Gardens opens
2002
Cathedral Gardens opens
Cathedral Gardens, the first new city centre park in Manchester for over 70 years, opens to great acclaim and goes on to win the Design Award in the BCSC Town Centre Environment Awards and a Civic Trust Award. The scheme, which forms part of the new Millennium Quarter, consists of a series of themed lawns, trees, water features, artworks and hard landscape areas.
Scottish Enterprise wins BCO Award
2002
Scottish Enterprise wins BCO Award
BDP wins the National Award in the Corporate Workplace category in the BCO Awards for its Scottish Enterprise HQ in Glasgow. The headquarters building is designed to a brief from Scottish Enterprise who now occupy the building but was developed by Bellhouse & Joseph. Although the headquarters is technically a commercial building, it is judged as a corporate workplace because “it is a good example of the growing trend for clients who know what they want and developers who know how to deliver it working together.”
Urban Design for Retail Environments
2002
Urban Design for Retail Environments
BDP’s position at the forefront of retail design leads to a request from the British Council of Shopping Centres to prepare a guide to the interaction of development priorities and urban design. The report looks at the emerging urban agenda and breaks it down into meaningful principles. It also investigates the key drivers behind the significant amount of currently planned retail-led city centre developments.
Merger with Whicheloe Macfarlane
2002
Merger with Whicheloe Macfarlane
Responding to the increased volume of work in the healthcare sector BDP and Whicheloe Macfarlane reach an agreement to merge the interests of the two companies. “Whicheloe Macfarlane, who have a multi-professional staff of 80, and a particularly strong track record and depth of skills in hospital design, enhance and strengthen our own hospital design capabilities. The development of the firm’s main offices at Bristol and Southampton also strengthen our network of offices.”
Claruspcm
2002
Claruspcm
BDP spins off its management services and forms a joint venture company with construction management company pcm limited. The new firm separates the design brand from project and cost management services which are often sought on a freestanding basis. BDP has a 45% stake in the company which is 36 strong and achieves its fee income and profit targets for the first year of operation.
BDP International SC is wound up
2002
BDP International SC is wound up
The BDP International société co-operative is wound up as ties with partners in Spain and Germany are broken. However ownership of Groupe 6 is increased to 24% following a decade of co-operation delivering many commercial projects in France. Groupe 6 goes from strength to strength with over 100 staff and a newly relocated office in Paris as well as in Grenoble.
Euro banknotes enter circulation
2003
Royal Albert Hall wins Europa Nostra Award
2003
Royal Albert Hall wins Europa Nostra Award
A European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Award is won for the renovation of the Royal Albert Hall, the first comprehensive overhaul of this unique concert hall since it opened in 1871. 30 individual projects are spread over a period of nine years while the Hall continues to host over 300 events a year. The citation reads: “a remarkable achievement of restoring and enhancing an international concert hall whilst still in use and for the ingenious provision of service requirements, thereby releasing space for the public’s enjoyment.”
Bournemouth Central Library opens
2003
Bournemouth Central Library opens
Bournemouth Central Library is opened by the Minister of State for the Arts. She describes the library as the best she has seen “it should be treated as a role model for new libraries all over the country.” The library, whose membership has seen a threefold increase since opening goes on to win the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award. “The bright new library is a superb example of a privately financed scheme that has delivered exactly what the local authority wanted. Its success is due to the commitment of the council, developer, contractor and design team to provide the best possible building.”
St Joseph’s Hospital wins RIBA Award
2003
St Joseph’s Hospital wins RIBA Award
The secure yet stimulating environment for a private hospital for the elderly on the outskirts of Cork in Ireland wins a RIBA Award. “The architects have challenged traditional concepts of circulation space and create an internal environment that encourages informality and interaction. Circulation areas are generous, naturally lit and arranged to create sitting and meeting areas. In summary this project's greatest success is in creating an environment that provides quality of life and dignity to people with a range of physical and mental disabilities.”
London moves to Clerkenwell
2003
London moves to Clerkenwell
After 35 years in the West End, the London office changes its environment to one which better suits the firm’s current working needs. The new studio is the conversion of an old brewery in Clerkenwell which accommodates all 300 staff. The concept is to create a studio environment to support and encourage teamwork and innovation. No private offices exist anywhere in the building, and all staff work on large format team platforms. All other offices later follow this method of working whether in new or existing locations.
Double win for Lighting
2003
Double win for Lighting
The lighting team wins two awards and has a further entry shortlisted in the Lighting Design Awards. The Renaissance of Whitehaven wins the Transport Category; the parish church of St Peter and St Paul’s Exton wins the Small Projects category. Job Centre Plus is one of only two shortlisted entries in the Workplace category.
GG Dies at 95
2003
GG Dies at 95
The founder of BDP, George Grenfell Baines, dies on 9 May at the age of 95. Condolences flood in and a very well attended memorial service is held on 4 November in The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield in London.
BDP Process launches
2003
BDP Process launches
The BDP Process successfully replaces the old QA system based on Quality Procedures, and ensures BDP's accreditation to the new International Standard ISO9001-2000. Customer satisfaction is surveyed systematically and customer care responsibilities are defined more clearly.
Highest temperature ever recorded in the UK
2004
Peter Drummond elected CEO
2004
Peter Drummond elected CEO
Town Planner Peter Drummond is elected Chief Executive. Peter joined in 1980 and is responsible for urban planning and large scale masterplanning development projects throughout the country. He was previously chairman of the Southern Region.
Learning From French Hospital Design
2004
Learning From French Hospital Design
BDP publishes a report based on comparing UK and French hospital design which highlights areas where design makes a difference to healthcare outcomes and where design and build practice determines the cost of hospital construction and operation. Demand for the report is high stimulating much debate on cost and benefit balance across the sector.
Armada Housing wins Public Vote
2004
Armada Housing wins Public Vote
The competition winning design for a residential development providing a total of 250 flats in the historic town of 's-Hertogenbosch, in The Netherlands wins the country’s Best-Loved Building Award as voted for by the public.
Awards for Round Foundry
2004
Awards for Round Foundry
The Round Foundry in Leeds is considered to be the world’s only surviving first generation engineering works, and includes seven listed buildings. The regeneration project quickly becomes one of BDP’s most awarded projects including RICS’s prestigious Project of the Year Award. “Round Foundry has all the elements of a fine regeneration scheme alongside extensive use of conservation techniques, a strong sense of sustainability and the community has clearly taken it to heart.”
Chatham Historic Dockyard conservation
2004
Chatham Historic Dockyard conservation
The work at Chatham Historic Dockyard, the most complete Georgian dockyard in the world, is spread over a six year development programme and involves masterplanning and the conservation and creative adaptive reuse of 30 key scheduled Ancient Monuments. The project wins a European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Medal “For a programme of conservation undertaken to the highest professional standards, whilst retaining the atmosphere of a working dockyard site which successfully blends new income-generating activities with a display of historic artefacts”.
Beehive Exemplar School
2004
Beehive Exemplar School
BDP is one of eleven design teams invited by the Department for Education and Schools to create 21st century exemplar designs to provide a basis for rebuilding or refurbishing schools in England. The design is for a primary school on an inner city site which will create its own context regardless of its location and setting. Due to the demands of tight inner city sites the design solution is for a vertical school, christened ‘the Beehive School’.
Healthcare sector growth
2004
Healthcare sector growth
Healthcare becomes the largest workload element, accounting for 22% of earnings, as participation in PFI and ProCure 21 programmes increase. The year’s big wins are Brighton Children’s Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, the second largest hospital building project in the UK, followed closely by Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals in Wakefield and the University Hospitals of Leicester Pathway Project. The latter eventually stops in 2007.
Retail Architect Of The Year
2004
Retail Architect Of The Year
At the inaugural Architect of the Year Awards BDP is awarded Retail Architect of the Year. The scheme is launched by BD magazine to help identify the most outstanding architects across a range of different types of design work. The judges say: “The firm delivers strong design, strong technical capabilities and provides real fitness for purpose.”
Facebook launched
2005
Perth Concert Hall gala opening
2005
Perth Concert Hall gala opening
Perth Concert Hall is host to a gala concert given by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to mark the public opening of the first full-scale purpose-built concert hall in Scotland since 1990. The building is the result of an international architectural competition, chaired by Eva Jiricna. The project goes on to win many awards and is reported to have the “ best acoustics in the UK” by the conductor of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.
Top award for BBC Mailbox
2005
Top award for BBC Mailbox
BDP sweeps the board at the British Council for Offices Awards winning the regional, national and Best of the Best awards for BBC Mailbox offices in Birmingham which creates a dramatic hub space to link public, production, studio and office uses. “The Mailbox’s base space was far from usual and the BBC made a courageous stand to go to this mixed use wonder. BDP’s success can be measured against the challenge they faced from Mailbox’s mail sorting office ancestry. The standard of fit-out is very high; all elements display imagination. It could have been frightful; instead it is great. The building is full of dynamism and light.”
Health Building Architect of the Year
2005
Health Building Architect of the Year
BDP is voted BD's Health Building Architect of the Year. “The practice has displayed a range and depth of work fuelled by a serious research effort, which has particularly paid off in the area of children’s hospitals.” The judges say the practice shows a real progression working with the client to produce better health buildings.
Sustainable Designer of the Year
2005
Sustainable Designer of the Year
BDP is named Sustainable Designer of the Year at the inaugural Sustainability Awards launched by Building magazine. In addition the National Maritime College at Cork which provides third level education and training facilities for Cork Institute of Technology and the Irish Naval Service, is named Low Energy Building of the Year, demonstrating that when a client carefully includes energy performance requirements in the brief, and the design team work together to produce an integrated design, sustainability can be a winner both of cost and environmental considerations.
Building Schools for the Future
2005
Building Schools for the Future
A series of academy wins over the past two years gives the education sector a huge boost, and positions the practice well to pick up work following the announcement of the Building Schools for the Future programme that will see the majority of secondary schools replaced or improved over the next 10-15 years. Major work is secured for 25 local authorities before the programme closes in 2010.
Human Resources director appointed
2005
Human Resources director appointed
BDP appoints its first director of Human Resource Development to coordinate efforts ensuring that it continually has the best people to serve its clients.
The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight
2006
Tony McGuirk elected Chairman
2006
Tony McGuirk elected Chairman
Architect and urban designer Tony McGuirk is elected Chairman. He has been with the practice since 1986 and currently runs BDP’s Southern Region, also heading up the education sector. He was previously architecture profession chairman.
RIBA Award for Saltire Centre
2006
RIBA Award for Saltire Centre
The Saltire Centre replaces an outmoded library at Glasgow Caledonian University with a landmark building that sits at the cutting edge of contemporary higher educational thinking. The project wins a RIBA Award. “This complex building acts as a focus for student activity and adds drama and spatial excitement at a crossroads between existing buildings. A high, sloping fritted-glass wall that shelters criss-cross access bridges intersects with a pierced metal drum that clads a wide circular stair and lift and creates a powerful abstract image for the centre.”
Kelvingrove reopens
2006
Kelvingrove reopens
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, the most visited museum outside London, reopens after three years of refurbishment. Display space is brought up to 21st century standard and is increased by the removal of offices and workshops, the opening up of the basement. The number of objects on display is increased by 50%. The project reaches the shortlist of four for the Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries, narrowly missing out on the UK’s biggest single arts award.
Roche Headquarters wins BCO top award
2006
Roche Headquarters wins BCO top award
The new HQ building for leading pharmaceutical company Roche, wins the Best of the Best Award at the BCO awards, making BDP the first practice to win the top award two years in a row. The building is delivered ahead of time and the client is also able to build an additional pharmacology building on the site without going over the budget. “Roche asked for quality without ostentation to attract and hold the best staff and this is what designer BDP has delivered. It has left the company delighted and thrilled with the finished product.”
Devonshire School opens
2006
Devonshire School opens
Devonshire School in Blackpool is the first adaptation of the generic multi-level vertical exemplar school, designed for a tight urban site. The design develops classrooms shaped like pieces of honeycomb, that interlock around multi-storey playdecks. The project wins a RIBA Award and is shortlisted for the RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award, described as "a significant step forward in the design of learning environments for young children."
World Architecture
2006
World Architecture
BDP remains the top architectural firm in Western Europe for the fourth year running and moves up from fifth to fourth position in the world rankings, its highest position to date in the World Architecture Top 200 survey, published by BD.
Birmingham studio opens
2006
Birmingham studio opens
Birmingham studio moves from the hospital project site into new premises in Colmore Row in the heart of the city. The move allows the office to progress into a new phase in its development with the space to expand its team and take on new commissions across a range of sectors for both public and commercial clients.
IT Initiatives
2006
IT Initiatives
A number of IT initiatives launch, including a wireless visitor network for clients in the larger studios, wireless connectivity for laptops out of the office, and access to e-mails using home and non-BDP computers.
Shopping Environments
2006
Shopping Environments
Director of architecture and head of retail, Peter Coleman, publishes a book on Shopping Centre Design. Peter is widely regarded as an authority on retail architecture and design. In this book he explores how retail centre design is evolving to better suit local needs and, with more than 600 illustrations, highlights the factors that make a successful retail centre.
First single to top UK charts on download sales alone
2007
Marlowe Academy wins major awards
2007
Marlowe Academy wins major awards
BDP’s first academy to complete is designed as a student town under one roof, and has an innovative collection of spaces that open up to provide a 500 seat theatre. The project wins a RIBA Award and the UK’s first prize for excellence in school architecture, the RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award. “The vast top-lit arena with its timber gridshell roof is a grand, almost operatic, space which means the whole school can take part in assemblies or performances. The traditional corridor, with its problems of congestion, inefficiency and bullying has been replaced by a series of lively spaces with real social and educational potential.”
Groundbreaking Abito completes
2007
Groundbreaking Abito completes
The design for a compact modular apartment scheme completes in Manchester. A huge amount of interest and many awards including a RIBA Award follow. The practice is voted Private Housing Architect of the Year for which the judging panel is "particularly impressed with the Abito apartments, a new concept aimed at first-time buyers, and people wanting a city crash pad." They continue that BDP is "inventive and able to demonstrate that high density works" and the scheme shows "real innovation and that BDP has come up with a housing concept that had not existed before."
Awards for Shetland Museum and Archives
2007
Awards for Shetland Museum and Archives
Shetland Museum and Archives opens to the public after a royal opening attended by Queen Sonja of Norway and the Prince of Wales. The new building represents an important new cultural hub as well as a major new visitor attraction for the islands. It wins many awards including the top prize at the Wood Awards. It also reaches a shortlist of four for the Art Fund Prize (formerly The Gulbenkian Prize) one of the most prestigious awards open to all museums and galleries in the UK, and is shortlisted in the first World Architecture Festival Awards.
Aintree Racecourse unveiled
2007
Aintree Racecourse unveiled
The new grandstands at Aintree Racecourse get their first unveiling at the Grand National, the most watched horserace in the world attracting 600 million viewers. The grandstands form the final phase of the comprehensive redevelopment of facilities which also include the parade ring, weighing room, equine areas and media suite at the famous grounds. The facilities are described by the client as “a truly world class experience for visitors to Aintree.”
Civic Trust Award for Cornmill Gardens
2007
Civic Trust Award for Cornmill Gardens
Cornmill Gardens sets the benchmark for quality and public realm in the London Borough of Lewisham and plays an important role within the town centre. Notable awards include a London Planning Award and a Civic Trust Award "Well planned from strategy through to development, the scheme has made a real difference to the area and has made the river a focal point...The gardens provide a high quality, popular public amenity and the intervention of art, lighting and signage provides a sense of local identity."
BDPGroupe6 wins international work
2007
BDPGroupe6 wins international work
BDPGroupe6 is formed as a European Economic Interest Grouping and becomes Europe's largest collaboration of healthcare building designers with projects valued at over €300,000 in design and construction. The group quickly wins an international competition to design a 250 bed children's hospital in Kiev in Ukraine which will provide specialised, high tech medical care in a stunning area of forest at the edge of the city. The group also wins the commission to reconstruct the leading hospital in Georgia, Tbilisi State University’s Republican Clinical Hospital.
Southampton studio relocates
2007
Southampton studio relocates
The Southampton studio relocates to Winchester, closer to existing clients and projects along the south coast.
Sustainable Futures Award
2007
Sustainable Futures Award
BDP launches a new awards scheme given each year to its projects in design, and which demonstrate an exemplary approach to sustainability in its widest sense. The criteria are broad and cover the threefold grouping of social, environmental and economic generators. The external judges say they are impressed by the diversity and ingenuity of the entries and the quality of design.
Big increase in leadership
2007
Big increase in leadership
As a result of the continued growth and development of the firm and recognising the breadth and depth of talent in BDP the practice appoints 25 new directors and 46 new associates.
Smoking ban in UK in all indoor public places
2008
Global economy in freefall
2008
Global economy in freefall
The year ends with global economy going into freefall. BDP faces the economic downturn with strength in a wide number of sectors and with a growing portfolio of international work.
BDP Khandekar
2008
BDP Khandekar
BDP acquires a Dutch practice specialising in masterplanning, urban design and landscape design. A new company, BDP Khandekar operates from two design studios in the Netherlands, and is working on major masterplanning projects in Holland, Belgium, and India, adding unique talent and experience to the urbanism offer in the UK and internationally.
Children’s Hospital wins top public award
2008
Children’s Hospital wins top public award
The design for one of only seven dedicated paediatric hospitals in the UK makes BDP the first practice to win the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award twice. The children’s hospital is chosen from a shortlist of 21 that best demonstrate high-quality design, together with efficient procurement; economic and social value; good teamwork between client, designer and contractor; sound financial management and whole-life value for money; and sustainability. “An uplifting project which has given young patients in Brighton the best possible environment – one which functions like a hospital but does not feel like a hospital.”
Victoria Square opens
2008
Victoria Square opens
Victoria Square in Belfast opens to the public after ten years of work and changes the skyline of the city with its dramatic glass dome. The project goes on to win numerous top awards including a Civic Trust Award, a BCSC Gold Award as well as the RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup, the UK’s top planning prize. “a high quality, visionary regeneration project and a stunning achievement which has real potential to unite communities in Belfast”
Leigh Academy wins engineering award
2008
Leigh Academy wins engineering award
Leigh Technology Academy in Dartford wins ‘Best of the Best’ at the Building Services Awards, for the highest overall achievement. “The awards this year attracted perhaps the best ever range of entrants and winners. BDP’s work stood out nonetheless, as one of the most innovative undertakings the judges had seen. They delivered a project that not only responded to the educational needs of the students of the academy but also provided exceptional environmental performance within strict budgetary constraints.”
Manchester studio moves to Ducie St
2008
Manchester studio moves to Ducie St
The Manchester studio moves into its new northern headquarters on Ducie Street. The building is home to the city centre’s first ‘living roof’ and is the first naturally ventilated office building in the city to achieve an Excellent BREEAM rating. It is shortlisted for the highly prestigious Green Building award at MIPIM, and given a RIBA Award for pulling off a “commercially viable, high-quality office building in functional, aesthetic and environmental terms” and creating “a strongly characterised and beautifully detailed flexible workplace”.
Sheffield studio moves to Northbank
2008
Sheffield studio moves to Northbank
BDP masterplans a mixed use commercial and residential regeneration project in central Sheffield, and moves into offices it designed as part of the development. The project wins a RIBA Award “This speculative office is a new architectural landmark in Sheffield, worthy of its city gateway location. Notable civic gestures include the careful scaling to stitch the building into the existing context.”
Edinburgh studio opens
2008
Edinburgh studio opens
An Edinburgh studio opens with 10 staff and a healthy workload which soon increases with the commission for the extension to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, which is intended to enhance the EICC's prominent position in the highly competitive international exhibition and conference market by expanding the capacity and capabilities.
BDP rebrands
2008
BDP rebrands
A new logo successfully launches, to signal the positive and optimistic development of the practice, and to celebrate BDP’s new domain name and reworked website bdp.com, which is relaunched as a single integrated site covering all locations, professions, and sectors, reinforcing BDP as a single, interdisciplinary firm.
Price of oil reaches $100 per barrel
2009
International Strategy
2009
International Strategy
BDP continues to win projects against ever-increasing competition and in an increasingly feverish fee environment, with a series of major project wins in new countries, new sectors and for new clients. The practice's international strategy is accelerated and the year ends with work in over 30 countries. Education and healthcare account for 60% of workload, while the retail sector takes the brunt of the demise of the commercial property market.
BDP wins two major Crossrail contracts
2009
BDP wins two major Crossrail contracts
Two major Crossrail contracts are won - the design of Whitechapel Station to accommodate Crossrail, London Underground and the East London Line railway, and the Victoria Dock Portal at Royal Victoria Dock in east London. The practice is already working on four overground Crossrail stations at Ealing Broadway, Slough, Maidenhead, and Romford.
Liverpool ONE shortlisted for Stirling Prize
2009
Liverpool ONE shortlisted for Stirling Prize
One of the most exciting city centre regeneration opportunities in the UK, the scheme repairs and reconnects the city centre, and creates a framework for architecture, landscape and lighting design of the highest quality. Vistas of Liverpool’s famous landmarks root the development in the city and provide a real sense of place. The commitment to create individual buildings in the city has been fulfilled, with other architectual practices selected for each site within the masterplan. Liverpool One masterplan has breathed life into the heart of the city, and the project goes on to win over 40 top industry awards including being shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize.
First project in Canada
2009
First project in Canada
BDP’s first project in Canada is the competition winning design for a sustainable new community for 70,000 people in Seaton, Toronto. The community is intended to create 35,000 jobs based around green industries and investment as well as new energy technologies and solutions. Over the next 20 years, Seaton is expected to develop as the leading sustainable community in Ontario.
Major project in India won
2009
Major project in India won
BDP's first major architectural commission in India is a retail-led mixed use development in Mumbai, which covers a major city block. The vision is for an urban oasis, which will be a highly sustainable mixed use development with carefully integrated elements to ensure the creation of a successful and memorable destination.
Highest grossing film ever released
