Carbuncle Cup: Redcar Beacon avoids title of Britain's ugliest new building

Unenviable title of Britain's ugliest new building was awarded to a 465 Caledonian Road, student accommodation building in London

The Redcar Beacon

One of Teesside’s most controversial new landmarks has narrowly avoided being voted Britain’s ugliest new building.

Redcar Beacon, which welcomed its 100,000th visitor less than four months after opening, was shortlisted in the Carbuncle Cup, which aims to select the worst architectural projects in the UK.

The £1.6m beacon, centrepiece of a multi-million pound regeneration programme, was one of six nominations.

But the unenviable title was awarded to a student accommodation building in London.

Architecture’s wooden spoon for worst new building went to 465 Caledonian Road, which is said to offer “a prison-like experience for student residents”.

The winner of the annual prize, a humorous counterpart to the prestigious Stirling Prize for architecture, was unveiled by Building Design magazine.

Revealing the results, it noted: “One might imagine that an upside of our recent economic woes would be that fewer terrible buildings would be built.

“But to judge by the slew of nominations received for this year’s Carbuncle Cup, this hardly appears to be the case.

“Our jurors quickly identified two front-runners, but all six nominations richly deserved their shortlisting.”

They pulled no punches about any of the shortlisted buildings, including Redcar’s newest attraction.

This is what they had to say about the 80ft beacon, formerly known as the Vertical Pier: “Fresh from knocking down its best 20th century building – Ahrends Burton & Koralek’s 1971 Central Library – the Cleveland seaside town of Redcar played another blinder in the form of the Redcar Beacon.

Resembling nothing so much as the ArcelorMittal Orbit reinterpreted by a five-year-old in the medium of toilet roll and chicken wire, this viewing tower was inexplicably the winner of a RIBA competition.

Designed by Seven Architecture with project team leader Smeeden Foreman, it stands on the seafront and, as tends to be the way, the view from the top is lovely.”

Redcar Beacon, the centrepiece of a £75m regeneration programme, opened in March.
It’s been a hit with visitors, but there has been criticism of the cost and calls for a traditional pier instead.

Article from Gazette Live
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/carbuncle-cup-redcar-beacon-avoids-5816716

Redcar Council leader George Dunning defends Beacon

Council leader George Dunning used the Angel of the North as a example to defend the Redcar Beacon, he says the Angel was criticised at first.

The defense of the Redcar Beacon comes after it was shortlisted for national Carbuncle Cup.

He went on to say:

“We held a competition to re-design Redcar Seafront and the Redcar Beacon is part of the winning design," he said.

“We had more than 53 entries from professional architects as far as Iran, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.

“The final design was chosen with expert guidance from the Royal Institute of British Architects and after a great deal of public consultation.

“What came back from the public was that they wanted something new and something different - and the Redcar Beacon is certainly that.

“We wanted something unique that would form a center piece to the seafront project and one that would draw attention to all of the great things going on in Redcar.

“With more than 140,000 visitors in the five months since it opened we believe we have achieved that. 

“It has had its critics, but there were more than 16,000 objections to the Angel of the North, you’d struggle to find 16 now.”

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