News | Archive 2005 - 2006

September, 2006

The Practice's Dhiran Vagdia, who also Chairs FORCE, was pleased to present the Coventry Myton Hospice with a donation of £1,035, collected at the FORCE Annual Awards Dinner last year.

Last year's dinner raised £2,070, of which half went to St Andrew’s House and the other half towards the Coventry Myton Hospice Appeal.

Dhiran said “Everyone gave generously at the Awards Dinner, and we were delighted to not only celebrate construction in the Coventry and Warwickshire area at the Dinner, but also raise a fantastic donation to such a worthwhile cause”.

Sir Digby Jones, Director-General of the CBI, will be the keynote speaker at this season's FORCE Gala Awards Dinner, to be held on February 22nd 2007, at the Ricoh Arena Coventry. The annual celebration, now in its fifth year is expected to attract an audience of over 350 professionals from the construction sector.

June, 2006

The Practice is pleased to welcome Peter Jenkins and Balveer Mankia, for summer placements.

Peter is a Year 2 student at DeMontfort University, Leicester; and Balveer is a Year 1 student at the University of Nottingham.

March 2006

Dhiran Vagdia was nominated as FORCE Chairman for the 2006 - 2007 season. FORCE is the local best practice construction network group for Coventry and Warwickshire.

Coventry Design Awards - and the winner is...
6th February 2006

Coventry's architectural excellence has been highlighted as the winners of the Coventry Design Awards received their prizes in a special ceremony on Friday 3 February.

The awards highlight the best of architectural and landscape design and are held every two years. Previous winners have included Manor House Drive Apartments, Cathedral Lighting and Coventry's Lower Precinct. The awards are split into six categories - Accessibility, Environmental Improvement, Lighting, New Building, Renovation and Household Extension. The competition has been particularly fierce this year with 45 nominations received in total. The New Building category, in particular, received a number of very strong contenders, including the Ricoh Arena and Priory Place.

The judging panel consisted of a number of architecture and regeneration experts, including: Councillor Dave Arrowsmith, champion of regeneration and design in the city; Dhiran Vagdia, Chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Society of Chartered Architects; Keith Draper, Chair of the Coventry Society; John Prevc, an architect from the Coventry Design Forum and James Russell from the city council.

The judges spent a long day judging the 19 projects that made it to the final and in the evening they also looked at two lighting schemes: one in Millennium Square and another at the new BBC Coventry and Warwickshire building in Priory Place. After much deliberation the winners were announced as:

• Accessibility - Award to Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
• Environmental Improvement - Award to University Square, Priory Place and commendation to Daimler Square, Daimler Green
• Lighting - Award to Millennium Place
• New Building - Award to Moat House Community Primary School and commendation to Swanswell Point, Mental Health Resource Centre
• Renovation - Award to Electric Wharf Turbine Hall
• Household Extension - no award or commendation given.

In addition, a special award was given to the Phoenix Project - Millennium Place and Priory Place. Several of the schemes short-listed this time formed part of this overall project and the judges felt this was a nationally important and innovative landmark project where several good quality individual projects combined together to make excellent places.

Councillor Dave Arrowsmith, Cabinet Member for Urban Regeneration and Regional Planning said, "I am delighted that our job as judges was so tough. Clearly that means that the design and build standards in the city are getting better and better each year. I believe the quality of the built environment that people live and work in makes a positive contribution to the way people feel about their city and the standard here seems to get higher and higher every year.

"I was especially pleased to award first prize in the new build category to Moathouse Primary School. The environment in which children learn should be stimulating, exciting and have a real buzz and the new school certainly has all of these elements in abundance."

This was the second year that Dhiran Vagdia Chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Society of Chartered Architects has taken part in the judging and he said, "The Coventry Design Awards are important because they help us to celebrate all that is good about the built environment in Coventry. They help to draw attention to the importance of good architectural design in the city and there is certainly a lot to admire at the moment.

"Buildings that work with their surroundings and challenge and stimulate us at the same time are worthy of celebration and this year there was so much that impressed us we found it hard to pick overall winners."

3rd January 2006

With our hearty congratulations to Mr Robert Hall award of an MBE New Year 2006. A richly deserved honour for which we all add our good wishes.