Aussie firm to design Stonehenge visitor centre
Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 08 April 2001 Page Views: 698
Stonehengeby Colin MarrsAustralian architect Denton Corker Marshall will design the proposed Stonehenge visitor centre.
It fought off competition from Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Birds Porchmouth Rossum, Michael Hopkins & Partners, MVRDV and Studio Granda for the commission from site owners English Heritage (EH). The firm will lead a design team including interpretation designers, landscape architects and transport engineers.
A draft scheme for the visitor centre and transport link will be produced later this year.
EH will then consult the National Trust and other partners before detailed designs are drawn up to form the basis of a planning application in 2002 or 2003.
EH chairman Sir Neil Cossons said: "In their approach to this project, and in the buildings they have already created around the world, Denton Corker Marshall has demonstrated that it possesses the essential combination of outstanding creativity and sensitivity to context."
Denton Corker Marshall, which has an office in London, has previously worked on Government House in Sydney, the UK's Imperial War Museum of the North and the Scottish Parliament.
From the Telegraph:
Architects picked for Stonehenge visitor centre By Giles Worsley, Architecture Correspondent
THE long-running proposals to create a new visitor centre at Stonehenge have taken a critical step forward with the appointment of architects to design a building two miles from the prehistoric stones. Denton Corker Marshall of Melbourne, which was chosen for the sensitivity of its approach, has not yet produced any designs. The first are expected in the autumn. The centre at Stonehenge has long been considered a disgrace and appreciation of the stones is marred by the proximity of two major roads. However, reaching a consensus on a replacement has proved very difficult.
An earlier scheme collapsed when it was refused funding by the Millennium Commission. The new centre will be beside the Countess roundabout outside Amesbury, Wiltshire, with visitors taken by bus to a new drop-off point about two thirds of a mile from the stones. It is expected to open in 2006.
Plans to close one of the roads and to put the A303 in a tunnel are expected to be completed in 2008. Denton Corker Marshall had been shortlisted for a series of important British competitions without being given the commission. These included the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and the South Bank Centre, London.
The practice is best known for its office towers in Sydney and the Melbourne Museum. Stephen Quinlan, who runs the firm's London office, said that the centre "could not compete with Stonehenge" so in a way would be "a bit of a non-building". Sir Neil Cossons, chairman of English Heritage, said: "Our vision is for a building that defers to the landscape and captures the wonder of Stonehenge without setting itself up as a challenge to it."
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