Robert Adam Architects have won “Best New Building in Classical Tradition” and the “Giles Worsley Award for a New Building in a Georgian Context” at the Georgian Group Architecture Awards this year.

The 2007 Georgian Group Architectural Awards recognise excellence in the restoration of Georgian buildings, and awards are also given to the best new classical building and the best new building in a Georgian context. These premier conservation awards are sponsored by Savills and were presented by The Rt. Hon. Lord Heseltine C.H. at Christie’s, London on 1 November 2007. 

The Giles Worsley Award for a New Building in a Georgian Context was awarded to 45 The Park in Cheltenham, a house that sits comfortably amidst its regency neighbours without being a simple copy of an historic design, as well as providing accommodation tailored to the owner’s lifestyle. 

The judges said, “The architect has taken the more difficult path of assimilating the essentials of Regency Cheltenham and manipulating them to produce a building that harmoniously marries tradition and innovation.”

Hugh Petter, the architect for this building commented, “It is a great honour to receive this award. The commission provided an opportunity to replace a modern, undistinguished building within a Conservation Area, with one that endeavours to fuse more sympathetically with the surrounding Regency urban character whilst, at the same time, retaining our unmistakably modern and contemporary feel.”

The Best New Building in the Classical Tradition was awarded for Ashley Park, a Country House in Hampshire, a literate but highly individual classical design house, designed to accommodate modern family life and facilities. The house was planned with a consistent and clear geometry, and elevational treatments to reflect the different internal uses of parts of the building.

The judges said, “Ashley Park, in Bath stone and brick, is a cleverly conceived essay, influenced by Greek Thompson and Schinkel but by an architect at the top of his game and fluent enough in the classical language to make his own subtle innovations.”

The architect of Ashley Park, Robert Adam, commented, “I am delighted to win this award.  The project was the first on a Greenfield site to be won at planning appeal under to Governments’ PPG7 policy that permitted the construction of new country houses only that were proven to be of ‘the highest quality’ and ‘truly outstanding.”