THE hotly-contested design competition for BBC Scotland's new headquarters in Glasgow went to the vote yesterday in a private session in the city, with the winner to be announced next week.
The winner will be drawn from a shortlist of seven, comprising two Scottish architects, three from London, one from the Netherlands and one from Berlin. The company responsible for the Millennium Dome in Greenwich will be up against the Scottish companies behind The Lighthouse in Glasgow and the Tun building in Holyrood, Edinburgh.
The competition to design the building, which will house BBC Scotland's radio, television and internet services on the banks of the Clyde, attracted more than 70 companies from across the globe.
The Scottish candidates are Allan Murray Architects of Edinburgh, the firm that designed the Tun building in Holyrood, which will be new home for BBC Scotland's Edinburgh operation, and the Edinburgh Park HQ for Diageo, the world's largest drinks manufacturer.
From Glasgow, the firm Page and Park has been involved in a range of Scottish projects, including The Lighthouse in Glasgow, Loch Lomond Visitor Centre and office developments at Edinburgh Park in South Gyle, Edinburgh.
Among the London architects is the Richard Rogers Partnership, best known for the dome, the largest single public-assembly building in the world, and the Welsh National Assembly building on Cardiff Bay, due for completion in 2003.
The two other London firms are David Chipperfield, responsible for an international range of museums, galleries, houses and offices, including two five-star hotels in Miami and New York, and Wilkinson Eyre, which designed the Gateshead millennium bridge and is working on the design for the new HQ of Aardman Animations, producers of Wallace and Gromit.
Mecanoo Architects of the Netherlands are working on the entrance building to the Tower of London and have a back catalogue of commercial and university buildings, while Sauerbruch Hutton Architeken of Berlin and London have won awards for the Photonics centre in Berlin and have built government and commercial buildings in Germany.
The jury charged with choosing the winning design includes Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, Alan Yentob, director of drama, entertainment and children's programmes, Sir Robert Smith, chairman of the broadcasting council for Scotland and national governor, and John McCormick, the controller of BBC Scotland. Deyan Sudjic, the former director of the Glasgow Year of Architecture 1999, and Professor David Porter, head of the Macintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, are also on the panel.
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