Stanton Williams scoops Mayor's planning prize

A development in Camden by architect Stanton Williams and developer Argent scooped the capital’s top planning prize in London last night.

The scheme, called the Granary Building, was a conversion of an 1851 grain store into a 39,000m² campus for the University of the Arts London.

The London mayor’s award for planning was granted jointly to the London Borough of Camden, English Heritage, Stanton Williams and Argent.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “The Granary Building is a stunning development that embraces the past while looking to the future. The transition from a depository of Victorian grain, to a university where the seeds of artistic ideas sprout, has been handled with great sensitivity and flair. It has brought an enlightened focus to the wholesale regeneration of the surrounding area and is a project that matches my own vision for London.”

The London Planning Awards are run jointly by the Mayor, London First, the Royal Town Planning Institute and London Councils, and are now in their ninth year. Other winners included, for retail and office development, Jean Nouvel’s One New Change in the City; for housing the Highbury Gardens development by first Base and the HCA in, Islington; and the ‘Arsenal on the move’ regeneration project for best development “five years on” from completion.