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| Interior of the Great Barn at Basing House. Photo courtesy of Hampshire County Council |
The capital works were led by award-winning in-house conservation architect, Giles Pritchard, of Hampshire County Council's Property Services - a pioneering public service organisation with a long established national reputation for excellence and innovation.
Focus Consultants was the project manager on the building and exhibition fit-out works for the scheme to preserve and repair the Grade I listed Great Barn and surrounding farm buildings on the site of the once extensive Tudor palace, destroyed during the Civil War.
The judges said of the Hampshire County Council Property Services’ project: "Subtle adaptations and alterations have been carefully introduced to give a new purpose to this magnificent collection of historic buildings.
The skills of all concerned with this beautiful piece of work deserve high recognition and reward." Focus partner Steven Fletcher, who worked on the scheme along with project manager/senior consultant James Peake, said: “This is excellent praise for the whole team involved in the Basing House and Grange Farm development, as the SCALA awards are deemed the most prestigious building design awards in the public sector.
“It is the latest in a number of awards that have been given recently to projects that Focus Consultants has been involved in, and we are delighted that the skill and expertise of our teams are receiving such recognition.”
Basing House conservation project, funded with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was praised for the clear research, care and attention given to preserving and restoring the historic detail of the site.
The awards presented by SCALA – the Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities – were announced at the Civic Building of the Year & Presidential Dinner 2012 in Manchester.
Focus Consultants, with its head office at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, and branches in London, Princess Road East, Leicester, Endeavour Park, Boston, and Manor Farm, Aubourn near Lincoln, specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the UK.
Since its creation in 1994, Focus has secured over £800 million of grant assistance, and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes.
It works across a range of sectors including heritage, arts and culture, education and tourism. For more information visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk
