York's historic Guildhall and Riverside Competition - shortlist announced

The City of York Council and the RIBA are delighted to announce that a shortlist has now been selected in the design ideas competition for re-imagining York's Guildhall complex.

36 entries were received including several international submissions from Europe, as well as Russia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The judging panel chaired by Keith Williams, RIBA Adviser met on 13 November to select a shortlist of five design submissions and the authors of the selected schemes are:

• Architecture & Urbanism Studio, London
• Jak Studio, London
• Robert Loader Architect, London
• Nicholas Mills Architect, Edinburgh
• SEC JV (Sack and Reicher, ESC-studio, Collingridge and Smith Architects), Cumbria 

The shortlisted schemes will go on public exhibition in the Marriott Room at York Explore Library Museum Street, York YO1 7DS from Sunday 25 - Tuesday 27 November during normal opening hours – please visit: http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/Libraries/Library_facilities/exploreyork/| for further details.

Councillor Julie Gunnell, Cabinet member for Corporate Services, City of York Council, said:

'The Guildhall and associated spaces are a significant part of York's cultural and civic history and during the shortlisting process one of the most important points we looked out for in the architects' designs was that their proposal will continue to play a key role in the city's future.' 

Brian Clarke, managing director of Yorkboat, said, 'It's great to get new ideas particularly for this important part of the city, this competition is a great idea and I am sure that it will generate some blue sky thinking, Yorkboat is delighted to be both a sponsor and a partner in this initiative'.

Keith Williams said 'The competition elicited an excellent response from the profession. 36 submissions may not seem a high number but this was a particularly difficult task and the quality of the schemes received was for the most part exemplary. For the judges, arriving at the final cut was a far from easy task. The 5 shortlisted schemes encompass a very diverse and intelligent set of design responses, each of which put across very clear strategies as to how this this extraordinary series of buildings and spaces could be transformed'.

The teams will now present their designs to the judging panel at a final interview on 4 December 2012 where the order of prize winners will subsequently be agreed.