Walton Street update: design concepts near completion

After a comprehensive initial investigation, Exeter College has formed a shortlist of five architectural practices keen to design the recently acquired Ruskin College campus on Walton Street. The design concepts for Exeter’s ‘third quadrangle’ will be available for alumni to view in September.

The designs will be on display between 12pm and 5pm on 8 September in The Economist’s premises in Red Lion Square, London. It is hoped that they will also be displayed in Singapore, Hong Kong, and New York City, as well as in Oxford and online.

To attend the exhibition in London please contact Hannah Leadbetter at development@exeter.ox.ac.uk by 7 September. Entry to the exhibition is by prior arrangement only.

With the help of feedback from alumni, a winning architectural practice will be chosen by the end of September, moving us one step closer to creating outstanding new facilities in the heart of Oxford.

The shortlisted practices:

• Alison Brooks Architects is the first UK architecture practice to have won the UK’s three most prestigious awards for architecture – the Stirling Prize for the Accordia housing development in Cambridge (2008), the Manser Medal for Salt House in Essex (2007), and the Stephen Lawrence Prize for Wrap House in London (2006).
• Eric Parry Architects is an established and award-winning practice. It was responsible for several prestigious developments in London and Cambridge (Pembroke College) and for cultural venues such as the Holburne Museum in Bath and the restoration and renewal of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square.
• Haworth Tompkins works in the public, private and subsidised sectors with projects for schools, galleries, theatres, housing, and offices, including the London Library. It prides itself on putting great effort into understanding a building’s context and the needs of its users, and has won over 50 design awards.
• Richard Sundberg Architects is a Seattle-based practice with an international reputation for museum, civic, and residential buildings. Richard Sundberg designed the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, which won a 2010 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award. His practice has undertaken large projects for Seattle University and Seattle Public Library.
• Wright & Wright Architects has built up a strong portfolio in higher education and cultural building as well as housing. The practice specialises in designing well-functioning, durable, and low-energy buildings using traditional materials in innovative ways. An example of its work can be seen at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.