ALL BRITISH TEAM WINS MILLENNIUM BRIDGE COMPETITION
A unique British team of Foster and Partners - Architects, Sir Anthony Caro - Sculptor and Ove Arup & Partners - Engineers has won the international competition to select a design team for London's first pedestrian bridge, linking The City with Bankside in Southwark, it was announced today.
The anonymous competition, which was open to artists and engineers as well as architects, attracted a record 226 entries from all over the world. The competition was RIBA approved.
left
Millennium Bridge Competition
Foster and Partners/Sir Anthony Caro/Ove Aru & Partners
Plan view of ramps up to Millennium Bridge
Photographer: Nigel Young
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Millennium Bridge Competition
Foster and Partners/Sir Anthony Caro/Ove Aru & Partners
View towards St Paul's Cathedral
Photographer: Jeremy Young
Montage: GMJ Date Presentations
The Millennium Bridge will be London's first new river crossing for over 100 years. It will link two of the capital's most significant public spaces and buildings - St Paul's Cathedral to the north and the area around the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art and the Globe Theatre to the south - creating a new route between the north and south banks of the river. It will also be a striking new architectural landmark in its own right, opening up unique views of London, and in particular of St Paul's Cathedral, undisturbed by vehicles and city noise. The bridge will be completed in time for the Millennium.
The total costs of building the bridge are estimated to be in the region of £10 million and a preliminary application has been made to the Millennium Commission. The Commission has confirmed that the proposal satisfies their stated criteria and has encouraged the development of the project to the next phase.
The competition judges were: David Bell (Chairman, Financial Times), Ana Patricia Botin (President, Banco Santander de Negocios), Michael Cassidy (Chairman, Policy and Resources Committee, Corporation of London), Anna Ford (Broadcaster), Councillor Jeremy Fraser (Leader, Southwark Council), Jacques Herzog (Architect), Frank Newby (Consulting Engineer), Sir Michael Perry CBE (Chairman, Shakespeare's Globe Trust), Sir Philip Powell (Architect), David Sainsbury (Chairman, Sainsbury's), and Wilfred Wang (Architect and Director, Deutches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt).
The Millennium Bridge Competition is organised by the Financial Times in consultation with Southwark Council and the Corporation of London.
10 December 1996
PRESS ENQUIRIES ERICA BOULTON/JANE QUINN 0171 221 5000