Sunderland car park scoops top design award

Sunderland's multi-award-winning riverside car park has been recognised for its design excellence at the UK's most prestigious architecture awards, held in London this week.  

Sunderland City Council's Riverside Sunderland Multi Storey Car Park (MSCP), at Farringdon Row, scooped its latest gong at the AJ Awards, which showcase the best architecture projects across the country each year. The 657 space Riverside Multi Storey Car Park was honoured as Infrastructure and Transport Project of the Year at the glittering event, which attracts leading lights from built environment. 

Designed by architectural firms Ryder Architecture and Tonkin Liu, and constructed by Sir Robert McAlpine, the MSCP was described as bringing 'a real sense of joy' to judges, with a distinguished panel of experts saying: "The designers have done a brilliant job in turning what could have been a difficult brief into something beautiful and elegant.  This brings a smile to the face."

The new facility opened last summer and is split over 11 levels.  It features a striking design - 100m-wide and stretching the full 16m height of the car park - created in aluminium with diminishing perspective perforations that creates wave forms as a reference to Sunderland's historic links to the sea.  The MSCP is illuminated on an evening, with two living walls constructed with over 50,000 plants - some of which are native to Britain - carefully selected for their ability to thrive in the local climate. 

The quality of the design fits with the ambition of Sunderland City Council to deliver exceptional buildings that raise the bar of the built environment.  A number of buildings at Riverside Sunderland have already been recognised by prestigious awards, including City Hall, which was named as Best of the Best Office in 2022.

Cllr Lindsey Leonard, Environment, Transport and Net Zero, said: "We're not content to build new schemes that are anything short of exceptional, and that can be seen again and again when you look at the transforming cityscape at Riverside Sunderland. 

"Every building is well-designed and the fact that even the car park at Riverside Sunderland is award winning reflects the scale of our ambition we have, and our commitment to excellence as a local authority."

The car park is one of a number of new buildings emerging at Riverside Sunderland and is part of a plan to boost the number of people living and working in the heart of the city.  The ambition is to double the resident population of the city centre from 2,500 to 5,000 and increase employment by 50% to 18,000. 

For the latest developments from Riverside Sunderland, visit www.riversidesunderland.com.