Top buildings sought for RICS Awards
Property and construction professionals who want their work to be in the running to be named Northern Ireland’s very best have less than two weeks left to throw their hats in the ring.
The RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Northern Ireland Awards, which will present accolades to building projects in eight categories, are open for entries until January 24th.
Anyone working within the property and construction professions can enter the awards, which will celebrate the talents of surveyors, developers, engineers, planners, architects and others.
Leading law firm Pinsent Masons and the Strategic Investment Board (SiB) have just come on board as sponsors, joining the Department of the Environment (DoE).
Ian Huddleston, Partner with Pinsent Masons, encouraged local property and construction professionals to enter: “In our work with the construction, real estate, and planning sectors, we see at first-hand the calibre of Northern Ireland’s property and construction professionals, and we think the RICS Awards are a fantastic opportunity for practitioners to showcase their work. We are delighted to support the awards and look forward to the unveiling of the winners in May.”
This year for the first time, awards will be presented in categories for Tourism & Leisure, Commercial, Infrastructure, and Residential, in addition to the long-standing categories for Community Benefit, Building Conservation, Regeneration, and Design & Innovation.
In addition to winners and commended projects in each category, the RICS Northern Ireland Awards will also name an overall project of the year, to be announced at an awards ceremony at the Culloden Hotel on Thursday May 8th 2014.
RICS Northern Ireland Awards Judging Chairman, Alistair Dunn, says that the awards will now be an even bigger and better showcase of inspirational recent developments in the local built environment.
“We are delighted to expand the RICS Northern Ireland Awards to provide enhanced recognition of the excellent work being undertaken by property and construction professionals,” he says.
“There have been some fantastic local tourism, leisure, infrastructure, residential and commercial projects in recent years, and the expanded awards will provide the opportunity to highlight and celebrate the very best of these,” he adds.
RICS Northern Ireland Director Ben Collins says: “The RICS Awards are a unique opportunity for everyone working within the property and construction sectors to have their work highlighted on a local and international platform. Last year we saw a record number of entries to the awards and, this year, we very much look forward to receiving submissions from an even wider group of exceptional projects.”
Some of the Northern Ireland winners will also go forward to the RICS Awards Grand Final, where they will compete with other regional winners from across the UK and internationally, with winners announced at a gala event in London in October 2014.
Last year’s Northern Ireland Project of the Year was east Belfast community scheme The Skainos Project on the Lower Newtownards Road, which also won the top title in the Community Benefit category.
Titanic Belfast (Design and Innovation); Peace Bridge in Derry-Londonderry (Regeneration) and First Derry & Claremont Presbyterian Church (Building Conservation) were the other category winners.
Further information about the awards is available at: www.rics.org/awards or by calling the RICS NI office on .
