A global heritage fund has awarded Preston Bus Station with a top preservation accolade.

The station has received the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize, which recognises architects, designers, and preservationists who have demonstrated innovative solutions to preserve or save threatened modern architecture.

A national heritage organisation, the Twentieth Century Society (C20), said they were delighted that the successful refurbishment of the 1960s brutalist station received recognition.

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C20 Director Catherine Croft said: “This is an iconic structure of great architectural merit. It has been preserved to benefit future generations, and it’s wonderful news that its success has been recognised in this way.”

John Puttick Associates consulted with the C20 Society on the restoration work, reinstating the original design by removing visual clutter and returning features to their original material and colour palette.

A new entrance sequence was created by transforming bus stands into a public square, consolidating the entrances for people arriving on foot to have a safer and more pleasant experience.

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Ten years ago, the station was scheduled for demolition to make way for the Tithebarn shopping development. After a long fight by local campaigners and the C20 Society, which created three listing applications and successfully proposed them for inclusion on the World Monuments Fund Watch, the bus station received Grade II status in 2013.

Designed by Keith Ingham and Charles Wilson of Building Design Partnership, with engineers Ove Arup and Partners, Preston Bus Station’s 170-metre-long concrete structure (1968-69) made it the largest bus station in Europe.

Its distinctive curved fins have turned it into a beacon for the brutalist movement. Its scale and grandeur is representative of an era when British architects received the creative scope to produce significant works of public architecture.

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The biennial prize will be presented during a ceremony at AIA New York, Center for Architecture in New York City, on December 14 2021.

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