Sunderland car park and Whitburn Coastal Centre in line for RIBA North East Awards

The two projects are among six to be shortlisted in the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) North East Awards 2025.

Built to accommodate the ongoing works on Riverside Sunderland, including the new Eye Hospital, the Riverside Car Park features a sculptural artwork called Sundersea by Tonkin Liu, which is described as reimagining “the sea as Sunderland’s defining characteristic, evoking a 100-metre-long living sea brought to life with the movement of cars within.”

The multi-storey car park, which stands at a gateway to the city centre overlooking Galley’s Gill ravine, has already racked up a number of awards for its design including Winner of Best New Car Park at the British Parking Awards, 2023, winner of the Light & Surface Exterior award at Surface Design Awards, 2024 and winner of the Infrastructure and Transport, AJ Awards, 2024.

Meanwhile, the Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre opened its doors in January 2024.

With its floor to ceiling windows offering vistas of the North Sea, the new centre is a space where community groups and visitors can learn more about the wildlife, landscape and history of the coast and plays a key role in delivering the aims of the SeaScapes Partnership which is supported by the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund.

RIBA North East Jury Chair, Amy Waite, Associate Director at Mikhail Riches, said: “This year’s shortlisted projects are as diverse in typology as they are in scale, from a micro holiday home in a historic building to a distillery/museum to a coastal conservation centre.

“These projects all represent a desire to make an impact on and improve their communities; from state of the art university buildings in Teesside, new infrastructure for Sunderland and the Farrell Centre in Newcastle.

“A strong focus on reuse and embodied carbon underpins many of the schemes – setting the bar for how to deliver quality without compromising on sustainability.”

All projects shortlisted for RIBA Awards will be visited by a regional jury, and the winning projects will be announced later this spring.

The winners will then be considered for several RIBA Special Awards, including the RIBA Sustainability Award and RIBA Building of the Year, before being considered for a highly coveted RIBA National Award, which will be announced in summer.

The shortlisted projects are:

Ad Gefrin Anglo Saxon Museum and Distillery by Elphick Associates

Farrell Centre by Space Architects and Elliott Architects

Rocket House by Napper Architects

Sundersea Sunderland by Tonkin Liu

Teesside University Bios by FaulknerBrowns

Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre by MawsonKerr Architects