Page\Park named as AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards Practice of the Year

‘We are a reuse practice,’ is how Page\Park announces itself on its website. With offices in Glasgow and Leeds, the 43-year-old practice became employee-owned in 2013 and has earned a reputation for excellence in the conservation and creative adaptation of existing buildings.

At Leeds’ Hyde Park Picture House, winner in the Conservation and historic (up to £5 million) category, the architects were praised for finding the joy within the 107-year-old venue and celebrating its best qualities by working closely with the local community.

‘This is a fantastic ongoing community project with amazing attention to detail,’ summed up the judges. ‘I really want to go and visit this building,’ added one.

This redevelopment, which was deemed ‘exceptional’ by the jury, has been the result of hundreds of individuals and organisations working together and consists of three key aspects: comprehensive conservation works to the original building; a three-storey extension with additional facilities for the local community; and a new 52-seat second screen excavated in the basement.

Source:Page Park

A model of the Hyde Park Picture House retrofit proposals

Elsewhere, National Trust for Scotland has named the practice as winner of a major conservation and upgrade of Fyvie Castle in Aberdeenshire. The firm will draw up plans to restore and enhance the 13th-century, Category A-listed complex and its surrounding estate. The appointment comes just three months after Page\Park submitted plans for a new canalside headquarters for Scottish Opera in Glasgow.

There have been setbacks along the way, however. Page\Park won the international competition to restore Mackintosh’s fire-damaged Glasgow School of Art building in 2015, which was then sadly hit by a second blaze mid-reconstruction in June 2018.

Despite this, the practice has set itself apart definitively as a ‘reuse’ practice, united by a commitment to the reuse of buildings and regeneration of existing places. Their attention to detail and ability to work closely with communities is evident, not only from Hyde Park Picture House, but at other schemes over the past five years, including their development of a former Edinburgh wellington boot factory into a printmakers, new build social housing for the over-55s in Glasgow’s Gorbals and their role in reviving the popular Leeds-based 4x4 Lecture Series in conjunction with Leeds Civic Trust and the RIBA.

The practice deserves this award for its overall commitment to adaptive reuse. Many can learn from its Leeds cinema retrofit and its superb, carefully considered design interventions.

The AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards 2024 are sponsored by