Just the ticket as office picks up award

York Council’s new headquarters and customer centre was earlier announced as the winner of the National Railway Heritage Restoration Award and now the chairman and judges of the Railway Heritage Awards and representatives of Modern Railways magazine will visit York today to attend a ceremony to unveil the award plaque at West Offices.

The £32m new build and refurbishment project transformed a deteriorating Grade II* listed building into a modern home for the council’s 1,400 office-based staff and was voted most meritorious restoration project.

Coun Dafydd Williams, the council’s cabinet member for finance, performance and customer service welcomed the award for West Offices and said yesterday: “I am also delighted that those who seek to safeguard the nation’s railway heritage have recognised the respect that we have shown to the original 1840s station buildings as we have turned them into first class sustainable modern offices.”

During 2013, developers S Harrison and Buccleuch Property, together with the council, swept the board at the Yorkshire RICS awards, won the Lord Mayor’s trophy in the York Design Awards and the project also picked up a national Green Apple gold award for West Offices’ sustainable credentials.