Award Celebrates Sustainable, Community-Centered Approaches to Adapting Modern Buildings
 

John Puttick Associates was awarded the 2021 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize, recognizing its thoughtful and detailed conservation of Preston Bus Station, located in Preston, UK, a civic monument of central importance that serves as a hub for mass transit.

Preston Bus Station was designed in 1968 by Keith Ingham and Charles Wilson of the Building Design Partnership (BDP) and the engineering firm Ove Arup. The station was designed to be the hub and municipal transit center for Central Lancashire New Town. When it opened to the public in October 1969, it was Europe's largest bus station.

The station is representative of brutalist architecture and transport planning of the post-war era in its use of exposed reinforced concrete structure, which houses an integrated car parking, bus, and taxi facility. In 2012, Preston Bus Station was included on the World Monuments Watch as a response to the threat of demolition and to raise awareness about the significance of brutalist architecture in the UK. In 2015, after years of neglect, a design competition was held by the building's new owners, Lancashire County Council, leading to the appointment of John Puttick Associates to restore the station.

Updating key infrastructure, while honoring the form, materials, and design intent of the original building was key to the restoration.
 

The careful approach resulted not only in the meticulous restoration of the site but also in renewing the expression of civic pride that Preston Bus Station represented in its early days.

The rigorous intervention included the improvement of connectivity between the station and the rest of the city by prioritizing pedestrian accessibility and rearranging the waiting areas to face a new square. This was combined with a thorough restoration of the original materials, such as the rubber flooring and the color palette in the interior spaces, including the "spine" of services that run through the center of the building.

The World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism prize jury valued the detailed and extensive efforts of this project to preserve the full spectrum of historic significance of Preston Bus Station: from its original materials and aesthetic to the building’s essential role as a civic center of transit and urban connectivity.

“The prize focused specifically this year on sustainable and community-centered approaches to adapting modern buildings. By doing so, we celebrate the power of preservation as a positive force in society. The restoration of Preston Bus Station has enhanced both the social and public benefit of the station, which counts over 10,000 bus departures every week and contributes to minimizing the significant carbon footprint of commuting in the face of climate change,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, President and CEO of WMF. “We are thrilled to recognize the outstanding achievements of John Puttick Associates with this year’s prize.”