BELFAST’S newly-rebuilt Lyric Theatre is in the running for the one of the top prizes in architecture.
The Lyric is one of just six buildings across the UK – including London’s Olympic stadium – to be shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, which has never been won in Northern Ireland.
Also in the running are the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge, the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, Yorkshire, Maggie’s Centre, a Glasgow cancer hospital and New Court, a city of London Bank.
The Lyric reopened in May last year and has since won a string of architectural awards.
The Stirling Prize is to architecture what the Booker Prize is to literature, and includes a £20,000 cash prize for the winning architects.
The Lyric architects, O’Donnell and Tuomey, are from Dublin and this is the fourth time they have been shortlisted for the prize.
The Lyric board’s vice-chairman, Sid McDowell, said: “It will be a tough call to win the Stirling Prize but to have reached this stage is a real tribute to our architects.
“Apart from the RIBA judging team being impressed with the design and the realisation of that design, they were mightily impressed by the relationship between client and design team and contractor.”
The winner of the Sterling Prize will be announced at a ceremony in Manchester on Saturday.