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EOI: National Railway Museum Central Hall design competition

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National Railway Museum York design competition EOI

A competition has been launched to design a new centrepiece building for the National Railway Museum in York.

The Museum wants to open the new Central Hall in 2025 to coincide with its 50th anniversary. The institution has ambitions to become the ‘World’s Railway Museum’.

The two stage competition kicks off with interested integrated design teams submitting Expressions of Interest (EOI) by 14:00 BST Wednesday 16 October 2019. Stage two honorarium of £30,000 will be awarded to at least five shortlisted teams, who will be asked to produce design concepts.

The 4,500 sqm new Central Hall has a construction budget of £16.5 million, and is part of the National Railway Museum’s £55m Vision 2025 masterplan. The project is also integral to York’s wider city centre brownfield regeneration scheme.

Judith McNicol, Director of the National Railway Museum, said, “the Central Hall will be at the heart of our mission to make a telling contribution to the contemporary rail renaissance. It will be a place where we can showcase the cutting-edge innovations of today alongside the engineering triumphs of the past. A place where we can inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists, inventors and problem solvers.”

The National Railway Museum is part of the Science Museum Group. Karen Livingstone, Science Museum Group Director of Masterplan and Estate, said: “The brief reflects the level of our ambition and this commission is an extraordinary opportunity to create an exemplary and sustainable building, bringing coherence to an important historic site.”

National Railway Museum design competition details

Competition Director, Malcolm Reading, said, “The National Railway Museum has a world-class collection and is at the heart of one of the UK’s most historic cities, considered by many to be the birthplace of rail technology.

“This is a project which promises to transform the museum’s physical identity and re-launch it for the next 50 years. It is an opportunity to create an outstanding piece of architecture that speaks to the adjoining galleries and the wider regeneration of York Central.”

Full details about the competition can be found here: https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/railwaymuseum.

The first stage deadline for EOIs is 14:00 BST Wednesday 16 October 2019.

The winner is expected to be announced in March 2020.

Image: National Railway Museum

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Rachel Reed

Rachel Read

Rachel is co-founder and FD of blooloop. She has a degree in engineering from Cambridge University, is a Chartered Accountant and has a certificate in Sustainability Leadership and Corporate Responsibility from London Business School. Rachel oversees our news, events and sustainability.

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