British architects win the Competition of New Administrative Complex Sketches

On the 17th of September the winners of the Competition “Town-planning vision sketches of the New Riga Centre in Torņakalns, the Riga City Council and the State Administrative Complex” were announced. Fletcher Priest Architects” (Great Britain), SIA ”Uģis Šēnbergs, arhitekts” (Latvia) and SIA ”MG Arhitekti” (Latvia) “were considered the best among the 17 applicants.

”The main valuables of the British project are urban planning discipline, human scope and understanding of local traditions of a place combined with a flexibility of planning. A high culture of items in those sections of the project that are developed in details shall be noted. That is a lot and the Architecture bureau Fletcher Priest Architects” is high-standard professionals”, says the ”Director of the Riga City Architecture Bureau Jānis Dripe.

The aim of the Competition “Town-planning vision sketches of the New Riga Centre in Torņakalns, the Riga City Council and the State Administrative Complex” is to create the preconditions for the optimal development of the territory in Torņakalns, by obtaining town-planning sketches of the 21st century New Riga Centre and architectonic sketches of the Riga City Council and the State Administrative Complex The sketch obtained as a result of the Competition will become the basis for elaboration of the detailed planning and the New Riga Centre construction programme in Torņakalns. The total area of the competition territory is 457,151 m².

The submitted proposals were evaluated by the Jury Commission headed by the Chairman J.Birks, Chairman of the Riga City Council, and the Deputy Chairman – Director of the Riga Municipal Agency “Rīgas Pilsētas Arhitekta Birojs” J.Dripe. The Jury members were the City Development Department Director P.Strancis, the Columbia University Professor S.Grava, Chairman of the Latvian Union of Architects S.Ņikiforovs, Chief Architect of the City of Copenhagen J.Kristiansens, Director of the City Planning Department of the Tallinn City Council E.Mands, the City Construction Department Director of the City of Vilnius L.Naujokaitis, Projects Management Department Director of VAS “Latvijas Dzelzceļš” A.Poča, Chairman of the Board of VAS “Valsts Nekustāmie Īpašumi” M.Kaijaks and Juridical Director A.Dobrājs, and other members.

The winners ”Fletcher Priest Architects” (Great Britain), with the motto ”FP 854”, receive an award in amount of LVL 35 000, the second place getter – SIA ”Uģis Šēnbergs, arhitekts” (Latvia), with the motto ”LV 007”, gets LVL 25 000, the third place getter – SIA MG Arhitekti” (Latvia), with “the motto ”VV 111” – LVL 10 000, and the fourth and fifth places, “Giencke&Company – Volker Giencke” (Austria), with the motto ”AE 877”, and SIA STANDARDSITUATION.Latvija” (Latvia), with “the motto ”ID 001”, correspondingly, each get LVL 5000.

Works of all applicants are available on the second floor of Rātsnams within the four weeks.

The applicants should have anticipated on the competition territory arrangement of the New Riga Centre, including: the Riga City Council Administrative Complex, where there is planned to accommodate 2 300 employees, a complex of administrative premises for State institutions (premises to be constructed for Latvian Television, the Ministry of Finance, the State Assay Supervision Inspectorate, the State Treasury, the Ministry of Culture; there is planned an opportunity to accommodate other Ministries and State institutions at the territory), public car parks, a transportation connection point, a new railway station ”Torņakalns”, the retained railway tracks to the Railway History Museum, a prospective network of streets, additional usage to provide a uniform utilisation of the competition territory during the entire day (for instance, a cafe, a hotel, a conference centre, etc.), the residential function for up to 30% of the total floor area of the territory anticipated for the competition, a good and convenient pedestrian connection to the planned Riga Bus Station at Vienības gatve, bicycle sheds at the public facilities, a comfortable public quay of Mārupīte, a public garden or a green area.

Riga City Council
City Development Department
Public relations Division
marija.abeltina@riga.lv
dace.kirke@riga.lv
phone: 7012916, 7037924