Pineapple Awards 2024 Shortlist 21.03.24

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, Soho Place and Magna Square have been shortlisted for a 2024 Pineapple Award. The Pineapples celebrate places that thrive, that contribute to urban life, and encourage people to dwell, live, work, connect, learn or play.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, shortlisted for The Pineapple for Creative Retrofit Award, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new build extension as the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The move to the former hospital site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel.

Soho Place, shortlisted for The Pineapple for Building Award, is an enormous urban jigsaw that builds on the arrival of the Elizabeth line to bolster the large-scale regeneration of Oxford Street and includes two new mixed-use buildings that frame a new civic plaza: Soho Place. No.1 Soho Place houses 33,000 square feet of retail space across three storeys and 191,000 square feet of office accommodation across nine storeys. No 2/4 Soho Place contains the first new-build West End theatre to open in 50 years with 18,000 square feet of office space above.

Magna Square, shortlisted for The Pineapple for Place of the Year Award, comprises four mixed use buildings (Liberty Hall, Gem House, Corn Merchant House and Parish Hall) providing retail, cinema, 101 new homes and student accommodation within the Egham Conservation Area. A new town square and wider pedestrianised public realm bring the buildings together and stitch the development into the local context. The development’s design language closely references the local vernacular, incorporating a diversity of brick colours, patterns and bonds.

Presentations from each shortlisted project will be given to judges during the Festival of Pineapples, a digital live event taking place in front of a live audience across a week.

Winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony on the 16 May 2024.