International construction consultancy, Davis Langdon, and FaulknerBrowns Architects have been appointed by Aberdeen City Council (ACC) to progress plans for the city's proposed 50m swimming pool. Davis Langdon has been selected as project manager, while FaulknerBrowns will head up the design team for the new facility, which is set to provide a regional competition standard facility to help attract visitors to the city. Neil Fletcher, chair of ACC's 50m Pool

The latest hotel to form part of Sir Rocco Forte's portfolio of luxury accommodation has opened in Sicily. The £120m (US$203.3m, 141.1m euro) Verdura Golf & Spa Resort joins famous names such as St. Petersburg's Hotel Astoria, The Balmoral in Edinburgh, Geneva's Le Richemond, Brown's Hotel in London and the recently opened Augustine in Prague as the 13th hotel in the Rocco Forte Collection (RFC). Covering an area of 175

The £12m leisure centre planned for Matlock, Derbyshire, looks set to be given the green light by Derbyshire Dales District Council. As previously reported in Leisure Opportunities, the centre is set to include an eight-lane, 25m swimming pool, two sports halls, a dance studio and a fitness suite. However, the designs – created by Dyer Architects – have come under fire from both Matlock Town Council and Matlock Civic Association,

The Welsh Assembly Government has announced that 2DPP Shape, part of Welsh planning consultancy DPP, has been appointed to draw up a new masterplan for the redevelopment of West Rhyl, Denbighshire. Architects, urban designers and regeneration specialists will form part of a team that will be tasked with developing new proposals for the regeneration of the area to the west of Rhyl's town centre, including the creation of new green

A new multi-purpose public arts venue, which is currently under construction in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is to be called The Apex. St Edmondsbury Borough Council (SEBC) met on 29 July to approve the new name for the venue, which is scheduled to open in 2010, will incorporate a multi-purpose auditorium with a 500-seat capacity for theatre performance and seminars and standing capacity for 700 people for concert performances. Space

A new £20m Olympic-sized swimming pool, which has been included as a potential training facility for teams ahead of the London 2012 Games, has officially opened in Corby, Northamptonshire. The 50m Corby East Midlands International Pool was unveiled by Olympic swimmer Mark Foster on 24 July and is equipped with moveable floors and booms to accommodate international junior diving events and short and long course races. Designed by S&P Architects,

Camden Council has turned down a planning application for a £135m extension to the British Museum in London, UK. The proposed development, designed by architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), had secured the support of English Heritage but had angered a local conservation group, Bloomsbury Conservation Area Advisory Committee (BCAAC). RSHP's plans included a new 1,000 sq m (10,760sq ft) building at the rear of the museum, replacing the

Construction work has started on an 11-month refurbishment of Newport railway station in South Wales in a bid to cater for an increase in passengers travelling to the 2010 Ryder Cup golf tournament. The new 2,100sq m (22,604sq ft) station, which will be nearly twice the size of the existing site, has been designed by an architectural partnership between Atkins and Grimshaw to improve accessibility and safety, as well as

Revised plans for the £55m New Victoria Place scheme in Bradford, West Yorkshire, are set to be submitted to the local authority by developer Langtree Artisan and regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward. A public exhibition is scheduled to be held on 24 and 25 July in order for local residents to comment on the proposals, which will be located on the site of a former Odeon cinema and is set

A friendly match between Cardiff City Football Club (CCFC) and Glasgow Celtic Football Club has marked the opening of a new multi-million pound sports stadium at Leckwith, Cardiff. The 25,000-seat venue was built by Laing O'Rourke and developed by PMG Estates on a site adjacent to the football club's former Ninian Park home, while the Cardiff Blues rugby team will also be relocating to the stadium from its current home

A topping-out ceremony has been held in London to mark the completion of external construction work on one of the capital's largest ever purpose-built hotels, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. The £350m property, which is scheduled to open in early 2010, is situated on land once occupied by the former Greater London Council building and will boast more than 1,000 bedrooms and 2,700sq m (29,062.6sq ft) of meeting space. London

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has announced that construction work on the 2012 Handball Arena has started two months ahead of schedule at the Olympic Park in East London. Buckingham Group Contracting has been appointed to construct the venue, which will host qualifying games for the handball competition during the London 2012 Olympics, as well as the modern pentathlon fencing and goalball during the Paralympics. After the Games, the Handball

China's Olympic stadium, the Birds Nest, has won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Lubetkin award for outstanding architecture for an overseas project. The £217m stadium, designed by previous RIBA winners Herzog & de Meuron, played host to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and beat off stiff competition from five other shortlisted buildings for the prize – including the Beijing National Swimming Centre nicknamed (The Cube), and the Museum

A new visitor centre has opened at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum's Blists Hill Victorian Town. The centre forms part of a £12m redevelopment of the town, which has been funded by Advantage West Midlands and The European Regional Development Fund. The building was designed by specialist architectural practice Nash Partnership of Bath with support from Osbornes Architects and was constructed by Mansell Construction Services Ltd. As well as the different

Proposals for a £24m indoor BMX centre in Manchester's Sportcity development have been announced. The 110,000sq ft (10,220sq m) National Cycling Centre, designed by Ellis Williams Architects, will boast a 2,000-seat BMX arena and offices for the headquarters of the British Cycling Federation. The centre will be surrounded by new public spaces, including outdoor freestyle cycling areas, forming a velopark. Eddie Smith, chief executive of New East Manchester, which is

A £13m leisure centre will be built at Manor Park in Rushden, Northamptonshire, to replace outdated facilities at the Splash Leisure Pool and the Pemberton Centre. The scheme will comprise a six-lane, 25-metre swimming pool and a teaching pool, as well as a four court sports hall, dance/exercise studios and a health and fitness suite. The facility will be project managed by global consultants Mace, whose previous projects include the

The development of a £24.4m City Park in Bradford offering residents a large water feature, green spaces, public art, relaxation and play areas will soon be underway. The six-acre site will be centred around a 4,200sq m (45,200sq ft) mirror pool with causeways, special effects and a series of fountains reaching up to 30m high. Although the use of water is central to the design, the park can also be

Olympic minister Tessa Jowell maintains that the 80,000-capacity athletics stadium being built for the 2012 Games will later be downsized to a 25,000-seat venue. In response to London Mayor Boris Johnson's suggestion that the Stratford venue be maintained in size to potentially host the 2018 World Cup, the olympics minister insisted: "We don't need another football stadium - we've got Wembley. "We made a very clear commitment in the bid

Southampton City Council in the UK has appointed architects to design its new £15m Sea City Museum attraction. London-based architects Wilkinson Eyre won the contract to design the attraction, which will be located in the council’s Civic Centre, previously occupied by Southampton’s magistrate courts and police headquarters. The museum is intended to provide access to and interpretation of the city’s maritime heritage, and will include an exhibition on the Titanic,

Bramston Sports Centre in Witham, Essex, is set to be overhauled to provide improved facilities for local residents. Braintree District Council plans to replace the ageing facility with a new building housing a 25-metre, six-lane swimming pool; a 10-metre learner pool; and a spectator area for 100 people. Also under discussion is the provision of a diving pool, a gymnasium and two squash courts, costing a further £3.5m. The cabinet

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal in north-eastern Wales was awarded UNESCO status at the 33rd session of the World Heritage Committee held in Seville, Spain, last week. Thomas Telford's pioneering engineering achievement of the Industrial Revolution is the nation's 28th UNESCO site. A further 10 cultural sites were added to the World Heritage List, including Stoclet House in Belgium, the Ruins of Loropéni in Burkina Faso and Mount Wutai in China.

A new recycling-themed visitor attraction is to open in Wrexham later this year. Commissioned by Waste Recycling Group (WRG) and designed by Mather & Co, the facility – which will be attached to the Bryn Lane recycling plant – will be a bilingual (English and Welsh) interactive centre for schools and colleges, as well as other interested parties. The site will feature interactive displays, role-play games, a CGI film showing

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has named the contractor that will be responsible for building the Basketball Arena for the London 2012 Games. Paisley-based Barr Construction won the £58m contract to build the 12,000-seat stadium, which will be the third largest venue on the Olympic Park. ODA chair John Armitt said: “The Basketball Arena is a significant venue for us as it will be the third largest venue on the

Britain's oldest continuously working cinema, The Phoenix in East Finchley, is to receive a makeover after a £608,800 grant from the Heritage Lottery fund (HLF). The revamp of the grade II-listed building will include the construction of a bar or café, repair work to the auditorium including the original Mollo and Egan plaster wall panels and barrel vaulted ceiling as well as the extension of the mezzanine. The restoration is

Dollan Aqua Centre in East Kilbride is set to undergo a £7m overhaul. The leisure centre closed its door to the public last year when a routine inspection revealed that the concrete structure of the Grade-A listed building had deteriorated. Immediate structural repairs determined in consultation with Historic Scotland will be carried out by Paisley-based Clark Contracts, with completion scheduled for winter 2010.

Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC) has appointed construction company Morgan Ashurt to build the first phase of a £200m redevelopment of Old Trafford cricket ground. The initial phase of the project, which has been designed by BDP Architects, includes the creation of a new £12m glass-fronted conference and events facility overlooking the cricket pitch, which will be able to cater for up to 1,000 people. <> Called The Point, the

Barr Limited, the Paisley-based construction company, has been appointed by Fife Council as the main building contractor for the £17m refurbishment of Carnegie Leisure Centre in Dunfermline. Work at the facility, which will undergo an internal and external renovation as part of the revamp, will form part of the council's wider £50m scheme to improve leisure facilities in Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes. Plans for the upgraded Carnegie Leisure Centre include