Dundee City Council's new headquarters building has been named the best commercial office/building or project outside London this year in the Roses Design Awards.

Located in the city's North Lindsay Street, Dundee House, which replaces Tayside House, was built by contractors Bovis LendLease for £34m.

The interior of Dundee House was designed to help the council adopt modern working practices across seven storeys of open plan office space.

Using elements of the old stone DC Thomson comic printing building, including the front door and a ground floor gallery or loggia, a space has also been provided for local art and sculpture exhibitions as well as a new cafe.


Underlining the city council's commitment to modernising contact with the public, the new flagship customer centre, which takes up the whole ground floor, was specifically designed to ensure that customer service is as straightforward as possible.

Employing more than 1,000 staff, the building has revitalised a previously quiet area of the city centre.

Leader of Dundee City Council, Ken Guild, said: "I am delighted that our new HQ building has been given a Gold Award.

"It is a huge tribute to the work of our own staff as well as architects, Reiach and Hall, who I am delighted to say also picked up the practice of the year award."

A spokesman for the architects said: "We are really pleased Dundee House has won this award. To win something like this takes years of hard work from everyone in the design and construction team and is recognition of that effort. In particular it needs the support of a committed client, which we were lucky to have at all stages."

(JG/BMcC)