Every year the Stroud Civic Society nominates a building for the Stroud Town Council Design Award.
In 2008 the nomination went to Stroud College for their new building.
Designed by Ellis Williams Architects of Warrington, this is an elegant, understated building with echoes of the white modernist architecture of the 1920s and 1930s. The spatial geometries – a central drum with curving, staggered wings – the varied facades and the artfully arranged pattern of black-framed vertical and horizontal windows, contribute to a very pleasing overall design, which combines strong three-dimensional volumes with elegantly ordered and detailed facades.
This is a distinctive building without any superficial trimmings or fashionable glitz. It makes a change from all that weird, ugly, postmodern stuff.