Helen Grassly is one of the judges for the 2024 AJ Retrofit and Reuse Awards. The Awards, celebrate architectural expertise and ingenuity in the physical and environmental adaption and upgrade of buildings, and the reuse of building materials and structure in response to the climate emergency and changing requirements of use.
Helen was a judge in the Conservation and Historic, up to £5m, category and will participate in live judging of the Conservation and Historic, £5m and over, taking place at the AJ Retrofit Live Conference. Helen’s fellow judges will be Julian Harrap, founder Julian Harrap Architects, and Sela-Jaymes Taylor, heritage and conservation lead at Gort Scott. Robert Wilson, architecture editor, at The Architects’ Journal will moderate.
Helen is a Director of Burrell Foley Fischer Architects, who have delivered the highest quality projects for the arts, education and heritage sectors for 40 years. Throughout her career, she has developed her design skills to unlock the potential of existing heritage and cultural buildings and find new and sustainable ways for them to contribute to their owners, their users and their communities.
Helen’s recently completed projects include the refurbishment and remodelling of the Grade II* listed Hall for Cornwall. The new, three-tiered theatre space has enabled the organisation to deliver their artistic vision and provided a new dynamic relationship between performer and audience, whilst conserving and restoring its important heritage elements bringing them into better use. She is currently designing the new Scala arts centre, a dynamic new creative destination at the heart of Worcester housed in a former 1920s cinema, and the connected Grade II listed Corn Exchange.
The winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner following the conference. Burrell Foley Fischer’s restoration of the Winter Gardens in Great Yarmouth has been shortlisted in the Future-use category which recognises “planned and future projects on the drawing board, in particular those looking to push the envelope in terms of retrofit and reuse”.
The projects shortlisted for all categories can be found here.