The Regional Agricultural Centre (RAC) has beaten tough competition from across Yorkshire and Humberside to scoop the highly acclaimed ’Project of the Year’ title as well as the award for Sustainability at the 2010 RICS* Pro-Yorkshire Awards. The judges said they were "overwhelmingly impressed" by the building, both in terms of its design and commercial proposition. 

The £5.1m Regional Agricultural Centre is the headquarters for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society which is best known as the organizer of the annual Great Yorkshire Show and Countryside Live events. The RAC, with Fodder its integral regional food shop and café, opened at the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate last June and is already proving a huge success with customers, suppliers and staff alike.   

Environmentally-friendly features include a timber frame, rainwater "harvesting", a ground source heat pump to provide heating, solar thermal roof panels, sheep’s wool insulation and a sedum roof.

The Awards celebrate inspirational initiatives and developments in the land, property and construction sectors and this year’s event attracted an impressive 77 entries, from which the panel of 12 judges short-listed 45 over the eight categories. 

Each winner was then assessed across all categories to determine the top accolade of ’Project of the Year.’ The judges voted for the unique Regional Agricultural Centre after being overwhelmingly impressed not only by its sustainable credentials but by its innovative design and commercial proposition. 

Colin Harrop, head of the judging panel and Chairman of the RICS Yorkshire and Humberside regional board said: "The standard of entries this year has been very high, with nominations ranging from small-scale schemes, through to multi-million pound developments.

"The winners of the eight categories are all of a particularly exceptional standard, so choosing the overall winner was extremely tough.  

However, the Regional Agricultural Centre exceeded our expectations for this award as not only is it innovative in its design, but it addresses all the issues and more that modern buildings face in their search for sustainable success."

As the winner of the sustainability category, the Regional Agricultural Centre now goes forward to the national RICS Awards later this year, to compete against projects across the world for the overall sustainability award.

The Awards were held on Friday 14 May in Leeds.