THE boss of one of South Lakeland's largest employers has praised Lake District planners for the part they played in helping the company to win a landmark national accolade.

Family-owned creative kitchenware retailer and mail order company Lakeland scooped a Civic Trust Award for the £13 million redevelopment of its headquarters and flagship store in Windermere, as reported in The Westmorland Gazette last week.

Managing director Sam Rayner said he was delighted to win the award, presented to the country's best new build, renovation or regeneration of public and privately-owned buildings.

Civic Trust judges hailed the Station Precinct site as attractive and successful, saying it combined "exciting and contemporary design with the building's location in the historic and rural setting of the Lake District."

Judges were impressed with the large, semi-circular frontage that made "a strong visual statement in glass, metal, marble and Lakeland stone, which welcomes and draws in the visitor."

They felt the offices were equally well designed, with reactive lighting and outdoor refreshment areas, while the curved sedum (grass) covered roof helped to blend the building into the landscape.

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