Get Carter carpark replacement Trinity Square up for 'ugliest building' award

The building that replaced the controversial Get Carter carpark in Gateshead has been shortlisted for a design award - as one of the years ugliest buildings.

Trinity Square, in Gateshead, is among six sites hoping to avoid picking up the Carbuncle Cup, the unofficial ugly sister to the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize, which is awarded to the best new building.

The building replaced the iconic but unloved carpark which towered over Gateshead for decades starring notoriously in the Michael Caine classic Get Carter in 1971.

The car park was finally torn down in 2010.

The nomination has not proved popular with Gateshead town leaders,

Councillor Mary Foy, Gateshead Councils cabinet member for the economy, said: Buildings are a matter of personal taste, when they built the Sage a lot of people said that was ugly but I think its beautiful.

Im shocked that Trinity Square has been voted for one of the ugliest buildings.

The student accommodation is fabulous and theres already 800 students moved in, and the town centre where the halo is is a lovely meeting place.

Respected architect Jonathan Meades gave stinging criticism of the shopping centre earlier this year in a documentary shown on BBC Four.

During Bunkers, Brutalism, Bloodymindedness: Concrete Poetry, he said demolishing unloved buildings which were stark and unforgiving in appearance, such as the Trinity Square carpark, had been a quick fix for councils.

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Get Carter carpark replacement Trinity Square up for 'ugliest building' award