A MAJOR development that will bring a 23-storey tower block to the Ipswich docks has won an architectural award before building work even starts, the Evening Star can reveal today.

A MAJOR development that will bring a 23-storey tower block to the Ipswich docks has won an architectural award before building work even starts, the Evening Star can reveal today.

John Lyall architects, who are working on the development at the former Cranfields Mill site, entered it into an international future project's competition and got a highly commended award.

Work on the Cranfields site will start soon and is due to be completed by 2007.

The development consists of a giant block of flats, an 80 bedroom hotel, shops, restaurants, and a new headquarters for Dance East.

John Lyall Architects will collect the MIPIM/Architectural Review Future Project Award at Cannes in March next year.

John Lyall said: "The award has given us more confidence in the project which we already had a lot of faith in.

"It is fantastic to see we have had recognition from other architects, especially in an international sense where the development has had to compete with some of the key projects around the world.

"It is also good for Ipswich as an early acknowledgement in the regeneration of the docks."

The development came a close second in the Big Urban Projects category, with a project on the Stuttgart main station taking the first place.

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