The Cutty Sark conservation project has won the Institution of Structural Engineering’s prestigious Structural Heritage prize. Buro Happold, the structural engineers on the project, were presented with the prize at the Structural Awards 2013 ceremony held at The Brewery in London on 15 November 2013. In the award citation the judges commented: “The very complex structural repairs of the Cutty Sark, verging on reconstruction, were needed to raise and re-support her on a system of diagonal steel struts thrusting against the wall of the dry dock, which had to be strengthened to take the forces. This extraordinary work needed some exceptional engineering.”

Beckett Rankine was a key part of Buro Happold’s design team on the Cutty Sark project from its beginning in 2005; our role was to assist with the understanding of historic ship construction and composite ship structure. The photo of the award’s presentation shows, from left to right, IStructE President Y. K. Cheng, Tim Beckett, Steve Brown of Buro Happold, Ewan Jones of Grimshaw Architects, Wolf Mangelsdorf of Buro Happold and TV personality Mary Nightingale who announced the awards. More details of the awards can be found at http://www.istructe.org/structuralawards/2013/home