Awards 2011

Hick’s Lodge - The National Forest Cycle Centre
ProCon Leicestershire Awards 2011 - Small Scheme of the Year

A £1.5m, environmentally-friendly cycle centre, designed by Pick Everard, has won best Small Scheme of the Year in the 2011 ProCon Leicestershire awards, celebrating construction excellence across the county.

Located in the heart of the maturing National Forest, near Ashby de la Zouch, Hick Lodge Cycle Centre was designed in keeping with its rural surroundings and built using latest green technology. The dramatic, angular building incorporates sustainable timber and is heated by a wood-chip boiler, with solar water heating and recycled, captured rainwater. A multidisciplinary Pick Everard team provided architectural design, led by project architect Jerry Tseng, structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, BREEAM and CDM consultancy for the award-winning scheme.

The site includes the stunning glass and timber visitor centre, café, cycle hire centre, bike shop, and repair workshop, with eight miles of new off-road cycling trails created by the National Forest Company and Forestry Commission. Since its summer launch the centre has welcomed a stream of young cyclists eager to hone their skills on the varied, twisting – and traffic-free - trails.
Pick Everard also designed the first youth hostel built in The National Forest, winning an East Midlands Regional Sustainability Award for exemplary design and best practice in modern timber construction technology and sustainable energy consumption.

Pictured (left to right) are Alan Dowell - Forestry Commission, Jerry Tseng - Pick Everard and Alan Leather - National Forest Company.