Part of the restoration of Mowbray Park in the City of Sunderland the winter garden replaces a building damaged and demolished after the second world war. The project was won in open RIBA competition in 1997 and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The building houses £250k of temperate and semi-tropical planting, pools and a water feature by William Pye. The building is intended to take forward the glass house technology of it's Victorian antecedents and use modern glass technology to create the "winter garden of the 21st century". The practice has a long track history in dealing with difficult and sensitive urban sites, a recent example being the Sunderland Winter Garden project which sits within a conservation area and is physically linked to the city’s 1860, listed museum and art gallery. The building is located within the city centre adjacent to the main retail quarter. The project was opened to critical acclaim and was second only to the National Gallery in London for visitor numbers in its first year of opening. The building has been recognised with a Civic Trust award (commendation), RIBA Hadrian Award, Association of Landscape Contractors of America, Grand Award, and is cited as an exemplar building by the commission for Architecture and the built environment. The building was formally opened by the Queen in 2003.