AN ARCHITECT from York has scooped a top award for her part in designing a Leeds College building.

Wendy Dent, of Albemarle Road, a former Mount School pupil, works for Saltaire-based architects Rance Booth & Smith (RBS) and led the design team on the STAR Centre at Leeds City College, Keighley.

The firm’s designs won the Tourism & Leisure category in the RICS Pro-Yorkshire Awards held in May.

RICS received more than 65 entries this year. Entrants competed to win one of nine awards which are presented annually to the Yorkshire and Humber’s most inspirational initiatives in the property and construction sectors.

The STAR Centre is an interactive educational experience teaching about space and related science topics and is housed within the new Keighley Campus building.

Miss Dent, a senior designer at RBS, said: “We are extremely proud to scoop this award, particularly as we were up against high-profile competition.”

The design takes visitors on a journey from a planetarium with a 360-degree projection system, through mission control, into a spaceship. At the awards ceremony the project was hailed as the one which outshone all the competition in its category.