RIBA said: “The £1bn Liverpool One is recognised as one of the most significant city regeneration projects in Europe.

“Rod Holmes, aided and succeeded by Guy Butler, has led Grosvenor’s drive for quality and guided all aspects of the design and construction process.

“To engage three major architects might be deemed brave, to employ 25 is sheer but brilliantly successful madness.”

But it wasn’t all bad news for Liverpool architecture at the Stirling Prize, as city based practice Union North could lay claim to their work in restoring the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, which was awarded a special prize, the RIBA Crown Estate Conservation Award – presented for the most successful restoration of an architecturally significant building.

Critics of the Stirling Prize have accused it of being London-centric, ageist and not in keeping with public opinion.

Exhibition ten+10, about BDP and the Liverpool One project, was timed to coincide with the Stirling Prize and is still on display at RIBA’s Milk & Sugar gallery, on Wood Street, until October 27.

LIVERPOOL One won the Regeneration award at a separate event, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ annual awards.

Judges called it “a truly remarkable scheme with widespread positive impacts”.