Kent firm R Durtnell to build £17m Turner art gallery

Kent firm R Durtnell and Sons has won the contract to build the £17m Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate.

The 400-year-old firm hopes to start on site by the end of November and finish in 2010.

Kent County Council picked the firm because of its wide-ranging experience with new projects and specialist restoration and renovation works.

The art gallery was designed by architect David Chipperfield after Norwegian firm Snohetta was thrown off the job in 2006 following massive budget over-runs.

The council is suing Snohetta, now working on the 11 September museum in New York, for £6m in design fees after its designs put construction work at £28.4m and £12m for a subcontractor – not the £7m budgeted for building work by the council.

Snohetta’s original vision was for a timber clad concrete structure in the sea linked to Margate by a steel bridge, but this was later revised to a steel structure.

Chipperfield’s design is for a glass clad two-storey structure celebrating JMW Turner’s links with the area.