Gretna border landmark panel meets to make selection

Three different designs by a range of international contenders have been put forward to mark the Scotland-England border

A panel has met to select the winning design for a landmark sculpture on the Scotland-England border.

Three international contenders have made it to the final stage of the selection process for the Border Crossing project.

The proposed structures range in height from 50m to 100m.

Judges were due to select the winning design for the project - entitled the Great Unknown - but its identity will not be made public until next month.

Project manager Jan Hogarth said: "Four months ago we commissioned three of the world's most exciting innovators to come up with a design for the Great Unknown working in collaboration with the project's creative director Charles Jencks."

Designer Cecil Balmond, American artist Ned Kahn and Chris Wilkinson of Wilkinson Eyre Architects are in the running for the project.

"The designs have now been submitted - they are initial ideas - and whichever one is selected will get further developed over the summer to a point that it is ready to go in for planning permission," added Ms Hogarth.

"I think all three designs say something important about Dumfries and Galloway and Scotland and they are of international quality."

The winner of the project will be announced early in July.

Sri Lanka-born Mr Balmond's works include the Arcelor Mittal Orbit tower, the UK's largest public art sculpture, designed in collaboration with Anish Kapoor for London 2012.

Environmental artist Mr Kahn has collaborated with architects and designers on a number of art projects all over the world.

London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects enjoyed back-to-back success in the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture for the Magna Project in 2001 and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in 2002.