The failed to land the 海角视频’s leading architecture prize tonight - despite winning the public’s vote.
The Library was .
And despite being named the public’s favourite the building chosen by a panel of experts was Liverpool’s newly rebuilt Everyman Theatre.
Birmingham’s new library was , and it won the people’s vote in a poll conducted by the BBC.
Around 90,000 people voted in the online poll and the library took 30 per cent of the vote, followed by the Olympics Aquatics Centre on 26 per cent.
The Everyman Theatre polled just 10 per cent in the public vote.
The Library of Birmingham is Europe’s largest library and cost nearly £190 million to build.
Designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo, the unique construction towers over Centenary Square and it welcomed more than a million visitors through it’s doors in the first three months.
Most Read
Also shortlisted for this year’s prize was the London Aquatics Centre, which hosted the Olympic swimming events, the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre at the London School Of Economics, the Shard and the Manchester School of Art.
The winning £13.3 million Everyman Theatre replaced the original venue which opened 50 years ago in a disused church.
Judges praised the “extraordinary contribution to both theatre and the city” provided by the building, the front of which is clad with revolving aluminium panels featuring images of people from the city.
In their citation for the winning building, the judges said: “The new Everyman in Liverpool is truly for every man, woman and child.
“It cleverly resolves so many of the issues architects face every day.”
The prize was awarded at a ceremony staged in the Riba’s headquarters in London.