London Eye shortlisted for architecture prize

The London Eye and a Sainsbury's supermarket are in the running to take a top architecture prize as Building of the Year - but the Millennium Dome has failed to make the shortlist.

The London Eye and a Sainsbury's supermarket are in the running to take a top architecture prize as Building of the Year - but the Millennium Dome has failed to make the shortlist.

The £20,000 Stirling Prize is the richest award of its type and goes to the designers of the European building that has made the greatest contribution to architecture.

The Sainsbury's supermarket in Greenwich won its place on the shortlist after being nominated by Channel 4 viewers. It has already scooped a handful of awards and nominations for its environmentally friendly approach, which includes earth banks against the walls for insulation.

It is just a stone's throw from the beleaguered Millennium Dome, which won an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), which organises the event, but failed to get through to the final seven.

Also on the shortlist are Norman Foster's Canary Wharf Tube station, which has attracted attention for its vast scale, the headquarters of the GSW housing association in Berlin, the New Art Gallery, Walsall, and Peckham Library and Media Centre, London.

And although the Richard Rogers Partnership has lost out with its Millennium Dome design, it has been nominated for 88 Wood Street, a glass structure in the City of London.

Michael Manser, chairman of the jury, said: "The shortlist is perhaps the strongest ever in architectural quality and variety. It is the distillation of nearly 400 submissions to the RIBA, and each of the seven will have been scrutinised by three separate juries. Any client, architect, member of the design team or construction company whose building is in the list has every reason to be pleased and proud."

The winner will be announced on 4 November at the Science Museum in London during a live Channel 4 programme.

Last year's winner was the futuristic media centre at Lord's cricket ground.