GATESHEAD'S £17.7m Millennium Bridge is in contention for the title of Building of the Year when the nearby Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art hosts a TV event tomorrow.

The architectural award ceremony for the 2002 RIBA Stirling Prize, hosted for Channel 4 by critic and broadcaster Waldemar Januszczak, will film design guru Wayne Hemingway announcing the £20,000 prizewinner.

The creator of the Red or Dead fashion label is one of five judges who will decide the winner on the night, having viewed a shortlist of candidates. Gateshead's entry is considered a strong front-runner having already won the Royal Fine Art Commission's Building of the Year award.

A £5m Edinburgh Dance School, a £70m London office block and an £11.5m German service centre are also in the running.

The Building of the Year programme will be shown at 8pm on Channel 4 on Sunday.

Mr Hemingway and his wife, Gerardine, have spent the past 18 months working with George Wimpey City and architects Ian Darby Parnership on plans for the "affordable to the majority" Staiths South Bank housing development at Gateshead.