For staff of Dennis Sharp Architects (DSA), last month's prestigious race meeting was their first chance to see how horses, jockeys, owners and race-goers responded to their designs for the new racecourse.
The small firm played a key role in the £200m redevelopment of the famous Berkshire racecourse, renovating and renewing all the prominent listed buildings along Ascot High Street.
This work included providing new equine facilities such as stables and saddling enclosures, as well as making improvements to the paddock and restoring the old Turnstiles Building into a spacious reception area.
Yasmin Shariff, partner architect at Epping Green-based DSA, worked on the project for the past four years.
"The biggest challenge was to find new uses for the listed buildings which would make them still a vital part of the whole development," she said.
"A month ago you couldn't believe that in four weeks they would have got their act together in the way they did, but everyone worked like Trojans and it was all completed on time and within budget."
DSA also designed some new buildings, including stables for the Queen's horses.
They were working in conjunction with HOK Sport Architecture, which designed Ascot's stunning new grandstand.
"On the day I was on tenterhooks," continued Yasmin. "We had been rehearsing all these scenes in our heads and here it was for real.
"It was very exciting to see that. People said it wasn't like going to a completely new building because the listed buildings gave them some familiarity with where they were."
Yasmin believes the success of the Ascot redevelopment bodes well for the London Olympics in 2012.
"It gives us that confidence that we can do major projects on time and on budget," she said.
DSA was founded in 1965 by Dennis Sharp, and now employs six people, with offices in Epping Green and London.
The practice's speciality is adapting buildings. One project involves Norman Foster's derelict Renault factory in Swindon, but they are equally passionate about small local projects, such as a recent extension to a house in Bayford.
"It's not so much the size of projects that matters to us," said Yasmin. "If people want to do something special we will bust our guts to make sure they get something special, and that's what excites us."
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