London architect lands Victoria and Albert Museum job

London architect Amanda Levete has beaten off worldwide competition to design a £35 million redevelopment of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The scheme will create a public plaza and new galleries in the space once earmarked for Daniel Libeskind's Spiral. It will feature a new entrance from Exhibition Road and transform space closed to the public.

The decision comes seven years after the museum abandoned the five-storey £100 million Libeskind plan when funds could not be raised. The work by Ms Levete, whose previous designs include the Selfridges store in Birmingham and the space-age media centre at Lord's cricket ground, will take about five years.

She said: "It doesn't get much better than this."