Prince Charles might have done well to save his famous carbuncle speech for Preston. After years of battling to preserve the city’s majestic 1960s bus station, which finally got grade-II listed in 2013, the winning design for a £13m project to breathe life back into the building has been unveiled. The proposal is a cross between a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend,” as the Prince described the planned National Gallery extension in 1984, and a giant fridge-freezer, carelessly dumped in the station forecourt.

The winner of an international open competition, organised by Lancashire County Council and the Royal Institute of British Architects, the design is the work of New York-based architect John Puttick, who previously ran the Chinese offices of Make –a regular presence on the shortlist of the Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building in Britain. Puttick may have left Make behind, but the Make way clearly hasn’t left him.

The striking beauty of the bus station, designed by the Preston-based Building Design Partnership in 1969, comes from the uninterrupted linear sweep of its curved concrete fins, which extend for 170m along the building like a sharp stack of razor shells. It was the biggest bus station in Europe when it opened, bringing the glamour of air travel to the road. The startling form of its bright white hangar cemented Preston’s role as a major hub for long-distance travel on the first motorway in the country. It is a temple to the age of coach travel.

‘Like a giant fridge-freezer