Rising high above the Tyne, the "blinking eye" has become more of a fashion icon than a bridge since it opened a year ago. But the debate about whether the shiny, graceful curves of the 413 ft-wide span on the world's first tilting bridge represent adventurous engineering or design at its best, intensified last night when the Gateshead Millennium bridge scooped Britain's premier architectural award.

Judges for the RIBA's annual Stirling Prize said the "simple and incredibly elegant" £22 million bridge was not only an innovative and bold engineering challenge, but also the one piece of architecture that would be remembered by people this year.

Praising the structure at an awards ceremony last night, Paul Finch, editorial director of the Architects Journal and deputy chairman of the Commission for Architecture hailed the bridge as a "truly heroic piece of engineering and construction."

Internet: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/ 0,11711,811294,00.html> (with adaptations).

From the previous text, it can be concluded that

the so-called "fashion icon" is an old-dated construction.