Denton Corker Marshall鈥檚 Civil Justice Centre is the bookies鈥� choice but the result is 鈥榙ifficult to call鈥�

Denton Corker Marshall鈥檚 拢113m Civil Justice Centre in Manchester has emerged as the frontrunner to win the Stirling prize after Paddy Power put its chances of winning at 8/13 and William Hill gave it odds of 7/2.

But the bookies do not agree on everything. Allford Hall Monaghan Morris鈥� Naim Dangoor Centre at Westminster Academy has a 3/1 chance according to William Hill whereas Paddy Power made the distinctive yellow and green school a 12/1 outsider.

The odds indicated that this year鈥檚 winner of the 拢20,000 prize is far from a foregone conclusion. A spokesperson for William Hill said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a difficult one. In previous years there鈥檚 always been a stand-out favourite, but this year it鈥檚 not so easy.鈥�

The Civil Justice Centre was designed by Denton Corker Marshall, with M&E and structural engineering by Mott MacDonald. Built by Bovis Lend Lease, it was 好色先生TV鈥檚 Project of the Year 2008.

The Westminster Academy was designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and built by Galliford Try. The QS was Davis Langdon and project manager Capita Symonds.

The other projects on the shortlist are Zaha Hadid鈥檚 Nordpark Cable Railway in Innsbruck; Feilden Clegg Bradley, Alison Brooks Architects and Macreanor Lavington鈥檚 Accordia in Cambridge; Allies and Morrison鈥檚 Royal Festival Hall and Grimshaw and Arcadis鈥� Amsterdam Bijlmer railway station.