Plas Gwenfrewi had to rebuild the site around a Listed statue

The shortlisted projects in Burry Port, Denbigh, Holywell and Monmouth are in the final of the Civic Trust Awards.

Entries in architecture, urban design, landscaping and public art are judged for the prizes every two years.

Wales' contestants include an assisted living and a day care centre, a 20-unit housing development and a Lottery-funded regeneration initiative.

Gwalia Housing Trust's sheltered housing development, Plas Y Mor, in Burry Port, is one of the nominees.

The brick and timber-clad site of 38 one- and two-bedroom flats for people over 55 was completed in 2003 and includes an assisted living and day care centre.

The main building uses solar panels to generate around 60% of its hot water, while wood chips from sustainable Welsh sources are used in the heating and hot water system's biomass boilers.

The first phase of the Denbigh Townscape Heritage Initiative is also in the running for its Heritage Lottery Fund project to restore many of the town's historic facades.

Plas Gwenfrewi has also been praised for its finished appearance

The town's architecture spans eight centuries, and includes a number of early timber-framed buildings, but is predominantly from its most prosperous period in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Wales and West Housing Association, the largest housing association in Wales, has been picked for its �978,000 Plas Gwenfrewi in Holywell, completed in March 2004.

The development of 20 one- and two-bedroom flats has been praised for its restoration of the Grade II-listed Sacred Heart of Jesus statue in the centre of the site.

The fourth site being considered by Civic Trust judges is the Drybridge Gardens sheltered housing project in Monmouth.

Vivienne Newlands, Civic Trust Awards manager, said: "Civic Trust Awards are awarded to projects of the highest quality design, but only if they are also judged to have made a positive contribution to the local environment - and helped improve the places where we live."