Scottish Design Awards - Finalists 2024

We are delighted that two of our most significant recent projects have been announced as finalists for this year's Scottish Design Awards 2024. Appearing in separate categories both involved the sensitive re-working of important listed buildings, in prominent city centre locations.

In the heart of Edinburgh’s UNESCO world heritage site, the new Scottish Galleries at the National, for Scottish National Galleries is nominated in the Public Building category, whilst in Glasgow, directly opposite the City Chambers on George Street, the AC Hotel by Marriott is shortlisted in the Commercial / Office / Hotel Building or Project category. The latter breathes new life into the former Parish Halls connecting them with a carefully considered, ten storey new-build block that respectfully integrates with its context.

The Scottish Galleries project involved extensively reworking an area of 1970s office accommodation and adjacent, seldom visited Scottish Collection gallery to create a world-class gallery space, appropriate for the display of the important collection of works in the Scottish National Collection. The design team focused on improving legibility, accessibility, and circulation throughout the entire complex, enhancing the entrance and facade, and significantly increasing the amount of space available for art.

AC Hotel Glasgow is a part of the ambitious, £100M Love Loan redevelopment project undertaken for Chris Stewart Group in Glasgow's central conservation area. The project repairs the city block by bringing unused listed buildings back into sustainable use, addressing an unsightly, long-standing gap site, adding two major new buildings, and carefully establishing connections between all the elements, as well as reimagining the public realm to create a dynamic new . The hotel, one of the first major elements to complete, opened in the autumn of 2023 and features a new-build 10 storey block, carefully connected to the restored and refurbished, A-listed former Glasgow Parish Halls.

Several significant challenges were overcome to deliver both projects, including working in tight city centre locations, excavation beneath a Category A-listed building of national importance and discovering significant "unknowns" during construction.

We are grateful to our own team, consultants and clients for all their dedication and hard work on both these fantastic projects, and we look forward to the results of the Scottish Design Awards.