6 St Andrew Square
Completed in November 2016, 6 St Andrew Square comprises over 100,000sqft of Cat A office space located within the World Heritage Site of Edinburgh’s New Town, on the prestigious St Andrew Square, and involved both demolition, new build and refurbishment.
Location: Edinburgh
Client: Peveril Securities Limited / Standard Life Investments
Cost: £35m
Completion: 2016
St Andrew Square had been for many years the recognised home of the Scottish Provident Insurance Company (SPI). The project involved the demolition of all of buildings on the site with the exception of a small, listed 1960’s block (which was also originally designed by Blyth & Blyth) which is considered to be amongst the finest examples of architecture from that period.
The new scheme provides 112,000sqft of Cat A office space on 2nd – 6th floor arranged around a full height central atrium with entrance at ground floor; 8 restaurant / retail unit shells at lower ground, ground and first floor, all successfully let for fitting out by tenants; and 5 residential apartments with basement parking.
A reinforced concrete basement was constructed providing parking, plant and storage facilities at this level. The superstructure comprises cellular steel beams and insitu concrete floor slabs. Lateral stability is provided by braced steel cores at discrete locations throughout the building.
Key challenges
Located within the World Heritage Site of Edinburgh’s New Town, this project involved the redevelopment of two buildings – one Grade A and one Grade B Listed – on the south side of St. Andrews Square.
The scheme involved close liaison with Edinburgh City Council and Historic Scotland to agree the conversion and reuse of the buildings and selective demolition of several others.
The entire site’s phased development over many years meant that internal areas were unsuitable for modern commercial clients but a historical ‘A’ Listed facade had to be retained and the ‘B’ Listed building (Number 6-7, St. Andrew Square) also needed conserving. Both were saved and remainder of the site demolished. The site is constrained with adopted roads on three sides and existing buildings forming the fourth boundary. The design has therefore been developed with the logistical challenges of working in such a constrained location at the forefront of our solutions.
Results
This highly complex project in a sensitive and hugely historic area of Scotland’s capital was completed in 104 weeks.
The sensitive nature of the site and its history were key to the project objective to create a visually striking and contemporary addition to the architectural fabric of the New Town. The fully glazed north and west facing elevations opens the office floor plates to magnificent views of Edinburgh Old Town and across the Firth to Fife.