Category: News

The £1.1m Skills Centre extension to West Lothian College has now been officially opened.

The project involved the construction of a 325sqm multi purpose workshop for the teaching of construction skills to respond to the increase in demand identified within the sector in West Lothian. The workshop is designed to be flexible to respond to market demands for courses within the industry including painting/decorating, welding, engineering and joinery work.

Feedback on the new Centre has been very positive from staff and students alike.

Photograph: Mark K Jackson Photography

Almost 300 people took part in the Brechin Design Charrette between the 4^th and 7^th February to help shape the future of their town.

Austin-Smith:Lord led the charrette team which also included Fergus Purdie (Architect), Douglas Wheeler Associates (Regeneration Consultants), Ryden (Property Market Advice) and Transport Planning Ltd.

The intensive 4-day consultation included workshops with local school children, a ‘futurewalk’ around the town, a traffic and transport walkabout, a workshop session for Brechin and Angus agencies,  a business and community workshop, and one-to-one discussions with the design team.

A range of exciting ideas came out of the charrette for key buildings and open spaces, including improved youth facilities for young Brechiners.

Public feedback sessions will be held on 19^th February in the Damacre Centre, Brechin at 3pm and 7-30pm.

The outcomes of the charrette will provide a long-term vision, action plan and framework for the future development of Brechin.

Visit the Twitter page @BrechinTalks for photos and more information.

Following on from its recent Civic Trust Award shortlisting, the Grade II* Listed Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery has been shortlisted for an RICS West Midlands Award in the conservation category.

The prestigious RICS Awards showcase the achievements of the most inspirational regional initiatives and developments in land, property, construction and the environment.

Austin-Smith:Lord was commissioned to sensitively restore and convert the Grade II* listed Music Hall, in the centre of Shrewsbury, into a Museum for Shropshire County Council. Since opening in April 2014, the Museum has proved to be increasingly popular with the local community and those visiting the area.

Still on track as one of the first BREEAM Outstanding schools in Wales, Ysgol Ffwrnes has completed ahead of schedule with staff and pupils moving in over the next few days.

Ysgol Ffwrnes is a new build 472 pupils combined nursery and primary Welsh medium school in the Furnace area of Llanelli. In addition to teaching space facilities include a badminton hall to Sport England standards and a flood lit multi use games area (MUGA).

Sustainability has been a key consideration in the design, with the aim of achieving a highly sustainable development. There are two different but connected aspects to this, a zero carbon aspiration and a BREEAM design rating of Outstanding.

All these factors create a truly sustainable school in social, economic and environmental terms. The most important part of that is the creation of a learning environment that the pupils, staff, parents and the community all enjoy using.

Every member of the team, including Austin-Smith:Lord, WRW, CB3 Consult, SABA Consult and Melin, worked collaboratively resulting in the delivery of the school ahead of schedule.

The team is delighted that the school is set to be one of the first BREEAM Outstanding primary schools  in Wales.

The 2014 Landscape Institute Awards were hosted on 27^th November at the iconic Bloomsbury Big Top in Central London.

The Panel “highly commended” Austin-Smith:Lord’s Landscape Design for their Liverpool Central Library Project. This fell within the Design for a small scale public development category.

This compliments the ten awards the Library has won since completion in 2013.

Two of Austin-Smith:Lord’s conservation projects, the Grade I Listed Llanelly House and the Grade II* Listed Shrewsbury Museum and Gallery,  have been announced as Regional Finalists in the 2015 Civic Trust Conservation Awards.

They are two of 20 conservation projects that have been considered of merit at a regional level, and have been put forward for second tier consideration, which recognises projects at a national level.

The award winners will be revealed at the Civic Trust Award Ceremony held at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London on Friday 8th March 2015.

A full list of Regional Finalists can be found here.

Bridgegate Public Realm in Irvine is a finalist in the Scottish Property Awards 2015, in the ‘Town Centre Regeneration Project of the Year’ category.

This follows on from its recent BALI Award and numerous other award nominations and shortlistings.

Our clients for this project, Irvine Bay Regeneration Company, have also been selected as finalists in two other categories.

We look forward to hearing the results at the awards ceremony in March 2015.

You can read more about the project here:

https://www.austinsmithlord.com/projects/bridgegate-public-realm/

Liverpool Central Library was named “Winner of the Regeneration Category, Civic Building of the Year Award” at the 2014 SCALA awards ceremony, which celebrates local authority construction and architectural excellence.

This year’s awards ceremony was held on 14^th November at the Leeds Marriott Hotel in the form of a President’s Dinner.

Around 100 projects entered the Competition and 12 were shortlisted.

This is the ninth award that the Library has won over the past year.

Austin-Smith:Lord assisted the Di Maggio restaurant owners in securing listed building consent for the work to transform this ground floor former office space unit into an exclusive restaurant offer.

The Category A listed building was designed by James Miller and constructed in 1905-07 as bespoke offices for the Glasgow-based Anchor Line shipping business in St Vincent Place.

David Millar, Director and Head of Conservation, has stated that he is “absolutely delighted to see the former Anchor Line building brought back to its former glory as a new restaurant and bar facility for the DiMaggio restaurant chain owners in Glasgow”.

David was originally involved in 2006, preparing a conservation statement to secure a change of use consent for the building.  He then directly assisted in securing the planning and listed building consents for the restoration of the building and interior fit-out of the restaurant.

The main bar area is located in the first class booking office of the Anchor Line, one of Glasgow’s leading international shipping companies that commissioned the office building in 1905 with opulent interiors, decorative plasterwork and carved wood with nautical motifs such as shells and sailing ships repeated in the ornate plaster and carving.  The façade is of white Carrara ware faience by Doulton.

Over the course of summer 2014 the conservation team at Austin-Smith:Lord has been supervising the careful repairs to kirkyard monuments and boundary walls at seven historic kirkyards at the Hillfoots near Stirling. The work is being undertaken for the Ochils Landscape Partnership and Clackmannanshire Council and has funding support from various agencies including the Heritage Lottery Fund.

One important structure that has been exposed for urgent and necessary repairs to a section of collapsed brick vaulting is the Alva Ice House dating from the 1820s. This impressive brick egg-shaped chamber is surrounded by a passageway network with marble lined shelves for the storage of food.

David Millar, Head of Conservation at Austin-Smith:Lord said “This is a unique opportunity to explore and understand the brick type and masonry construction of a structure that is often partially out of the ground. This structure is completely buried and very well constructed”.

The Ice House is one of several projects that the Ochils Landscape Partnership has been delivering in terms of natural and cultural heritage. The projects aim to improve access to, and restore, built heritage and provide on-site and online interpretation about the area’s cultural, social and industrial past.

You can learn more about the Alva Ice House in the following short movie:
https://ochils.org.uk/alva-house-and-icehouse