Building Briefs – June 14th

Leonardo Hotels has opened its first establishment in Scotland after investing more than €7 million in the refurbishment of a former Premier Inn site in Edinburgh.

The Leonardo Royal Hotel Edinburgh, which boasts 282 rooms and is located close to Haymarket railway station, takes the group’s portfolio to more than 80 hotels in 40+ locations.

The design of the new hotel was created by acclaimed interior designer Andreas Neudahm and continues the Leonardo Hotels’ philosophy of developing hotels that each have their own character with a clear link to their location.

New funding plans revealed for £42m Paisley Museum revamp

A fresh set of funding plans have been unveiled to transform Paisley Museum into an international-class destination based around the town’s unique heritage story.

Councillors will next week be asked to approve a new approach to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for £4.9 million for the project, which aims to reconnect the globally-recognised Paisley Pattern with the town which gave it its name.

The latest application comes after a previous approach to HLF for £10m narrowly missed out in the UK-wide round of funding.

The project is a key part of a wider strategy to use Paisley’s unique heritage story to transform its future, including a bid to be UK City of Culture 2021.

The refreshed funding plans bring the total cost down to £42m from £49m, but retain the original vision of a visitor experience of international quality, hoped to more than triple current visitor numbers.

Renfrewshire Council has already set aside £24.1m from its own resources towards the revamp.

The plans include an extension to the existing Victorian-era building, creating extra space for internationally-significant exhibits including the world’s largest collection of Paisley shawls.

The proposed timeline remains the same - the museum would close in summer 2018 and reopen in 2022. Work to involve the local community in creating the content of the new museum would feature strongly in any UK City of Culture 2021 programme.

The museum revamp is closely linked to other investment in Paisley’s cultural infrastructure - work is well under way on £3.7m plans to create a publicly-accessible museum store on the town’s high street, to house items not on display in the main museum, due to be complete by end 2017.

Construction is also set to start this year on a new learning and cultural hub in a vacant high-street unit, creating a new modern and accessible facility and allowing the town’s lending library to move from its current home next to the museum.

RSK Group acquires KMGP

Environmental and engineering services consultancy RSK has today announced the acquisition of KMGP Limited

Known as KMG Partnership, the firm provides industrial architecture and structural engineering design services, together with some civil engineering services.

The company’s specialty is distribution warehousing in the food industry, which accounts for approximately 60% of revenue. It also operates across various end sectors including leisure and media, commercial and retail, infrastructure, rail, education and residential.

Recent key projects include food distributor Bidvest’s UK headquarters and multi-temperature distribution centre in Slough; Henderson Group offices and distribution warehousing in Northern Ireland; and designing the film studio complex Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, home of the Harry Potter film series and incorporating the Warner Bros. Studios Tour: The Making of Harry Potter.

The acquisition of KMG will expand RSK’s services in architecture and engineering, particularly in online retail warehousing, temperature-controlled storage and distribution, and data management centres. It will provide enhanced opportunities for KMG, as a smaller company, to be involved at earlier stages of projects and across a much broader range of sectors than it currently serves.

£1.42m for six sustainable timber transport road projects in the Highlands

Six timber transport projects that benefit communities and the environment on rural roads in the Highlands are to receive £1.42 million of funding.

These projects will improve rural infrastructure and greatly reduce the impact of timber haulage on local communities.

The funding is from the 2017 Strategic Timber Transport Fund (STTF), managed by Forestry Commission Scotland.

The Highland Council is also working with the Scottish Road Works Commissioner to deliver improved co-ordination and co-operation with utility companies undertaking works on the public road. Deploying additional inspection resources will increase the monitoring and drive improvements in the standards of road works and reinstatements. Utility companies will be encouraged to minimise the disruption caused to the road using public by reducing the duration of works and, wherever possible, reinstating their works to a permanent standard at the same time.

The council expects that this will reduce the number of reinstatement failures and help to maintain the integrity of the road surface.

The council approved an additional £24.520m in December 2015 for roads, bridges and piers to be included in the Capital Plan, together with an additional provision of £1.6m for minor flood works over 10 years.

Public campaign for £1.8m Broughty Ferry Library extension

A public campaign has been launched today to raise funds for an extension at Broughty Ferry Community Library in Dundee.

A previous review of facilities demonstrated a lack of community space in the area and has led to the proposal for a meeting and gathering space that can accommodate up to two hundred people in a safe, easily accessible central location with Broughty Ferry Library the preferred location. The proposal also seeks to create an inclusive accessible approach which engages the extensive, but underused land surrounding the existing library.

The indicative cost of the project is £1,828,000 and £948,500 has already been secured from Leisure & Culture Dundee alongside Dundee City Council with the remainder being sought from fundraising including applications to external grant funders who share common objectives.

Members of the public can get involved by donating or raising money via a JustGiving page.

Dumfries pupils given tour of St Joseph’s College project

St Andrew’s Primary School pupils have been given an insight into the redevelopment of St Joseph’s College.

The Primary 2 class of six and seven-year-olds visited the site as part of their term topic - learning about the features of different buildings. The pupils were shown tools and materials used by engineers as well as seeing 3D modelling and receiving a site tour.

They were also given a short introduction into many different types of trades available within the construction industry.

Early next month, Graham Construction will be sending representatives to St Andrew’s Primary as part of the school’s ‘World of Work Week’, another opportunity for the children to learn about broad topic of construction.

St Joseph’s College, part of the Dumfries Learning Town development, is a comprehensive fabric repair, restoration and refurbishment of the original Grade B listed historic stone building, which was built in the early 20th Century.

The extensive redevelopment of the College will include refurbishment of an existing extension, and the demolition and construction of a new wing to provide all facilities under one roof. External works will include the provision of a new all-weather synthetic sports facility and the reinstatement of a grass pitch.

When completed, St Joseph’s will be over 8,000m2 in size; providing world-class teaching facilities to the community of Dumfries in South West Scotland, catering to 644 secondary students and 72 staff.

The Dumfries Learning Town Project (DLT) and is due for completion in February 2018.

Torwoodlee Tower repairs completed

The completion of repairs to a historic Borders building, which dates back to 1601, has been celebrated ahead of its role in summer celebrations.

Work to stabilise the “increasingly precarious” Torwoodlee Tower in Galashiels started in 2015.

A campaign to find the £150,000 needed for repairs was launched by James Pringle, the 14th and current Laird of Torwoodlee, some years ago.

Pert Bruce Construction staff complete Cataran Yomp in Blairgowrie

A team of 15 from Montrose-based Pert Bruce Construction have taken part and completed the Bronze & Silver challenges at this year’s Cateran Yomp.

The Cateran Yomp is a charity Hill Walk from Blairgowrie around the Spitall of Glenshee that raises money in aid of The Soldiers Charity which provides lifetime support to soldiers and veterans from the British Army and their immediate families.

The event involves three challenges for participants to choose from, which include Bronze (22.6 miles), Silver (36 miles) and Gold (54 miles) taking place on the Cateran Trail starting at Blairgowrie – all having to be completed within 24 hours.

The day proved to be muddy and wet and needless to say all participants were not quite so bright at the end but they were all still smiling.

Pert Bruce Construction has so far raised £6,698.00 this year and this being its second year of participation in this fantastic event means, all together, it has managed to raise over £10,000 for the charity.

North Lanarkshire school children get hands-on with Greener Gardens project

As part of its continued commitment to the Greener Gardens project, Taylor Wimpey West Scotland has teamed up with Abertay University and global professional services consultant WSP to offer a learning package which is aimed at Primary 5 children to highlight raingardens, sustainable drainage and the environment.

Pupils from Holytown Primary School are the first to benefit from the educational resources with a series of classroom talks and discussions, interactive activities and local show and tell visits in the local community to learn more about the concept of Greener Gardens.

The children’s day included a visit to Taylor Wimpey West Scotland’s Torrance Park development in Holytown to see the Torrance Water project features in-situ which includes a natural raingarden, a raised raingarden, water butts and a suds-in-box as well as a visit to the Ravenscraig BRE site.

Taylor Wimpey West Scotland continues to work in partnership with the Scottish Government, Central Scotland Green Network Trust and academia on the ’Greener Gardens’ project that looks at how gardens of new homes can be used to contribute to green infrastructure, biodiversity and storm water management.

The project features a number of strands - all designed to encourage the development of sustainable places – including installation of demonstration raingardens, academic research, provision of water butts as part of the package for new homeowners, and raising awareness by promoting the benefits of raingardens both to homeowners and the wider housebuilding industry.