Building Briefs – June 1st

The project to conserve, restore and redisplay a complete Charles Rennie Mackintosh tearoom interior in V&A Dundee has received a major funding boost, thanks to Art Fund and the Scottish Government.

V&A Dundee and Dundee City Council are working in partnership with Glasgow Museums, which rescued the Oak Room interior from destruction in 1971 and took the disassembled interior into Glasgow City Council’s museum collections.

The project will preserve this historic lost interior for generations to come, having last been used as a tearoom in the early 1950s.

Support of £200,000 from Art Fund and £100,000 from the Scottish Government has contributed to the fundraising for the £1.3 million project which has also been generously supported by the National Lottery in its first research phase and through a range of other individual gifts.

The Oak Room conservation project received an initial grant of £400,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, given on behalf of players of the National Lottery. This allowed the full extent of the required work to be established, including a full reconstruction of the remaining parts of the room.

https://vimeo.com/265163599

The Oak Room was the largest Charles Rennie Mackintosh interior for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms in Glasgow. The 13.5 metre-long, double-height room, designed by Mackintosh in 1907 and completed in 1908, is acknowledged as one of his key works, informing his design ideas for the Glasgow School of Art Library, which was completed a year later in 1909.

When the tearooms were removed from their original Ingram Street premises each room was numbered, each wall given a reference, and each piece of panelling coded. Plans and elevations of the rooms were drawn to show how everything fitted together.

Between 2004-5, with the help of this information, Glasgow Museums quantified and documented all surviving Oak Room panelling. This earlier developmental stage, funded by the Scottish Government, helped inform the work now taking place to recreate this breath-taking interior, lost to public view for generations.

The Oak Room will be displayed at the heart of V&A Dundee’s Scottish Design Galleries, a permanent display which will showcase the significance and relevance of design with a particular focus on Scottish achievement.

The new museum will bring touring exhibitions from the V&A and other international museums to Scotland, as well as curating its own exhibitions in future years.

Next Thursday 7 June is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

V&A Dundee opens on Saturday 15 September this year, when Mackintosh’s Oak Room will be revealed.

DM Hall to dispose of three former Aberdeenshire furniture store sites

Independent chartered surveyor DM Hall has been appointed to sell a portfolio of three Aberdeenshire retail sites following the owner’s retirement.

The sites belonged to long-established furniture retailer Cruickshanks of Huntly.

The three sites, which are available both as a portfolio or as individual units, comprise an 8,061 sq ft site at 32 High Street, Banff, for which the quoting price is £125,000; a 6,230 sq. ft. site at 23 Church Street, Buckie, at a quoting price of £200,000 or annual rental of £25,000 per annum; and a prominent 13,328 sq. ft. flagship retail unit at 30 The Square, Huntly, for which the quoting price is £275,000 and quoting rental is £40,000 per annum.

Saltire Society announces its first female president

The Saltire Society has announced the principal of the University of St Andrews, Professor Sally Mapstone, as its new president.

Professor Mapstone, the 18th president and first woman president of the Saltire Society, will succeed journalist and writer Magnus Linklater as head of the 82-year-old charity.

The Saltire Society is a champion of Scottish culture which works with emerging creatives from a variety of different industries and backgrounds, celebrates Scottish talent through its many award programmes and seeks to support emerging talents.

Tender costs approved for final phase of Inverness Town House refurb

Tender costs have been approved for the third and final phase of refurbishment at Inverness Town House.

Up to £3.3 million will be spent on full stone repairs and replacement, mortar re-pointing, roof repairs, guttering renewal and window repairs and replacements to all sections of the building, which were not carried out as part of the first two phases.

Refurbishment works during Phase 1 and 2 were funded by the Inverness Common Good Fund and Historic Environment Scotland.

Overall, the scheme aims to restore the historic A-listed building in the centre of the Inverness and secure its future for generations to come.

The tender for the final phase will now go to the Full Council for final consideration.

Views sought on Hamilton town centre revamp

Local people are being urged to give their views on plans to regenerate Hamilton Town Centre.

The draft Hamilton Town Centre Strategy and Action Plan is available online until Friday 15 June.

To take part in South Lanarkshire Council’s short survey please go to https://tinyurl.com/HAM-TC2018.

The full action plan and committee report is available here.

Council decides to pursue land purchase of Lowood Estate

Scottish Borders Council has decided to conclude negotiations with the owners of Lowood Estate with the intention to acquire the land.

A successful acquisition would enable development proposals to be brought forward in line with the Local Development Plan, which was updated by the council last year.

Councillors met yesterday to discuss the proposal, a private item at the full council meeting due to the inclusion of commercially sensitive information.

Local plans are informed by the Tweedbank Masterplan which identifies the potential for new residential and business space development on Lowood Estate, as part of a wider Tweedbank expansion proposal, which would seek to attract existing and new residents and businesses moving into the area, including those who would wish to use the nearby Borders Railway as a key transport mode.

The prospectus also identifies opportunities to expand Tweedbank village and reposition the current industrial estate as a new Borders Innovation Park.

The Tweedbank Masterplan was developed as part of the Borders Railway Blueprint Programme, and was carried out at the same time as a similar piece of work on Galashiels. Both these masterplans, which are available on the Council’s website, present a variety of proposals to encourage people to live, learn, visit and work in the area, as well as attract inward investment through public and private investment and partnership working.

View sought on Simplified Planning Zones for Argyll and Bute

Residents are being invited to find out more information and submit their views over plans to introduce Simplified Planning Zones (SPZ) in Argyll and Bute.

Argyll and Bute Council is proposing to implement SPZs at Salen on Mull and in Lochgilphead.

The initiative would allow certain homes to be built without the need to apply for traditional planning consent, making the process faster and much easier for people thinking about building their own home.

Anyone interested are now being invited to attend information and feedback-gathering events next month at the following locations:

Jacobite association objects to holiday village development near Culloden

A Jacobite historical association has formally objected to plans for a four-star holiday village and 100-seat restaurant near Culloden Battlefield.

The proposals would involve converting a small riding centre into a development incorporating 13 lodges, a cafe, shop, laundry and restaurant.

But the 1745 Association, which works to preserve the memory of those who participated in the historic rising, has lodged an objection to the Treetops development.

The location was reputedly where the government troops “saddled up” before going into battle against the Jacobite Army supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie’s claim to the throne in 1746.

Association chairman Michael Nevin said: “The Treetops proposal represents a significant threat to the integrity of the battlefield site.

“Many of our members consider this to be sacred ground, and, lest we forget, it is a war grave.”

In its objection the Association highlights that previous planning applications for small scale developments such as single houses or stables at the same site, officially within the battlefield conservation area, have been refused or withdrawn.

They argue that there is no need for this development in the area as any jobs created will largely be menial, low wage hotel jobs which they say are “plentiful.”

The Association also say that the local infrastructure is not designed to accommodate the extra traffic which would be generated by the development, that it would “compromise the conservation area” and that there are other available sites.