Plans submitted for £8m St Andrews Uni music centre

The University of St Andrews has lodged a planning application for a £8 million state-of-the-art new home for its music centre, which will host concerts and other events.

If approved, it hopes to begin constructing the modern facility in Queens Terrace, bordering historic St Mary’s Quadrangle, by the end of the year.

The site is currently occupied by temporary buildings and a car park, and it is intended the building will restore the historic quad and complete the neighbouring Bute Building and St Regulus Hall student residence.

The new centre will offer practice, rehearsal and teaching spaces needed by student musicians and will also incorporate a dedicated rehearsal studio, a music technology and recording suite, and a library.

It is expected that the new centre will be used by the likes of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

St Andrews aims to fund the project entirely through philanthropy and has already raised over £5m thanks to the generosity of several lead donors.

The University announced in late 2016 that it had appointed award-winning architects Flanagan Lawrence to design the purpose-built music centre.

A music centre has been run by the university in the Younger Hall for 25 years, with hundreds of students each year making music part of their degree, but a lack of soundproofing limits activities.

The new centre would include practice, rehearsal and teaching space, a studio, music technology and recording suite and a library, and

In its submission to Fife Council, the firm said: “Our plans for the music centre create a suite of spaces to act as a focal point for both the university and the community’s musical activities.

“Each space is designed to be acoustically excellent, but with flexibility and ease of use in mind.

“The quality of acoustic in these spaces will allow the musical excellence of rehearsals and performances to flourish for students, teachers, performers and audiences alike.”

The university, it said, supported a thriving culture of performing groups and events, including St Andrews Voices Festival, Byre Opera and St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra, run in collaboration with the SCO.

It added: “The new facility will support musical engagement and complement the Byre Theatre by offering the range of soundproofed spaces needed for practice, individual tuition, academic lectures and ensemble and orchestral rehearsals.”