Approval for luxury hotel as part of £850m Edinburgh scheme
by Jason Holland | 06 Jul 2015
Planning permission has been granted for a major mixed-use development in Edinburgh, UK, which will see a luxury hotel, 30 restaurants and a multi-screen cinema created.
Allan Murray Architects and BDP masterplanned the £850m ($1.3bn, €1.2bn) Edinburgh St James scheme which is located in a World Heritage Site at the Scottish city’s St James Quarter.
The five-star hotel, designed by London-based Jestico & Whiles as the centrepiece of the project, will feature up to 210 bedrooms, as well as a 41,000sq ft (3,809sq m) apart hotel that has the potential to provide 70 suites. The practice envisages a hotel that appears as a bundle of ‘coiled ribbons’, creating a “free-flowing and bold” building.
The new development as a whole will take up 160,000sq m (1.7m sq ft) and replace a 1970s shopping centre. Retail space comprising 70,000sq m (753,474sq ft) and up to 250 new homes will also be created.
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Developer TIAA Henderson Real Estate is behind the scheme, which revolves around an open air galleria street intended to create a series of refined public spaces and squares.
Allan Murray Architects’ and BDP’s design is influenced by Edinburgh’s classical geometry of crescents and circuses, and will complement the city’s “sophisticated architecture, character and history”.
Heritage architect Purcell will take the lead in the design of the parts of the development which feature listed buildings – the Mansion Capital building and St Andrews Hall – while OPEN is the landscape architect on the development.
Although outline planning consent was granted in 2009, the scheme was put on hold in 2012. However, with planning permission now in place construction work is expected to begin later this year, with completion scheduled for 2020.
Allan Murray Architects and BDP created the masterplan for the scheme Credit: Edinburgh St. James and Jestico + Whiles
Jestico & Whiles’ luxury hotel of ‘coiled ribbons’ forms the centrepiece of the development Credit: Edinburgh St. James and Jestico + Whiles
Planning permission has been granted for a major mixed-use development in Edinburgh, UK, which will see a luxury hotel, 30 restaurants and a multi-screen cinema created. Allan Murray Architects and BDP masterplanned the £850m ($1.3bn, €1.2bn) Edinburgh St James scheme which is located in a World Heritage Site at the Scottish city’s St James Quarter. The five-star hotel, designed by London-based Jestico & Whiles as the centrepiece of the project,
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