Arts & Culture \ Speculative Reconfiguration of the St Andrew Square Concert Hall Design, Edinburgh

A Reconfiguration of the St Andrew Square Concert Hall Design

After the completion of the RBS Gogarburn HQ, architects Simon Laird and Richard Murphy proposed to place a new 1000 seat concert hall behind the St Andrew Square HQ with the RBS repurposed as foyer and concert hall entrance. The bank then intimated that they might share the building but later they restored it and decided to continue in their current form. But we believe that the new design should be ready for the moment that they either leave or decide to share their building.
This design modification shows the proposed auditorium completely untouched. However, it is moved in plan allowing construction of a major new foyer. It is also lowered in section with most of the plant moved from basement to the roof. Consequently, there are significant savings on both excavation and expensive frontage. The “provisional” entrance is on the north side via a garden. Fountains direct an audience there. Eventually, the banking hall could be joined to the concert hall foyer by removing its rear wall and the main entrance revert to the St Andrew Square front door leaving the garden for the café. Combining old and new foyer spaces would make for one of the most spectacular architectural interiors in Edinburgh. The secondary hall (no longer part of the design but we understand important for the business plan) could either be built now or as a phase 2. There is no room in the current proposals for this. The combined building could operate during the day as a superbly located conference centre subsidising the evening concerts in the same way as found at the Kings Place development in London.
We offer these thoughts in a spirit of attempting to assist in bringing this important public project to fruition.