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WELCOME TO THE SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER OF RICHARD MURPHY ARCHITECTS
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HRH The Princess Royal visits Greenock Ocean Terminal
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We were delighted that The Princess Royal visited our new building to see the highly active cruise liner terminal, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence,
During her visit, The Princess Royal met officials from Inverclyde Council, Peel Ports Clydeport, members of the board of the George Wyllie Trust, staff from Scotts Greenock restaurant and volunteers with the Inverclyde Tourist Group. Also in attendance was Minister Donald Cameron a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland, representing the UK government.
The first liner of the new season docks on the 26th April and will be followed by at least a further 50 liners this season meaning that approximately 150,000 passengers will be passing through the building. |
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| The Wyllieum section of our Greenock building opened with a huge party on Thursday April 25th. There were speeches by the Michael Dale (George Wyllie Foundation Chair), Murray Grigor and the official opening by the Provost of Inverclyde and these were interspersed with the “Paper Boat” song, sung and played by the Glasgow ukulele band and Liz Lochhead reading out her wonderfully moving poem “A Wee Multitude of Questions,” written originally for George’s 75th birthday. Everyone was complimentary about the building with the Provost calling it the most important building built in Greenock for some time. |
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Blenheim Place, Edinburgh
planning application lodged for a new house
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A new two storey house is proposed on a strip of derelict land on the south side of Blenheim Place. From the street, the house appears to be an anonymous single storey ashlar wall continuing the plinth of the adjacent church but from the garden to the south the house is two storeys with all the rooms facing south. Living spaces on the upper level are arranged around a roof terrace. The site is being developed by CSG Projects Limited. A new webpage has been created for the project.
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We are delighted that St Marys Music School (for whom we previously worked as part of the first project at the Royal High School) have asked us to look at various feasibility studies as to how they might develop the school in the future. |
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National Centre for Music
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The National Centre for Music project at the former Royal High School has reached the joint milestones of completion of RIBA stage 3 for the developed design and the submission of a revised planning and listed building application following engagement with Historic Environments Scotland and CEC Planning. The project now features an extensive landscaped garden designed in conjunction with award winning landscape architect Tom-Stuart Smith. The main architectural change is the foyer design where as much as possible of the existing vaulted spaces are being re-used. Work is now underway with the Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) to appoint a main contractor as part of a two-stage procurement process, and undertake an advanced works contract to further examine the existing fabric and structure of the Grade A listed Hamilton School building. This will help prevent any further degradation from water ingress and facilitate new works within the basement areas, prior to a formal start on site for the main works in early 2025.
Our website has been updated to show our revised designs. |
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Portal, Trinity College Dublin's Innovation Hub
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In Dublin, the reconfigured space of the original warehouse is starting to take shape with the rebuilt roof structure now complete and internal steel stairs in place.
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Papple Steading, Haddington
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Work is progressing well on the site, scaffolding has now come down to reveal the rebuilt doocot roof now completed and topped of with a new replica weathervane, which replaces the original which was beyond repair. The stable roof is virtually completed, awaiting the terminal to the top of the newly installed vent to replicate the original design. Works are expected to be completed early to mid-summer. |
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At Macmillan Hub the overall building envelope is approaching completion and internal fit out of the Nursery and Library spaces is progressing well. Image shows the ground floor nursery playroom and view to the future garden outside. |
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Richard visited the island at the invitation of the Isle of Man Society of Architects and gave two back to back lectures on the work of the practice followed by a talk about his studies of Carlo Scarpa. The Society booked the Market Hall Centre in Douglas which was packed for the occasion. Thanks to all those who made it such a memorable visit. Picture by Mona Devereau. |
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| Richard will be lecturing to the Tweedale Society at the Eastgate Centre in Peebles about the Eastgate centre in its 20th anniversary year! The lecture will be on Tuesday 3rd September, 2024. More details in our next newsletter. |
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| The Wyllieum opening in Greenock on the 25th April was well reported; the Guardian, Herald, Scotsman, Times, BBC, National and the Greenock Telegraph all reported. Claire Henry in the Herald, 26th April 2024, said of the building, “This sleek modern building designed by award-winning architect Richard Murphy, is a triumph…. George Wyllie would have been delighted.” |
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ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY NEWS
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We have two projects showing in the RSA Annual Exhibition this year. They are the proposed house in Blenheim Place and the completed projects at the former Donaldsons School. We understand that both projects there, the renovation of the Grade A listed building for City and Country and the new build crescent for Cala homes are both complete and all apartments have been sold. The two projects represent our largest housing development to date. The website pages for The Playfair and The Crescent has been updated with recent photographs.
Richard is also the RSA Academician hosting this year’s Metzstein Discourser, and writing the commemorative booklet. The discourse will be happening on 16th October, 2024, in the new Edinburgh University Futures Institute (the former Royal Infirmary) on Lauriston Place. The identity of the discourser should be revealed in a few weeks’ time when tickets will also go on sale. This is the tenth year of the Royal Scottish Academy Metzstein Architecture Discourses founded by the Academy in memory of Isi Metzstein, architect, teacher and former RSA secretary. Previous discoursers have been Alvaro Siza, Glenn Murcutt, Peter Zumthor, Sir David Chipperfield, Grafton Architects, Snohetta Architects, Herman Hertzberger, Raphael Moneo and Xaveer De Geyter. |
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Rivistando Carlo Scarpa e Castelvecchio
book launch in Verona
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The Italian language edition of Richard’s Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisited, translated by Simona Manca, will be officially launched on Wednesday 29th May at 5.30pm in the garden of the Castelvecchio Museum. There will be short speeches by the Councillor for Culture, Marta Ugolini, the Director of the Verona Civic Museums, Dr. Francesca Rossi, the architect Guido Pietropoli and from Richard. If anyone is in the vicinity and would like us to organise an invitation, please contact the office. |
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Ten Houses by Richard Murphy
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The book is selling well both on the internet and in bookshops. In Edinburgh these are: The RIAS in Rutland Square, Topping, Leith Walk, Stor in Broughton Street; in London at the RIBA bookshop, and in Dublin the RIAI bookshop in Merrion Square. |
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We normally conclude with an upbeat item but this newsletter finishes with two very sad pieces of news with the passing of two very important people in the development of the practice.
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Marion Blythman (1926-2024)
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Marion Blytheman (1926-2024) was our very first client and passed away, aged 98, on the 10th February. She commissioned a garden room on the rear of 29, Inverleith Gardens, completed in 1991. It was our first completed project and the recipient of our first RIBA award and the Edinburgh Architectural Association Silver medal. Marion was very proud of both. She remained a firm friend of the office and came to all our parties where she enjoyed introducing herself to everyone with the words ”I discovered him”! Her remarkably long and very active life was an inspiration. Her garden room we believe has an importance way beyond its size and we are currently applying to Historic Environment Scotland to list it. We are sure Marion would approve. The picture shows Marion outside the front of Number 29. |
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Oliver Chapman (1969-2024)
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Oliver Chapman (1969-2024) died of cancer in March at the early age of 55. He worked in our practice in our early days from 1993 until he left to set up his own practice in 1997. When he joined, he was a student fresh out of the Mackintosh School and the practice consisted of just Oliver and Richard! Gradually we acquired more work and more colleagues and he was involved in the competition success of our design for DCA in Dundee, the housing which became known as the “ Dublin colonies,” the house in Joure in the Netherlands, the competition entry for Jesus College Cambridge and the first Maggie's Centre. After he set up his own practice we watched with admiration as he produced one beautiful building after another and received many awards. The photo shows Oliver in our Blair Street office.
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