January 6 2015

TIAA Henderson Real Estate has submitted detailed plans for a ‘dense, diverse and delightful’ redevelopment of Edinburgh’s St James Centre, further fleshing out its outline proposals from 2009.Prepared by Allan Murray Architects, with BDP as executive architect and Purcell as heritage architect, the application aims to create a new chunk of city on the site of Ian Burke and Hugh Martin’s 1973 monolith.This will be demolished in its entirety save for the listed St Andrews Hall and James Craig Walk allowing excavation of an additional three basement levels with new build above centred on a glazed ‘galleria’ and a signature hotel subject to an architectural design competition, the results of which will be revealed shortly.Primary facades will be faced with stone panels with precast concrete employed for secondary elevations, above these will sit a zinc attic roof level.In their design statement Allan Murray said: “The introduction of the curved Galleria reconciles the irregularly shaped urban block of the St James Quarter with the regular urban blocks and axial ground plan of the First New Town. The continuous arc flows round from Multrees Walk to a new space adjacent to Register House, Register Square , establishes a highly appropriate geometric solution.”