New Hotel Plans for Royal High School Building Revealed
Developers looking to transform the old Royal High School building in Edinburgh into a hotel insist they've listened to critics when revising their plans.
The original design was slated by conservation groups for being too modern - and not fitting in with the surrounding area.
Gareth Hoskins, the architect for the project, says the new designs respond to concerns raised by hertiage organisations and the public earlier in the year. He said, "What we have tried to do is very much listen to what people have said and really respond to those. We've heard those comments. I think that was very much about making sure that the original high school buildiong reamined very much the prominient building on the site."
The number of rooms the hotel will hold has descreased to 147
Mr Hoskins continued, “The design focuses around an informed restoration of the central Hamilton-designed building, repairing its decaying fabric and maintaining the strong sculptural presence of its frontage without intervention. The existing building will be entirely given over to the public areas of the new hotel allowing its spaces to be fully accessible for the first time in the building’s history.
“Set away from the original building are two new wings containing the hotel’s bedrooms. Their organic shape with landscaped terraces and undulating copper façade, inspired by the layered volcanic landscape of both Calton Hill and nearby Salisbury Crags, allow the new wings to blend with the surrounding hill. The contrast of the form and colour of the new elements, together with the considered approach to the landscaping of not just the site but the streetscape around the former high school, allow this hugely important building to retain and reinforce its prominence as a key Edinburgh landmark. The proposed design will create not only a setting appropriate to the stature of the building but, along with other initiatives such as Collective Gallery within the observatory, it should also bring about a level of change that allows Calton Hill to once again become an active and vibrant destination and place within Scotland’s capital city.”
The plans have been submitted to Edinburgh City Council for consideration, with a decision expected in December.