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Architecture judges check out new hotel

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Published Date: 06 November 2009
THE Capital's newest five-star hotel has been shortlisted for the UK's richest architecture prize.
Hotel Missoni, on George IV Bridge, joins Infirmary Street's Dovecot Studios among those in the running for the Royal Institute of Architects Scotland's Andrew Doolan Best Building award.

Opened earlier this year by the Italian fashion house of the same name, Hotel Missoni recently became the first recipient of a five-star rating for a major hotel in Scotland for four years.

The hotel was given the official rating by VisitScotland just months after opening its doors on the site of former offices for the Scottish Parliament.

It joins the Dovecot, also opened earlier this year, and the city's Niddrie Mill and St Francis Joint Primary School on the prestigious list.

David Dunbar, RIAS president, said: "Shortlisting eleven out of this year's varied and excellent submissions was no easy task.

"Scotland is enjoying a creative renaissance and that is undoubtedly true of its architecture. Our shortlist reflects the high standards which are being achieved in every contemporary building type and in restoration."



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  • Last Updated: 06 November 2009 10:59 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Buttress,

06/11/2009 12:15:22
The Missoni also was a finalist in the Building Design Carbuncle Cup 2009.

But really, it's just architects giving other architects awards so they can say they are award winning. A shortlist of the usual suspects.
2

AntiEdinburghWhingers,

06/11/2009 12:29:49
I highly doubt Allan Murray will win the RIAS Doolan award for the Hotel Missoni... It's just a concrete box with some 'pretty' bits stuck on the sides to fool both the planners and the Edinburgh public. It's not architecture.

The Infirmary Street Baths conversion is, however, an excellent piece of architecture... But my bet is on the New Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow - a very good quality piece of economical and functional, yet uplifting piece of architecture, creating superb spaces and facilities that are quite remarkable for the NHS (certainly when compared to the likes of the ERI...). Quite unlike Mr Murray's 'let's-stick-random-bits-of-wood-stone-&-glass-on-a-concrete-box-never-mind-what-the-interior-spaces-are-like" approach to commercial pap projects like we are seeing all over this city. I think the RIAS must just be having a laugh putting Hotel Missoni on the shortlist...
3

Buttress,

06/11/2009 12:38:37
Do you think that he was nominated as a consolation for not winning the Carbuncle Cup? I find it unbelievable it can be considered in the final shortlist! I don't even think the stuck on bits are pretty, even if Murray does justify it with references to history.

I dislike intensely the exterior of the Infirmary Street Baths... how to overwhelm a historic building and render it looking silly.

Yes, there are a few interesting buildings on the list.

I bet the best don't win though...

4

AntiEdinburghWhingers,

06/11/2009 13:06:58
Ha yes! And I agree that the stuck on bits are not pretty. Allan Murray's grasp of history is tenuous at best... If its just stuck on its only a reference to Disney, not historical precedent... RMJM's Midlothian County Building actually referred to Geddesian principles throughout with its linear plan - it did it subtly (possibly too subtly for many), whilst still being an honest representation of the era in which it was built, which I admire. I thought Edinburgh's planners might have moved on from the Scandic Crowne approach to the Old Town... But no.

I know what you mean about the additional storey atop the former Ladies Pool of the Infirmary Street Baths... But I would argue that it is deliberately distinct, announces that the building has found a new use, and equally that the stone plinth of the pool elevation quite robustly stands on its own merits and can hold its own... I still recognise the building as the Infirmary Street Baths, and this is borne out on the interior as well.
5

Buttress,

06/11/2009 13:53:21
I thought the RMJM building should have been retained and re-used, despite the fact many disliked it (more years would have brought acceptance I think, sad the listing attempt failed) and as a conservation area building of course it should have been, but Allan Murray 'justified' the demolition by saying it couldn't be re-used as a hotel! So that's alright then. The precedent that sets is remarkable.

Naturally, city planners will bend over backwards, sideways and any ways to appease hotel builders. It hasn't dawned yet that they are destroying the reason many wish to stay. It does seem that they are wiping away an era of buildings in order to make 'development opportunities' for their chums in the Chamber of Commerce. Some should go, but baby and bathwater etc.

However, I gather a certain politician had assured all when vacated that the RMJM building could be demolished, and it was all only a matter of going through the motions (like the report Historic Scotland paid thousands for to 'justify' not having Caltongate called-in on the grounds of 'economics'... months after the plans had been passed of course).

There's something a bit rotten in most planning departments, but City of Edinburgh Council seems at the bottom of the league, and so blatant about it. It would be good to think a few heads might roll after the Haymarket decision, but no doubt it will be business as usual.

Nope, I still don't like the baths. I have tried, but honest I can't. I don't like the lookout slot on top (has Mr F got snipers installed to repel critics?) and what some refer to as the biscuit tin on the side either.

I think it's a very insensitive and non-conservationist re-use of a listed building. I think it shouts too loudly of intervention, and spoils the street. Not subtle enough for me.

I agree that internally it's more successful.

I'm getting a softer spot for the Scandic Crown these days. Maybe it's because I've seen so much worse (AMA...) which has gone up sin
6

Buttress,

06/11/2009 13:54:13
cont
which has gone up since or is planned! It's a pity the original version was ditched, and so yes it's a large slab, but I do feel it has to also be put in its time and the context of what Begg was trying to do and had already done in the Old Town (and there is the view that it a is a 'picturesque' composition in the way Well Court was in its day).

I like the boathouse on the shortlist, although I haven't seen it other than in pictures.

(The full list is on the www.urbanrealm.co.uk website, also bdonline and AJ have pictures for anyone interested enough!)

7

gpedin,

Edinburgh 11/12/2009 15:00:51
Dear Burttress - A softer spot for the Scandic Crowne? Surely the most insensitive and overscaled building EVER built on the Royal Mile. A totally out of place and disneyfied version of Edinburgh. I'd rather the Missoni any day. And the Hotel Missoni is a steel frame - not a concrete box dear. And the whole point of the interior spaces was to create as much active frontage as possible along the street - something the Scandal Crown doesn't do. I'm so sorry they aren't bigger! Oh and a usual suspects of architects on the Doolan list - perhaps so, but it was actually AMA's first go at the award, and they were shortlisted, so well done them!

 

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