BDP - Mixed-Use Development - Perth, BDP's Concert Hall Wins BCI Award
Date: 30 Oct 2006
Perth Concert Hall, designed by BDP, has won the British Construction Industry special Regeneration Award at a gala ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on 26 October 2006.
The Regeneration Award is awarded to the project, of any size, which has made a significant contribution to the regeneration of an underprivileged area and/or the creation of new facilities making exceptional use of brownfield sites.
The judges commented "Perth lost a scruffy car park and gained an attractive, well-finished, flexible and superbly equipped multi-purpose concert hall". They continued "a great result delivered by a close-knit design and build team and attracting performers and the public from far and wide."
Located in Perth's historic Horsecross, once a thriving market area but more recently marginalised, Perth Concert Hall had to accommodate the exacting requirements of orchestral performances and instrumental recitals while meeting the needs of a number of other functions demanding differing spatial formats and acoustic environments. As a successor to the ageing Perth City Hall, the new Concert Hall was also expected to act as a focus for community activities in Perthshire.
The building is viewed in the round and BDP's free form plan is a unifying response to the irregular edges of the urban fabric bounding the site. The Horsecross area has already witnessed significant urban regeneration, which includes a streetscaping project by the local authority as a result of the opening of this new facility.
At the heart of the building is a fully flexible 1,200-seat concert hall, which features uniquely configured floor lifts and movable seating wagons to provide both raked seating and a large-scale flat floor. An open glazed foyer, with café & bar, forms a new civic space conceived as an extension of the new external public square.
The client for the Concert Hall was Perth and Kinross Leisure, but both the Concert Hall and nearby Perth Theatre are managed and operated by Horsecross who not only set the artistic and commercial programme for the Hall but see themselves as playing a major role in the economic development of Perthshire.
Bruce Kennedy Project Architect said "I'm sure that Horsecross will be delighted, as are we, with this Regeneration Award as it recognises their contribution to the regeneration of Perth town centre."
The project started on site in 2003 and completed in spring 2005 under budget at a construction cost of £12.3million.
BDP was architect, interior designer and acoustic consultant.
Other members of the team were: C&S, M&E consultant and fire engineer - Buro Happold; theatre consultant - Carr and Angier; QS - Gardiner and Theobald; project manager - GTMS; venue adviser - Phil Smith, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, design and build contractor; Sir Robert McAlpine.
The new Perth Concert Hall designed by architects BDP.
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