Ruskin Lane Consulting Autumn 2014 | Page 7

NEWSROUND

Kelvingrove Bandstand reopens

G

lasgow's only original bandstand
has reopened following a £2.1m
project to repair and transform it
into a venue suitable for modern
use. The category B listed bandstand and
amphitheatre was built in 1924 but fell out of
use in 1999 following years of disrepair. It
became the target for vandalism and was in a
'critical' condition according to the Buildings
At Risk Register, despite its prominent
position on the edge of Kelvingrove Park.
In 2012, a partnership between Glasgow
Building Preservation Trust, Glasgow City
Council (its owner) and Glasgow Life (the
end user), began works to conserve, repair
and enhance the structure. In June 2014 the
venue opened to its first audiences and a
variety of performances as part of the
Glasgow Commonwealth Games cultural
programme have taken to the stage.

Gintautas Blaziunas
President of the
Architects’ Association
of Lithuania, visited
the AHSS offices in
Riddle’s Court on 5th
June 2014 as part of a
walking tour of the
city. He was here as a guest of the Royal
Incorporation of Architects in Scotland
(RIAS) and was accompanied by Viktorija
Žilinskaite (Baltic Business Connections) and
Mark Cousins, who acted as guide. He was
presented with some of the society’s
publications and expressed his admiration of
our volunteers’ commitment to safeguarding
Scotland’s heritage.
The Scotland's Urban Past project has
received a £1.65m grant from the Heritage
Lottery Fund. It will target people in towns
and cities and will support communities in
investigating, recording and interpreting
their local heritage. Based on the Scotland's
Rural Past project, activity will be led by
RCAHMS with a call for participants likely
to be announced in spring 2015.
Dundee Waterfront has been named
'Scotland's Best Place' in a poll as part of
the Royal Town Planning Institute’s
centenary celebrations. The poll asked
members of the public to vote for a place
that that had been “built, enhanced or
protected by planners and the planning
system within Scotland since 1914”.
Nominations from the public identified 55

Kelvingrove Bandstand © Andrew Lee

sites from which a 'top ten' shortlist was
created by a special advisory panel. The
public were then asked for their opinion
and over 3,700 votes cast. Loch Lomond
and The Trossachs National Park was
runner up followed by the West Highland
Way in third place. The awards were
sponsored by Barton Willmore and the
Scottish Government.

Village in Glasgow to the reconstruction
and extension of a black house on the Isle
of Tiree. Other winners included Clydebank
East Workshops, Knockando Woolmill, The
Birks Cinema and Advocates Close.
The mystery of who now owns Edinburgh’s
category A listed St Stephen’s Church has
been solved. Leslie Benzies, Stockbridge
resident and president of the computer
gaming business ‘Rockstar North’, has been
revealed as its purchaser, in a move that his
spokesperson described as “entirely
philanthropic”. A charitable trust has been
created and discussions with St Stephen’s
Playfair Trust, who had also submitted a bid
for the church, have begun.

The John Muir Trust is seeking a judicial
review of the Scottish Government's
decision to approve the Stronelairg wind
farm in the Monadhliath Mountains, without
a Public Local Enquiry. The charity argues
that Energy Minister Fergus Ewing's consent
for the scheme lacked the appropriate
democratic scrutiny and contradicted the
recently launched 'Wild Land Areas' map
which acknowledged the value of wild land.
Proposals are for 67 wind turbines
between 110-125m tall with the capacity to
power 114,000 homes. Objections to the
wind farm, located on the edge of
Cairngorms National Park, were received
from Scottish Natural Heritage (a statutory
consultee), Cairngorms National Park
Authority and 96 members of the public.
Highland Council's South Planning
Applications Committee voted not to
object by 11 votes to 3.

Five buildings have been shortlisted for
the Royal Institute of British Architects
prestigious Stirling Prize. Drawn from the
regional winners list, the sites are: the
Library of Birmingham, London Aquatics
Centre, Liverpool's Everyman Theatre,
London School of Economics Saw Swee
Hock Student Centre, London Bridge
Tower (The Shard) and Manchester School
of Art. The winner will be announced at an
awards ceremony on 16th October.

Correction: In the previous edition we stated
that the Forth Road Bridge was nominated for
World Heritage Site status. We should, of
course, have said it was the railway bridge, the
Forth Bridge. With thanks to Mark Watson of
Historic Scotland for pointing this out.

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in
Scotland Awards have been announced.
13 winners from 83 submissions were
chosen ranging from the multi-million
pound Commonwealth Games Athletes'

AUTUMN 2014

I

THE ARCHITECTURAL HERIT