Howden Park Centre wins Building of the Year Award
02.04.10
The Howden Park Centre in Livingston has been named Building of the Year by the Edinburgh Architectural Association. The prestigious award was announced at a ceremony in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, on Thursday 1 April.
The Centre is West Lothian's major arts venue for professional and community groups as well as for functions, conferences and other events. It follows in the footsteps of a long line of award winning Arts buildings designed by the Studios, and includes a 300 seat Auditorium, Rehearsal, Dance, and Art studios, and the new home of Firefly Youth Theatre. It was funded by West Lothian Council and the Scottish Arts Council.
Scott Turpie, Partner at NRS, said "All at Nicoll Russell Studios are delighted that the efforts of the entire Project Team have been recognised in this way. Although we work throughout the UK and have completed many successful projects across the country, in our experience this client’s commitment to enhancing Community development through access to the Arts has been a unique and defining feature of the project. Feedback from the 50,000 visitors to the building in its first year has been tremendous and we wish all at Howden Park continued success for the years ahead".
Over 40 entries were submitted to the EAA awards this year and 12 short-listed projects across 3 categories were visited by the judging panel in February. The judging panel comprised Robert Black, President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association, Professor Andrew MacMillan OBE, leading landscape architect Eelco Hooftman and Ian Stewart, EAA Council Member. Robert Black said "It is gratifying and encouraging that the profession continues to achieve such a high standard of architecture across a wide variety of building types".
Click here for some images and information about the project
The Briggait Now Complete
01.04.10
The transformation of the city of Glasgow’s old fishmarket into a vibrant new home for up to 100 visual artists and cultural organisations is now complete. Professional photography of the completed building is now underway however in the mean time please have a look at our project page which contains some of our own photographs of the building nearing completion.
*update* Professional photography now complete
Howden Park Centre on Shortlist For Building of the Year
25.03.10
The Howden Park Centre is one of only four buildings shortlisted for the "Building of the Year" category in the 2010 EAA Awards.
Click here for some images and information about the project
New Nicoll Russell Studios Website!
18.12.09
Good bye old site .. Hello new! It had all been agreed the old website was past its sell by date and in much need of being revamped. Much to our delight Dave Tipping one of our designers in his own time presented us with a working prototype for a new site and set to work on creating the finished article. Lots of new projects have been added to the portfolio pages and these will be updated on a regular basis to show the broad range of exciting new projects the office is working on. We are currently developing the staff pages to include cvs but also to provide an insight into the personality and creativeness of each individual.
NRS @ Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition 2009
14.11.09
This year NRS have a large board at the RSA Annual exhibition displaying the recently complete Howden Park Arts Centre and also a video showing a fly through animation of the proposals for a new footbridge / interchange at Telford. The Exhibition runs from the 14 Nov - 20 Dec 2009 and is a highlight of the exhibiting year. It features selected submissions from leading and emerging artists from across Scotland, as well as a number of specially invited artists and architects
Willie Watt Appointed as new DIA President
02.06.09
Congratulations Willie!! The DIA or Dundee Institute of Architects is one of six Chapters of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. It was conceived by architects from Dundee in 1884, and has grown to represent an area stretching from Anstruther in the East to Loch Earn in the West, and Glenrothes in the South to Blair Atholl in the North. The DIA celebrates its 125th anniversary this year and we are very proud that NRS Partner Willie is the new President.
Fighting the Doom and Gloom
02.05.09
Award winning Broughty Ferry architectural practice Nicoll Russell Studios is starting 2009 with a string of successes.
Doug Binnie a partner in the practice and a former Chamber of Commerce President said “there is obviously a lot of doom and gloom at the moment about the economy and in particular about the construction industry. We sensed the onset of these dramatic changes some time ago and put in place measures to insulate our practice from them. Our practice therefore developed a diversified client base both geographically and in terms of the types or size of the projects we are involved in.
“We have also adopted a policy of ‘leaving no stone unturned’ and have looked at opportunities at face value, whether they are large or small. That attitude has given us a great deal of optimism because it has illustrated to us the demand for high quality design.”
“As a result of that success we have recently been appointed as Technical Advisors to the international project management consultancy Drivers Jonas on a new £38million court building. Over the past year alone we have been invited to participate in major projects in Birmingham, Liverpool, Sunderland, Wolverhampton, the City of London and West Bromwich.”
“Our workload is deliberately very diverse so we are currently involved in major retail, arts, leisure, engineering and education projects. We have recently opened new stores for Debenhams in Blackpool and Wrexham. Closer to home our Howden Park Arts Centre in Livingston is nearing completion and our redevelopment of the Briggait, an entire urban block of Grade A listed buildings in central Glasgow has recently started on site.”
“We have recently been informed that we are short listed for the £25million refurbishment of Aberdeen Art Gallery, and we have won a competition to design a similarly sized commercial development in the City of London. We have recently completed designs for a dramatic new bridge and station in Telford, are on the short list for Edinburgh City Council’s Architectural Framework and were short listed to design Sir Ian Wood’s vision for central Aberdeen.”
“We believe that quality design is going to be a particularly important commodity during the recession, because it allows a client to differentiate what they offer from their competitors. When you consider that from the perspective of the housing, hotel, retail, or restaurant industries you can imagine the pressure tired or unimaginative brands are going to face during the recession.”
“We are looking forward to the New Year. There are undoubtedly going to be challenges throughout the year ahead, but we feel that we are well placed to combat them.”
20+ years celebration
27.03.09
A Party was thrown in the office for George Masson, Andrew McDougall and Irene Carrie to celebrate their 20 years with NRS. Each was presented with a gift as an appreciation of their dedication to the practice. Here’s to the next 20 years!
Howden Park Centre Completed!
17.03.09
NRS has yet another Arts building to add to the ever expanding list of exciting projects. The positive feedback from the client and building users has been overwhelming and has made working on such a project extremely rewarding. Please click on the image above to view a slideshow of images and some information about the project.
