August 18 2021

BDP has marked the delivery of the first phase of the mammoth St James Quarter in Edinburgh with an insight into the urban placemaking challenges presented by one of the UK's largest inner-city regeneration projects.

Initially working alongside Allan Murray Architects at the design stage BDP's role grew to lead consultant and technical architect to deliver the £1bn project with Laing O'Rourke on behalf of Nuveen Real Estate.

A phased opening of the 1.7msq/ft centre began in June with the unveiling of a curved four-storey galleria designed to promote movement at all levels and alternate points of entry to entwine with the urban grain of the New Town. Shunning more typical retail environments the development works with the existing topography with complementary leisure uses encouraging broader activity.

Oliver Wilson, BDP architect director, said, “St James Quarter is Edinburgh’s largest development in a generation and creates a distinct area in the Scottish capital. Incorporating new and existing development, it transforms Edinburgh’s retail offering delivering an enriched social experience and creating a lifestyle destination which people will repeatedly revisit.

“Consumers are faced with a myriad of options when it comes to their leisure time and they want to spend it in a well designed, engaging and accessible place that offers them everything they want, and not simply a place to shop. Destinations need to make more efficient use of the space and work harder to meet consumers’ needs and St James Quarter does this by presenting a truly unique offer.”

Attention has now shifted to remaining shell and core works for the remainder of the development in advance of an internal fit-out including the cinema, hotel and high-level apartments above the main galleria.

5 Comments

#1 Posted by classarchitect on 18 Aug 2021 at 12:20 PM

A golden jobbie which can be seen for miles, encased in a leaky roof and bland blocks clad in CEC's default percentage of sandstone rainscreen. Fantastic, as a resident I thank you for your inspiring scheme and look forward to it weathering like, well, also poo.

#2 Posted by FHM on 18 Aug 2021 at 15:59 PM

"Consumers are faced with a myriad of options when it comes to their leisure time and they want to spend it in a well designed, engaging and accessible place that offers them everything they want..."

Not sure if Mr Wilson has actually stepped in the St James Quarter, but it is an awful layout that is extremely confusing and is not well designed. The lifts are located out of the way, and don't connect all floors with no signage and terrible lighting / mirrors in side. Fire signage direct people to emergency stairs located beside each other, and the relationship to the street is no better than the old St James Centre which arguably makes the accessibility worse than before.

There is a phrase about polishing a jobby, but I feel that perhaps has been done to death now.

#3 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 19 Aug 2021 at 09:55 AM

Low effort -- detail design seems to have been phoned in -- but half decent filler.

Apart from the "Jobby" in the middle -- somebody who really hates Auld Reekie must have signed off that building.

Honking wouldn't be the half of it -- terrible at various levels -- it makes our capital a global laughing stock.

#4 Posted by Paul on 19 Aug 2021 at 16:11 PM

Whilst this should not be akin to a hostage negotiation, could we give them two further storeys in exchange for the removal of the golden turd?

#5 Posted by Vertigo on 21 Aug 2021 at 08:35 AM

A few comments after a recent visit.
- while the height of the mall with bridges crossing over is impressive to some, the experience is quite scary for anyone not comfortable with heights.
- this is exasperated by narrow walkways at upper levels forcing you to be closer to the edge.(never mind the potential congestion)
- and as for the open entrances, strange decision for the Scottish climate imho!
- lastly, is this centre going to kill off retail on Princes Street?

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