Donaldsons College
Completed: Ongoing
Client: CALA / Evans Restration
Budget: £89m
Refurbishment of existing category ‘A’ listed building and new crescent development in the grounds of the former Donaldson’s College to create contemporary apartments with associated underground car parking. The challenge was to sympathetically refurbish and protect the setting of William Henry
Playfair’s existing college building built between 1842-1851 but in a contemporary manner. The principal design concept of the scheme was to provide an enhanced setting to the existing building through both the new built form and site landscaping. The new built form consists of 2 blocks creating a formal crescent block, replacing the existing sporadic buildings within the grounds.
Symmetrically orientated, and broken at its midpoint in response to the protruding form of the chapel of the Playfair building, the new buildings and landscaped plinths have reinforced the setting of the existing building.
