Modern building: photo © adrian welch sep 2006 with lumix camera

Edinburgh College of Art is based in Edinburgh's Old Town and is one of the oldest and largest Schools of Art in Europe. The College is located in three Edinburgh campuses: Lauriston Place, Grassmarket and Inverleith.


photo © adrian welch sep 2006

Description:
The Drawing Academy of Edinburgh, was founded in 1760 and later became
(what is now known as) Edinburgh School of Art, formally founded in 1906, when it commenced relocation to Lauriston Place. The School joined with Heriot-Watt University in 1968, hence the School of Architecture was called Heriot-Watt School of Architecture for many decades.


Modern building: photo© adrian welch sep 2006

Edinburgh School of Art is by J M. Dick Peddie and George Washington Brown, 1906-1909. It is in a very heavy Beaux-Arts style, notably the south-facing entry to a grassy court. The College is built in old red sandstone – a sign in Edinburgh generally of a late Victorian building, such as the Caledonian Hotel.


photo © adrian welch sep 2006

History:
Edinburgh College of Art was listed Category A in 1970. The design is credited specifically to J M Dick Peddie, with input from James Forbes Smith and George Washington Browne. It was built in1906-9 as a 'two-storey and attic' symmetrical Beaux Arts building with mansard-roofed angle pavilions. Constructed of red sandstone ashlar, the school was built on the site of the Municipal Cattle Market. The view from Johnston Terrace and the Castle Esplanade were considered important, and the high French roofs were intended to make a picturesque contribution to the city skyline. The college was built round two rectangular courts. The western court (roofed over 1925) containing a glass pavilion for pleinair painting, the eastern the double-height sculpture court intended to house the collection of Antique casts; casts of the friezes from the Parthenon line the walls of the corridor.


photo © adrian welch sep 2006

Also by Dick Peddie and George Washington Brown:
Standard Life Assurance: Corner Block, George Street / St Andrew's Square
1897-1901

Edinburgh College of Art: RMJM Award for Art and Architecture

To the south-east of the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is the Architecture Building (1961) designed by the ECA Professor of Architecture, Ralph Cowan.
A decade later Edinburgh College of Art returned to old red sandstone with The Hunter Building, at the southern edge of the site, onto Lauriston Place, (1972). ECA's Inverleith campus & the School for Drawing, Painting & Sculpture - is next to the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

Contact Edinburgh College of Art: +44 (0) 131 221 6072

Edinburgh School of Art : Westport

Edinburgh Castle



Scottish Architecture: best scottish buildings of the last three decades

Edinburgh College of Art Talks

Edinburgh News : back to index



Edinburgh College of Art context - Lauriston Fire Station


Edinburgh College of Art - RMJM Architecture Competition

Edinburgh College of Art - Website: www.eca.ac.uk

Adjacent buildings include Evolution House - in 2006 Edinburgh College of Art took space in this building

Edinburgh College of Art : Evolution House

Comments / photos for the Edinburgh College of Art Architecture page welcome:
info@edinburgharchitecture.co.uk

Edinburgh School of Art Building : page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt