Playfair Project Article




The Playfair Project
Two Buildings - One Vision


National Gallery of Scotland: Weston Link - image from hayes davidson

Weston Link: Brief Review
Now the landscaping is complete I do wonder whether my article for BD a few years ago should have been couched in slightly less favourable tones. The battered rusticated wall (Clashach stone) is absolutely too light and does not integrate with the existing darker stone above (RSA, National Gallery). The curious decoration atop the wall is beyond description, but not good. The landscaping which looked wonderfully simple on the drawings, is, well, simple. The token rooflight over the entry - the centrepiece to the ziggurat above - just doesn't work: if in doubt, try standing underneath it and look up. The Gallery restaurant with its stepped terraces to the gardens is a classically strong concept and works well; the cafe on the left of the entry however seems feeble.
All of which goes to show me you can't judge a project before it's 100% complete.

When the project adviser kindly showed me round for the Building Design article I was enthralled by the understated gallery refurbishment and the 'James Bond' door - a huge chunk of the stone facade that rotates to allow large artworks in. The external face of the Weston Link however is a pompous affair but one that no doubt will please many Edinburgh traditionalists (though it isn't at all traditional). I just hope it soon weathers, and mellows, as it currently sticks out like a rather sore thumb.

Adrian Welch - Mar 2005


Playfair Project - Phase II Opens
The Playfair Project opened with The Age of Titian exhibition. The underground link has been named the Weston Link.

The Playfair Link was named after William Playfair, who designed both the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy, and was designed by John Miller and Partners, established Gallery architects based in London. The Project is John Miller and Partners' first Scottish building. The £30m building is mostly hidden but the frontage to the gardens, though popular with most of the public, will prove controversial with many architects due to its heaviness and Classical leanings.

The official opening of the Playfair Project in Edinburgh took place on 5 Aug 2004, apparently eight months ahead of programme, linking the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Academy. The Playfair Project concept is similar to I.M.Pei’s underground extension to the Louvre in Paris in that it improves circulation to an existing art gallery yet makes a feature of itself. A differance between these two largely undergournd projects is that Pei's Pyramid was bold and thoroughly of its time.

With the completion of the Playfair Project Scotland now has a world-class exhibition space to take the largest international shows plus a 140-seat restaurant, a 200-seat lecture theatre, and extensive new educational information technology.

THE RESTORED ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY, EDINBURGH, PHASE ONE OF THE PLAYFAIR PROJECT, TO OPEN 6 AUG 2003

The spectacularly restored and refurbished Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, will open on 6 Aug 2003, marking the completion of the first phase of the £30m Playfair Project, the five-year scheme to restore the RSA and to link it to its sister building, The National Gallery of Scotland.
The restoration and linking of these two great 19th-century landmark buildings, designed by the architect William Henry Playfair, will give Scotland a major gallery space of international standing and will provide all of the National Galleries of Scotland with world-class education and access facilities.
The RSA building will re-open with a major exhibition of Monet’s paintings, Monet: The Seine and the Sea, sponsored by The Royal Bank of Scotland. An international exhibition of this kind would not have been possible without the restoration of the RSA. There has long been a need for a dedicated, state-of-the art exhibition space in Scotland. The National Gallery lacks the facilities to host larger travelling exhibitions under its own roof and the RSA, which has the space, has been in urgent need of repair for many years.
The 21st-century development of these Grade 1 listed buildings has been undertaken by award-winning architects John Miller and Partners. When work began in 1999, the first step was to shore up the foundations of the RSA with 350,000 litres of concrete.
The interior of the RSA, virtually untouched since 1910, has been completely renovated and upgraded with the provision of air-conditioning, temperature and humidity controls, filtration and top-class lighting. A new ‘cruciform gallery’ has been created at the lower level. The RSA will offer nearly 1500 sq metres of international exhibition space housed in 11 galleries. The elaborate stonework of the exterior, with its columns and other decorative features has been repaired, cleaned and the original railings restored.
The second phase of the Project, due for completion ahead of schedule in 2004, will house much-needed new visitor facilities in an underground link. The link will be created beneath the two buildings and a new entrance to both buildings will lead directly from the world famous Princes Street Gardens.
The link building, which will be clad in classach stone from Moray, will provide facilities essential for a gallery visit in the 21st century. It will house the Clore Education Centre comprising a 200-seat lecture theatre, seminar and education rooms and an information technology gallery. Within the link there will also be enhanced visitor services, an orientation area as well as restaurant, café, shop and cloakrooms.
The RSA and the National Gallery will be accessed directly from the link by circular staircases and lifts.
The Playfair Project is a tribute to Scottish fundraising. Over £5 million in private donations, representing over a half of the matching funds, has been raised from within Scotland, from both corporate and individuals donors.
In 2001, the National Galleries of Scotland took ownership of the RSA building from the Scottish Executive with the Royal Scottish Academy, an independent body of artists, retaining rights of occupancy in perpetuity. When the new building opens, the Royal Scottish Academy will continue to exhibit its members’ work in an annual exhibition.

Michael Clarke, Director of the National Gallery of Scotland and Director of the Playfair Project, said:
“The Royal Scottish Academy and the National Gallery of Scotland are long-standing cultural landmarks in Edinburgh. This project not only rescues the RSA from its seriously dilapidated state but will link these two national institutions with improved facilities, increased access and more gallery space to create one of Scotland’s most significant visual arts locations. We will be playing as an equal partner on the world exhibition stage once this complex has been completed.”

Ahead of time and on budget, the Playfair Project will put Scotland on the international art exhibition map with one of finest visual arts complexes in Europe.

Playfair Project: Funding
The breakdown of Playfair Project funding:
Scottish Executive: £10m
Heritage Lottery Fund: £7m
Fundraising from private and public sources: £13m, of which £10m has been raised to date.
The National Galleries of Scotland are comprised of five buildings in Edinburgh: the National Gallery of Scotland, the National Portrait Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Dean Gallery as well as Duff House in the Royal Burgh of Banff and Paxton House near Berwick-on-Tweed.

Playfair Project: Facts & Figures
Dates
5 Aug 2003 Official re-opening of RSA by a guest of honour and of Monet:The Seine and the Sea, sponsored by The Royal Bank of Scotland
6 Aug 2003 RSA and Monet exhibition open to the public
August 2004 Completion of the Weston Link and official opening of Phase 2 of the Playfair Project

Key Players
Brian Ivory CBE: Chairman of the Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland
Sir Timothy Clifford: Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland
Michael Clarke: Director of the National Gallery of Scotland and Director of the Playfair Project
Scott Robertson: Project Adviser to the Playfair Project
John Miller, Su Rogers & John Carpenter: Architects
Hon Ranald Noel-Paton Chairman, Playfair Project Campaign Council
Victoria Dickie: Campaign Director

Other Work by John Miller & Partners
Tate Gallery of British Art Millbank (London)
The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge)
Whitechapel Gallery (London)
Serpentine Gallery (London)

Architects shortlisted for the Playfair Project in 1999
Simpson & Brown (Edinburgh) and Pawson Williams (London)
Terry Farrell & Partners (Edinburgh and London)
Law & Dunbar-Nasmith (Edinburgh) and Richard Murphy Architects (Edinburgh)
John Miller & Partners (London)
Mecanoo (Holland)

Playfair Project: Major Donors & Sponsors
The Weston Family
The Hawthornden Trust
The Clore Duffield Foundation
Wolfson Foundation
Bank of Scotland
The Gannochy Trust
The Robertson Trust
PF Charitable Trust
The Royal Bank of Scotland
The Dr Mortimer & Theresa Sackler Foundation
The Dunard Fund
Cazenove
Allan and Carol Murray
The International Foundation for Music and Art
other anonymous donations

Key Artworks at the Scottish National Gallery
Velázquez: An Old Woman Cooking Eggs
Botticelli: The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child
Gauguin: The Vision after the Sermon
El Greco: Fábula
Antonio Canova: The Three Graces (shared with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London)
Monet: Haystacks
Ramsay: Portrait of Margaret Lindsay
Raeburn: Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch

Playfair Project: The Link building - Weston Link
The Clore Education Centre comprising:
200 seat Lecture Theatre
Education Room
Seminar Room
Information Technology Gallery
Cloakrooms & Schools’ Rooms
Restaurant
Cafe
Shop
Visitor cloakrooms and toilets

Playfair Project PR - Jun 2003

Edinburgh Art Galleries:
National Gallery of Scotland
SNGMA + Dean Gallery
Scottish Portrait Gallery
RSA + Playfair Project
Fruitmarket Gallery

Edinburgh New Town + Edinburgh Tours

Architecture Books




Scottish Architecture

Weston Link, RSA
Gallery Restaurant & Bar, run by Searcy's (London)
+44 (0)131 624 6580
The Weston Link includes a restaurant & bar with good views across Princes Street Gardens.
The 140-seat restaurant and 40-seat cafe bar will be open daily from 10am until 11pm (10pm Sun). The three tiers of the Weston Link restaurant view out through large expanses of glazing to Princes Street Gardens. There 40-seat Gallery café is open during gallery hours only serving coffee, cakes and light snacks




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Playfair Project
Greenpeace maintained that timber from Central African rainforests, home to chimpanzees and gorillas, was used in the Playfair Project. Doors at the project are apparently made from sapele timber, which is being pushed towards extinction due to commercial exploitation.
Playfair Project Edinburgh & North Edinburgh Arts Centre were declared 'Forest Crime Scenes' by Greenpeace on 9 Nov 2004 for apparently using timber from the endangered rainforests of South East Asia and Africa in construction work, part-funded with National Lottery money.