Weston Link, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh

Weston Link Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy Building, Architect, Design, Info

Weston Link : Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh

Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) & National Gallery of Scotland

Weston Link RSA

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 Edinburgh (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 Information – Jun 2003

RSA Playfair Project Article

Playfair Project : main page on the RSA building

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

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.

Edinburgh Art Galleries

National Gallery of Scotland

SNGMA + Dean Gallery

Scottish Portrait Gallery

RSA + Playfair Project

Fruitmarket Gallery

Edinburgh New Town + Edinburgh Tours

Edinburgh Restaurants

Scottish capital

Edinburgh maps

Comments / photos for the Weston Link Edinburgh Architecture page welcome