Yesterday saw the opening of the restored and refurbished National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh after a two and a half year makeover. The work has restored the listed Victorian building to its former glory, with sixteen new galleries for over 8000 exhibits, many of which will on display for the first time in generations.
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The renovated vaulted ‘basement’, which, in architect Gareth Hoskins redesign, has become the new main entrance ‘Arrivals Hall’ has presented a number of challenges to contractor Balfour Beatty. ‘To create more headroom and to connect it with the street level as well as to create a new services zone, we had to remove over three thousand cubic metres of soil,’ recalled Balfour Beatty project director Alastair Moore. ‘This meant gradually revealing the stone pile foundations below the Craigleith stone columns and then dressing them to look like the fair-faced columns themselves- it was a huge effort from the two stonemasons charged with the job,’ he explained.
The £47M project, of which £17.8M was Heritage Lottery funded, was procured using a traditional GC Partnering contract, with David Narro Associates as structural engineer and Max Fordham as services engineer. The museum is highly serviced building- this aspect alone cost in excess of £7M.
‘Having been born and brought up in Edinburgh, and knowing the building since childhood, it really has been a privilege to work on,’ said Moore proudly. ‘This really is one of the finest buildings in the city.’
