McManus Galleries

n 2002, Dundee City Council held a limited competition for a design study on Albert Square that Page \ Park won. Key aspects of the brief were an improved setting for the grade ‘A’ listed McManus Galleries building, the need for a green lung and pedestrian respite within the city.

That process has now seen the galleries benefit from a new entrance on the south elevation on the axis of the north elevation, creating a new arrival point at the heart of the building. A new circulation core with stairs and lift connects all levels of the building.

The geometry of the new stair relates to the vesica piscis form at the heart of the building’s gothic language. The resulting sculptural form echoes that of Gilbert Scott’s circular stair adjacent to the north entrance and the sweeping external stone stair on the west façade.
Externally, McManus Galleries had become stranded on a traffic island; railings, barriers and road signs dominated the approach from the city centre making it an obstacle course to negotiate rather than an inviting prospect.