May 2 2023

A former car rental facility carved out of a B-listed Georgian terrace in Edinburgh's New Town is in line for conversion to a 51-bed hotel under plans filed by Hackland + Dore.

With much of the interior fabric at 10 Picardy Place lost with the insertion of a steel/concrete structure, with floor slabs intersecting windows, the way is clear to begin efforts to rehabilitate the building. This includes pushing floorplates 1.2m from the listed facade, establishing a void between old and new screened by a glass curtain wall that also serves to introduce light and ventilation.

In doing so the majority of existing fabric can be retained including the structure and roof, with interventions limited to introducing a rear fire escape stair within a car lift void. Localised incisions to the floor slab will also allow the insertion of a service lift and internal courtyard.

Championing this light-touch approach the applicant wrote: "This separation offers a two-fold benefit: the existing floors work independently of the façade as well as removing the visual intrusion of floors passing halfway across windows."

Extending through to Broughton Street Lane the proposals include the reinstatement of iron railings and stone entrance steps. 

1 Comment

#1 Posted by TheFakeArchitect on 3 May 2023 at 07:12 AM

Good, that whole area has become an eyesore the past decade mostly in part to the numerous infrastructure changes including the Trams (twice) and re-jigging of the road layout numerous times. I'll be amazed if they get their floor depth down to what's shown in those images however!

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