November 10 2021

Morris Leslie Group has filed for planning permission in principle for a £33.8m leisure-led development at its West Kinfauns headquarters in Perthshire.

Comprising a 150-bed four-star hotel and lodge-style cabins the development will mark the entrance to Perth from the north with accommodation made for a proposed park and ride station as well as active travel links to the city centre.

Situated in the shadow of Friarton Bridge the development will include a museum dedicated to the evolution of transport and vehicles in the area over the past 100 years.

A master plan by ICA for the 10.5ha site sees retail, restaurant and museum elements combined in a single 1,000sq/m building, establishing a public counterpoint to the existing office block under a single pitch green roof to minimise visual impact from Kinnoul Hill.

This will be joined by a larger hotel building pushed deep into the site and angled outward to maximise the grassland landscape to the front.

In a design statement, ICA wrote: "A new Avenue is created as the main public access, offering a route into the site to directly access the hotel, shared parking and the museum, including drop-off.

"The hotel addresses the site entrance, the new Avenue and passing business from the motorway, whilst engaging with longer distance views of the river and surroundings. The museum and office are also visible from the entrance avenue and offer a public-facing elevation onto a new civic space.

"Their interaction creates a mix of more urban external spaces and enables a landscape relationship to be formed with the formal entrance avenue."

A civic space will be formed between the offices and museum in the form of a hard landscaped plaza with seating and planters, doubling as an external display and events space.

8 Comments

#1 Posted by MV on 10 Nov 2021 at 14:40 PM

Sorry. This isn't a masterplan. This is a USSR army training camp, thrown down onto a pretty site. Clearly the USSR style is back in play. This is bad guys. BAD! VERY VERY BAD.

#2 Posted by Auntie Nairn on 10 Nov 2021 at 20:50 PM

Oh, that's a shocker!

#3 Posted by Graeme McCormick on 10 Nov 2021 at 23:47 PM

Is it not a rather poor extension to Perth Prison?

#4 Posted by HMR on 11 Nov 2021 at 08:10 AM

Looks like a shipping container scheme

#5 Posted by Gordon Allan on 11 Nov 2021 at 10:29 AM

Somebody's having a laugh but it's not funny.!!

#6 Posted by Trombe Wall on 12 Nov 2021 at 09:19 AM

Hotels in Perth city centre are struggling, with some lying empty. Where is the demand for 150 beds within walking distance of nothing? Poor on all levels - more roads, more parking, additional described hard landscaping event space. Very shortsighted and to the detriment of this beautiful little spot.

#7 Posted by Spoony Chop on 12 Nov 2021 at 10:39 AM

"a proposed park and ride station." Does this mean an actual railway station?

#8 Posted by Don Diamante on 15 Nov 2021 at 16:42 PM

'Welcome to Blandville'

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