One of the most significant
construction and regeneration
projects currently under way
in the UK, and the largest city
centre development Edinburgh has seen for
decades, is dramatically altering a large part
of the Scottish capital.
Known as Edinburgh St James, the £1bn
project is replacing a 1960s shopping centre
with 79,000m2 of new retail space, anchored
by an existing John Lewis store, a five-star
W Hotel, an aparthotel, 152 prime residential
apartments, more than 30 restaurants and
the city’s first Everyman Cinema.
The completed development will help
Edinburgh climb the UK retail rankings
from 13th to number eight, while potentially,
the scheme could help the city’s tourism
spend - it is the UK’s second most visited city
after London - increase by 42%.
Work on this large city centre scheme,
which is close to Waverley railway station,
began in late 2016, with an 18-month
demolition phase of the existing buildings.
The John Lewis anchor store sits adjacent
to the site and continues to remain open
throughout the construction programme. It
is being enlarged as part of the scheme, with
a new steel-framed extension, while the main
existing parts of store will be fully-integrated
into the new retail offering.
The store has provided one of the main
challenges for the construction programme
as part of its footprint covers the site’s
basement car park.
More than 380,000m3 of earth has been
dug out to form the three-level car park that
covers the entire site’s footprint. But in the
area beneath John Lewis, a temporary works
programme was undertaken prior to this
part of the dig.
Some of the store’s concrete columns
had to be removed and the floorplates
temporarily propped, so the subterranean
levels could be excavated. A total of nine
new steel replacement columns, measuring
12m in height and each weighing 10t, will be
installed. This will involve a tricky jacking
process to be undertaken, as the floorplates
need to be temporarily supported on trestles,
to allow the new steelwork to be installed.
Once the new columns are installed the
trestles will be removed, with jacks placed at
each column location.
Adding some more complexity to the
scheme, the cinema block will be positioned
above the main John Lewis store, supported
on existing concrete columns that extend up
to level five. Above these columns, a series
of 3m-deep steel trusses will support the
cinema and its own unique column grid
pattern.
The two lowest levels of car parking have
Mixed-use
Capital
regeneration
Numerous column grid patterns, requiring hundreds of tonnes
of transfer structures, are helping to create a large retail-led
mixed-use scheme in central Edinburgh.
FACT FILE
Edinburgh St James
Main client: Nuveen
Architect: BDP
Main contractor:
Laing O’Rourke
Structural engineer:
Arup
Steelwork contractor:
BHC
Steel tonnage:
15,000t
18 NSC
April 19
/Leisure_buildings#Theatres_and_auditoria
/Construction
/Construction#Temporary_works
/Trusses