Top property award for Inverness school and family centre
Merkinch Primary School and Family Centre has been announced as the winner of the Development of the Year for a Public Building at the Scottish Property Awards held in Glasgow last night.
Finlay MacDonald, Highland Council’s Head of Property & Facilities Management said: “This is really good news for the local Merkinch community, the Highland Council and the complete Project Team (Robertson Group and Norr Consultants, The Highland Council, W A Fairhurst and Pick Everard).”
The first phase of the project, comprising a new school building, opened in October 2020. The new building includes 14 classrooms, ancillary teaching areas, a three-room nursery to support the delivery of 1,140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare, nurture rooms, and a games hall.
Work on the second phase was completed in November 2021, which saw the refurbishment of the original school building to provide new kitchen and dining facilities for the school and accommodation for Merkinch Family Centre.
The project is funded through the Council’s capital programme with support from the Scottish Government’s investment programme (Scotland’s Schools for the Future) managed by Scottish Futures Trust.
He added: “Merkinch Primary School and Family Centre was up against some top contenders in their category, so, this is a huge achievement.”
The finalists in the Development of the Year (Public Buildings) category were:
- Calderwood Primary School, West Lothian - Hub South East & West Lothian Council
- Glasgow Queen Street Station - Balfour Beatty
- Greenock Health and Care Centre - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, hub West Scotland and Hoskins Architects
- Merkinch Primary School & Family Centre, Inverness - Robertson / NORR Consultants
- Provost Skene's House, Aberdeen - Aberdeen City Council & Halliday Fraser Munro
- University of Aberdeen Science Teaching Hub - Robertson Group
The award for Merkinch was one of 18 presentations made to commercial and public property and developments at the Scottish property industry’s largest awards competition.
The independent judging panel of 20 industry experts and professionals assessed and deliberated over 60 entries in the categories this year.
Alan Robertson, Chair of the Judging Panel, commented;
“On behalf of the judging panel, I congratulate all the finalists and winners in the 9th annual Scottish Property Awards. Reflecting on the judging this year, the process has again been very rewarding as, despite the many restrictions in place throughout the last twelve months, there is a very satisfying strength and depth in Scottish commercial real estate. I would like to express thanks to the judging panel for their time, consideration and advice in reviewing and debating the merits of each entry.”
View the winners in full here https://www.scottishpropertyawards.co.uk/spa/winners/winners-2022