Queen's Cross, Aberdeen
Client : Queen’s Cross Parish Church
Location : Aberdeen
Value : £1.2m
Completion Date : April 2018
Awards: Winner of the Award for Regeneration at the 2019 Aberdeen Society of Architects annual Awards.
High Commendation in Re-Use of a Listed Building category at Scottish Design Awards 2019.
Queen’s Cross Church near the centre of Aberdeen is an impressive A listed Victorian building with a range of different facilities for church and community use.
The church members are keen to make better use of these facilities and to increase their community presence in the locale. At the core of this idea is the need to make the building more accessible, more inviting and more user friendly.
The current proposals reorganise and modernise the church accommodation around a new transverse circulation route joining new entrances on both Albyn Place and Carden Place. These new thresholds provide a distinct change to the exterior of the building and allow views into the building from the street.
Making the building complex fit for purpose is the driving idea for the project but as a consequence a further set of priorities follow on, including relocation of the nursery, the creation of a coffee house, reorganisation of the main hall and improved landscaping.
“Lee Boyd Architects were engaged by Queen’s Cross Church Aberdeen to design and supervise a major redevelopment of our halls. Lee Boyd won the commission in a competition and worked closely with us to turn our vision in to a reality. We wished to make our building much more inviting to the community and we needed to provide a children’s nursery and a modern coffee house as well as bright and inviting meeting spaces.
The redevelopment had to be done in the context of a Grade One listed building and within the usual constraint of a very tight budget. As chair of the redevelopment steering group I am delighted to say that Lee Boyd listened to our objectives as a congregation and translated these to a first class and practical design within budget.
To achieve that Lee Boyd established an excellent relationship with the congregation and the successful contractor to deliver the £1.2m project within 2 per cent of the approved tender price.
I would thoroughly recommend them for their architectural flair, responsiveness, practicality and massive commitment and care which went way beyond a normal contractual relationship in pursuit of our vision”.
Alan Campbell, chair of project Steering Group