Urban renaissance 

The Burrell Company's objective is to employ excellence in design within the wider concept of sustainable development.  The company has initiated projects which have made a considerable contribution to the environmental renaissance of our cities. Many projects have received awards including Civic Trust, RIBA Architecture, RIAS Regeneration and Saltire.

Andrew Burrell studied architecture and planning at the Architectural Association in London and at the University of Edinburgh. He worked as a consultant in both the public and private sectors in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh prior to forming Scotland's first professionally recognized architect/developer company in 1980.

Andrew tells us more about his start in property development and the way in which his business has grown and developed...

"My then partner Andy Doolan and I began Kantel, an architectural design practice but soon decided that we would prefer to develop our own projects, rather than work for others," he says. "Our first opportunity came in the early eighties when Edinburgh Council decided to sell properties, often situated in conservation areas, that were derelict or had been seriously neglected for the previous 20 years. We bought one of the first blocks of properties offered for sale at West Crosscauseway/Buccleuch Street."

There was very little interest from traditional builders at that time, they were not interested in converting or restoring existing buildings, preferring to demolish and start again. There were traditional inner city tenement properties which the Council's Estates department thought were unsellable. However, it had been shown in other areas of the UK that successful conversion was possible and there had been a series of initiatives from central government to encourage conversion and restoration, which were not appreciated by Edinburgh until the late 1970s.

Fortunately, says Andrew, the Council's Planning Department moved towards trying to preserve older buildings. "The project was a huge success, and sold in one and a half hours," he continues. "We were surprised by the profile of the buyers, having thought that we would attract the young, first time buyers, we found that many were older people, keen to come back into the city, from which they had been moved by the Council many years before."

The Council released additional stock onto the market and more properties were refurbished. "The Burrell Company bought another two or three sets of property from the Council," says Andrew "then moved on to buying mostly from private owners and to properties that we converted to residential from other uses and to new build such as the Upper Strand development which is one of our current projects."

Andrew highlights three new build and three traditional projects as the ones of which he is proudest: the Tron in Edinburgh's Old Town, Homes for the Future in Glasgow's East End and Upper Strand at the Waterfront showcase the potential of new build developments while the Brewery in Calton Road, No 1 Parliament Square in Edinburgh and Park School in Glasgow demonstrate what can be done to convert  older non-residential buildings into attractive living spaces.

The Tron development, designed by Richard Murphy, fitted apartments, restaurants and commercial space into a complex piece of the Old Town of Edinburgh. Homes for the Future, designed by MacKeown Alexander and  Ushida Findlay, showed what could be done in a devastated area in the East End of Glasgow and set an example for future developments. The Upper Strand, designed by two architectural firms - Reiach and Hall from Edinburgh and Elder and Cannon from Glasgow - is the first site released at the Waterfront in Edinburgh. This development brings together many of the ideas which have been important to The Burrell Company for a number of years and demonstrates the importance of an integrated Masterplan, ensuring everything is built in a context.

The brewery in Calton Road in Edinburgh was one of the earlier company's first conversions of commercial into residential use. When the project was completed in the early 1980s, this type of change of use was practically unheard of, and Andrew is justifiably proud of the leap of faith the company took to make such developments as successful and popular as they are today. The conversion of Park School in Glasgow gave a much needed boost to the Park area of Glasgow and kick started its regeneration as a residential area after long- term office use.

Finally, Mr Burrell highlights the Parliament Square development in Edinburgh, which marries the old with the new. This conversion of a former police station into homes, offices, shops and a café is a "half and half" development - where there is a lot of existing period detail, it will be preserved and highlighted, where there is not, a more contemporary feel is designed into the space. "We aren't interested in pastiches of old buildings," says Andrew. "If the space does not warrant it, we won't impose period style."

The most important aspect of choosing a project is "excitement" says Andrew. "It might be a difficult project to achieve or it might be a fine building or a fine site - Ramsay Gardens in Edinburgh is a prime example. An awkward site is a challenge to us to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Obviously we have to make it work financially but we also need to get a kick out of it as well. Equally, we like to work with partners and have various successful ventures - Buredi (with the EDI Group), Premier Burrell (with the PPG Group), Upper Strand (with Places for People) and Burrell Inpartnership (with the Inpartnership Group)."

The next challenge for The Burrell Company is expansion. "We would like to gain a foothold in every Scottish city," says Andrew "and work in each of them regularly. We have also started to work in the North of England and plan to expand this geographical development as well. This will have an implication on finances but Raymond Ross, the Finance Director, has more than fifteen years experience of successfully financing Burrell projects."

"The competition is stronger now," he continues, "in what was very much our niche market. That's positive because it keeps us on our toes, making sure we stay one step ahead. Others are beginning to realise that good architecture can add value, which was not always the case - housebuilders traditionally did not use architectural practices, then they began to use the very commercial ones and have now come round to the more creative and perhaps less traditional approach that we have always adopted. We are very fortunate to have John Forbes as one of our directors - he makes sure that we stay ahead  of the pack."

It is difficult for someone so involved in property and construction to isolate just one or two favourites, but focusing on those recently visited, Andrew would highlight, as with his company, a mix of new and refurbished. "For  a classical slant - Palladio's Il Redentore church  in Venice, for the 20th century - the brilliant remodelling of Casa Batilo in Barcelona by Gaudi and the striking modernism of Burnham's Flat Iron building and Mies van der Rohe's Seagram - both in New York and shortly to be revisited. A contemporary block buster would be Moneo's Museum of Roman Art in Merida, Extremadura." An eclectic mix, indeed!

His dream development is finding a site or a property in the centre of Edinburgh and packaging a mix of uses in an exciting way to create a microcosm of the city in one building, incorporating a new office space for The Burrell Company utilising all the skills and experience that the company has built up in its work to date.

Rettie & Co Ltd. Registered in Scotland No SC144330.

Registered Office Deuchrie, Dunbar, East Lothian, EH42 1TG.

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