Officials Announced Winners for RICS Scotland Award 2009

On the 21st of April, official committee announced the winners of a Scotland’s top property award. To get the RICS Scotland Award 2009, the finest properties competed in four categories. The committee of judges consisted of Scotland’s leading chartered surveyors and property professionals. The winning of this award gave the sites chance to take part in competition for the overall Scottish and then global award. As it was mentioned before, there were four categories in this award: Sustainability, Building conservation, Regeneration and Community benefit. The winner of the first category – Sustainability - is Potterrow, Edinburgh University, which was a bare site for many years but now is a part of the University’s George Square campus. The Schools of Informatics and Philosophy, Psychology and Language Science are situated here. Also, Loch Lomond National Park HQ, Balloch was highly commended in this category for its’ Carrochan – a two-storey building where National Park staff lives. This building has a biomass heating system and is built with the use of natural materials. An award for Building conservation went to Stanley Mills, Stanley, Perthshire. This is a complex of one of the oldest surviving water powered cotton mills on the banks of the River Tay. Nowadays they not only house a factory but also provide a visitor attraction and officis for Historic Scotland. Commendations in this category were received by Castlemilk Stables, Glasgow; Blackburn House, West Lothian and King's College Crown Tower. Catlemilk Stables was an agriculture estate established by the Stuart family in fifteenth century, and the stables themselves were built in 1790. The premises were converted into a local community space by the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and now the building provides a lot of facilities such as office space, children’s nursery and others. Blackburn House, the Palladian manor house built by George Moncrieff as a gateway to Blackburn, a town also built by Moncrieff. Now this building is a centre for the creative industries and houses numerous studious. King’s College Crown Tower is one of the most famous sightseeing in Aberdeen which symbolises the heart of the ancient University, the High Street, and the conservation area of Old Aberdeen. Recently, this important symbol and landmark has been finally restored. In Regeneration category the winner is Lochgelly Miners Institute which was developed as a centre for community education and development. The Steeple, Newburgh got a Commendation for being converted into six affordable artists studious and a community arts centre by Wasps Artists’ Studios – the owners and developers. And the forth award for Community benefit was received by Castlemilk Stables, Glasgow. Highly Commended was Garrison House, Millport. This 18th Century Gothic Revival building is situated on the island of Cumbrae and it was destroyed by fire in 2001. It was supposed to be demolished but a local development company managed to redevelop it in 2007. Today Garrison House attracts visitors and provides different facilities such as local museum, library, surgery and council services. According to the director of RICS Scotland, all the entrants to this award were of a very high quality and many of them contributed positively to the local area. Thus, many good examples of Scotland’s historical properties were brought back to life by these projects, and new buildings were developed utilising the latest technologies.