The Dunard Centre

The Dunard Centre (officially the Dunard Centre supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland and previously known as the IMPACT Centre) is a planned concert hall to be located in the city centre of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The proposed venue is currently being designed by David Chipperfield Architects, with a variation to the existing planning application scheduled for 2021. The Dunard Centre is being designed to be a world-class venue with the very best in modern acoustics and will be a venue for all kinds of music and performance: from orchestral to jazz and from pop to folk, welcoming chamber groups, soloists, bands, choirs, comedians and dance ensembles. It will be an informal cultural hub with education and community outreach central to its vision.

The Dunard Centre will be the home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and serve as a principal venue for the Edinburgh International Festival.

The Dunard Centre is expected to cost at least £75 million, of which £25 million will be contributed by the local and national governments as one of the investments facilitated by the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, £35 million from Carol Grigor, an American arts benefactor, through the Dunard Fund, and a further £15 million being raised through a fundraising campaign. The fund also agreed to underwrite any cost overruns or capital deficits in the Dunard Centre's first three years of operation.

History
In December 2016, an international design competition was announced by the international music and performing arts charitable trust (IMPACT) Scotland to be located to the rear of Dundas House, a Royal Bank of Scotland building, at 36 St Andrews Square. The area is within the New Town UNESCO world heritage site, which has seen considerable development in recent years, with new developments at 3–8, 35 and 42 St Andrews Square, as well the recent Multrees Walk and ongoing St James Centre redevelopment. Many Scottish architects, as well as much of the Scottish press and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), expressed dismay at IMPACT's decision to run the competition from London, which was seen as sidelining Scottish practices.

A shortlist of six architects was released in late January 2017, consisting of Adjaye Associates (with Sandy Brown, Buro Happold and DHA Designs); Allies & Morrison (with Charcoalblue, Speirs & Major, Harrison Stevens and Buro Happold); Barozzi Veiga (with Alan Baxter, Max Fordham, Kahle Acoustics, 3DReid and Ian White Associates); David Chipperfield (with Arup, Whitby Wood, GROSS MAX and Theatre Projects); KPMB (with Simpson & Brown Architects, David Narro Associates, Arup, Sound Space Vision, rankinfraser landscape architecture and Transsolar Energietechnik); Richard Murphy (with Arup, Graven Images, GROSS MAX and Montagu Evans). In April of that year, David Chipperfield Architects were announced as the competition's winners, along with Edinburgh firm Reiach and Hall, with a public consultation running until the 30th.

On 23 August 2018, the developers lodged their planning application with the City of Edinburgh Council. This design differed slightly from earlier renders, with the lower floors being pared back and simplified. On 24 April 2019, the Development was approved by six votes to four votes by the Development Management Sub Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council after five hours of debate.

Reception from the arts and heritage community
The centre has been attracted the attention of residents and heritage groups due to its design and location within the Old and New Town of Edinburgh, a UNESCO world heritage site:

Fergus Linehan, the head of the Edinburgh International Festival, said that "artistically and socially, it's a truly transformational project for the Festival." He went on to say the hall would provide a space or acts that would not be suitable for the city's existing concert hall, the Usher Hall, saying "If you're talking about new composers, and digital or electronic work, they don't really fit into that". The Festival hope the hall will become "an exciting place to be", which they say will make it "easier for [them] to attract new and younger audiences".

The Scottish Cultural Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, said "The economic and cultural benefits will be felt throughout Scotland."

Adam Wilkinson from the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust praised the architects for showing "a good understanding of the World Heritage Site".

The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland emphasized a need to project the existing Dundas House building, describing it as "arguably the most important town house in all of Scotland". The charity claimed the development would "detract from the historic building's character, greatly diminishing its special interest and status as the focal point of the east end of Edinburgh's New Town plan". They lodged a formal planning complaint with the Council over the Dunard Centre's "excessive scale and massing".

A local heritage group, the Cockburn Association, supported the plans, saying they "welcome the considerable effort the developers have undertaken to positively consult with a wide variety of stakeholders". The group believed the building would "contribute significantly to the artistic life of the city" and serve as a catalyst for the revitalisation of the surrounding area. The group praised a number of aspects of the Dunard Centre proposal, such as the public access through the site's ground floor lobby, although they requested legal recognition of this right-of-way for the long term, and the site's strong transport links and proximity to tram and bus stops and Waverley Station. However, the Cockburn Association stipulated a number of recommendations they had for the project that the annex block rooftops feature simple, clear roof detailing to avoid large sections of panelling, or that the building's final surface finishes be made to acknowledge the surrounding buildings’ stone exteriors. They also had concerns about concert attendees' cars overstraining parking in the New Town. They sought to encourage attendee parking within the St James Centre development, possibly through a relationship providing reduced evening parking rates. The group also proposed that there be an integration between public transport and concert ticketing, such as free bus or tram tickets being included, to encourage its usage.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival expressed an interest in holding future events in the Dunard Centre, which is located at the opposite end of George Street from their current site in Charlotte Square.

Opposition from property developers
The centre has been controversial with local businesses, however: the developers of the nearby St James Centre, TH Real Estate, lodged a complaint about the Dunard Centre's proposed lorry access, which would see daily HGV deliveries along a pedestrianised shopping street. They also criticised the building's height, suggesting it would block views from and of their W Hotel as the well the building's large size and its facade, describing it as being made "entirely of concrete". In response, the Dunard Centre's owners threatened to sue the St James Centre's developers after they distributed letters urging surrounding residents and businesses to object to the concert hall's development. The Dunard Centre's developers claim the letters were factually inaccurate and that the hall would benefit the local area. TH Real Estate also complained that the Dunard Centre had not been made to bury their building services underground, which their neighbouring development had been forced to.

Gleneagles, a local hotel, also objected to the concert hall, saying they had not been included within the planning submission's noise impact assessment. The Dunard Centre's developers released a statement saying that the concert hall and studio space would feature "high sound insulation performance" and would thus provide "effective control of noise emissions to neighbouring buildings".

Current situation
Revised planning permission was granted in 2021. Work on clearing the site got under way in February 2023. Ownership of the land was transferred to IMPACT Scotland at the beginning of 2023. In June 2024, it was announced that the construction of the building would start early in 2025, with a target completion date in 2029.