Riach Partnership

The primary steel for the roof is now fully installed and, with the decking at second floor level now in place, one is afforded a full sense of the character and proportion of these new spaces within the roof volume.

With the purlins in place, the Contractor has commenced work on sheeting the sloping surfaces of the roof with the plywood substrate ready for the installation of the slate roof covering.

In the coming days, the conservation rooflights will be installed and the metal sheet decking to the flat portion sof the roof will complete the envelope.

Elsewhere, the stone pediments to the front elevation are being erected with a mixture of new stone and stone from the fire damaged building.

With the installation of the steelwork to form the new roof at Lilybank Terrace, the full volume of the building is once again evident. With this now in place, the stone pediments at high level on the front elevation can be rebuilt together with the new section of rear wall in what will be the final main elements of the external works within the contract.

Thereafter the remainder of the stone repairs, conservation rooflights, windows and slates to the roof will push the build nearer completion with the Second Phase fit out to follow in due course.

Our project for 35 Elderly Amenity units on the corner of Butterbiggins Road and Cathcart Road starts on site today, August 1st 2011. The 60 week contract with CCG Limited for Govanhill Housing Association brings the realisation of a project that has been in our office for a few years. Due to cost implications and a prolonged planning process the project site start has been delayed on more than one occasion.

We are delighted to see all the hardwork by the team pay off and look forward to bringing regular updates on site progress in the coming months.

As the Shell and Core contract continues on site, our attention has, in recent weeks, turned to the production of fit out drawings for the Second Phase of the project. The main areas to tackle include the common entrance areas and corridors, internal stairs, doors, mezzanines and balustrading, internal features and window surrounds.

Our initial package of information will be discussed with the client next week and the specification will be determined.

Elsewhere on site, the second floor steelwork is now in place and the stone for the high level window surrounds has been ordered. We are now more than half way through the contract and the next phase of work should see the roof steelwork installed and the stone repairs concluded.

As the new structure within the old building continues to take shape, the last few weeks have also seen the external fabric of the building progress. The Conditions of the Planning and Listed Building Consent called for Petrographic Analysis and Stone Matching of the existing stone before any new stone could be selected. Samples of both the front and rear facades were sent for testing and, on completion of the analysis, Whitton Fell was selected as the stone to be used. This will be used throughout the front, gable and rear elevations for indents and replacements.

Elsewhere, we have carried out a full survey of the salvaged stone which will be reinstated at high level to form the six window surrounds. This stone fell from the building due to the damage caused by the fire and G Hillan Masonry have done an excellent job in piecing together the stones to allow us to assess what can and cannot be reused. A series of drawings were produced which identified the condition and staus of the individual stones to allow an accurate picture to be formed of the level of replacement stone required.

The giant stone jigsaw puzzles will be lifted into place in the coming weeks to allow the final connections with the new steelwork for the roof to be determined.

We visited Kilcreggan this week as we continue to develop ideas for the GIA Design Competition which seeks proposals for the village. Although we didn't see it at its finest due to inclement June weather, the visit got the ideas flowing and the design review which followed back at the office certainly benefited from the trip down.

The competition brief asks for ideas on attracting and retaining business and tourism as well as proposals for improvements to the fabric of the settlement and how Kilcreggan can make the most of its location.

We also took delivery this week of the book "Firth Piers" by Tom Witham of Dress for the Weather. Tom worked with us during his Part 1 Year Out and again during his Post Graduate studies and the book is a beautiful journey tracing the old steamboat piers at the Clyde Firth. It certainly has provided a lot of inspiration for our competition entry so far.

The submission deadline is July the 18th and we will be posting our submission images in due course.

For long enough, a visit to the B-Listed terrace brought with it an uninterrupted wander through all three townhouses. There were no floors, no roof, no windows. The only clues of former uses were the odd wall covering or sign. The extensively fire damaged terrace lay empty, and in need of refurbishment.

Five months into the first phase of this refurbishment sees a building well on the way to recovery. The site is crawling with activity: the new steel frame to all three townhouses is being erected, stone masons carefully prepare templates for the new stone lintels, mullions and cills, scaffolding now shrouds the building and the next lift of metal decking sits, ready to be assembled to receive the first floor slab.

As work continues apace on the inside, now begins the painstaking process of surveying every piece of existing stone to determine the condition of the outer walls before moving on to rebuilding the areas worst damaged by the fire.

Rikki and Derek have both been involved with Design Reviews at the Architecture Department, University of Strathclyde this month.

Rikki was invited to guest on the review panels for the 3rd Year Urban Housing Project, which challenged students to develop masterplan and detail design proposals for medium density housing in the East End of Glasgow. The project forms a significant portion of the RIBA Assessment Criteria for the Part 1 exemption and submission requirements included structural principles, strategic, environmental solutions and architectural space making.

Derek, in his role as Studio Design Tutor, reviewed the 1st Year "Room with a View" project which encourages students to consider a single volume space with a direct link to its rural context brought about by the creation of a specific aperture and resultant view. This project was presented as the main focus of an Exhibition of the full portfolio of Semester 1 work.

For more information visit the Architecture Department at Strathclyde.

Work on the repair and shell works contract at the Grade B Listed Townhouses at Lilybank Terrace got underway in early January 2011 with Main Contractor Graham Construction establishing a site presence and swiftly moving onto ground enabling works with the first of the new steel frame set to arrive before Easter.

This initial Phase of works will see the new floor plates and steel frame formed and the building will become wind and watertight during the 50 week contract.

The second phase fit out will follow thereafter and is programmed to commence in the early part of 2012.

After 5 years in our transformed Finnieston art gallery, we moved into our new city centre office at the beginning of December 2010. We are now located at 200 Bath Street - on the corner of Bath Street and Douglas Street. Despite the first snowfall of the winter, the move across town ran smoothly and we are now fully operational in our new surroundings.

The first floor space comprises a reception area, meeting room and drawing studio which houses our workstations and in-house printing and model making facilities.

If you happen to be passing by, please pop up and say hello.