The £70 million project for the Princes Street Galleries explores the integration of new shopping facilities, visitor and public spaces within Edinburgh’s historic city centre. The city has a recent history of failed commercial developments within the city centre.
This project proposes an alternative to these anonymous shopping malls, to create a vibrant new public space within the city, that continues its rich urban fabric and brings new life and activity to the currently under utilised gardens between the Old and New Towns. The design forms a new open public square within the gardens, focused around the landmark of the Scott Monument. The new square is set below the level of Princes Street to create an array of new retail spaces below the road and enable a direct link to the existing shops along the street. The gardens are remodelled to enclose the southern edge of the square and form a animated new ‘green’ landscape within the city.