Historic Old Mint In Edinburgh
On ISG's The Registers redevelopment, Palmers delivered a physically-tied Layher access solution around a 21.5m listed Venetian Gothic mint building. The façade was retained and repaired while the interior was rebuilt behind it, on one of central Edinburgh's tightest sites.
Sector context
The Registers is ISG's premium redevelopment of a historic Edinburgh mint, built in the Venetian Gothic style of the 1860s, next to St Andrew Square. The scheme created 5,700 m² of Grade A office space and 1,000 m² of leisure space while keeping the historic façade. On heritage work like this, the scaffolding design carries as much weight as the access itself.
The challenge
The façade had to be retained and repaired while the interior was reconfigured and extended with a new steel frame, all on a constrained city-centre plot.
- The 21.5m listed building needed safe, compliant access across its external façade and roofs, and those of the adjoining Venetian building.
- The very tight city-centre site made the temporary works difficult to plan and install.
- The client asked, unusually, for the scaffold ties to be fixed to the steelwork before the scaffold was erected, reversing the normal sequence.
The Palmers solution
Palmers provided 11 lifts of access using a physically-tied Layher Allround modular system, reaching the façade and roofs of both the new mint building and the existing Venetian building while the steel frame went in behind.
- 1,330 linear metres of edge-protection handrails were erected from MEWPs directly to the floor steels, which removed extra working at height as each floor was formed.
- The build sequence was adapted to tie into the steelwork ahead of erection.
- Edge protection was installed across all eight floor levels.
The outcome
ISG kept and repaired a listed Venetian Gothic façade while remodelling and extending the building behind it, with safe, compliant access throughout on a sensitive heritage site in the heart of Edinburgh.
From the site team.
It's fantastic to be working with ISG on this interesting, challenging project on such an historic building in central Edinburgh, working closely with them to overcome access hurdles in the process. The very tight nature of the city centre site has made the temporary scaffolding works particularly challenging. But these are challenges we relish for our clients.
Palmers Managing Director