In a £4.5 million project which will be its second biggest to date, Edinburgh engineering firm Applied Engineering Design (AED) is working with Simon Laird Associates (SLA) architects on what may become a new landmark for the industrial and commercial heartland of West Lothian.
AED has been appointed to carry out full structural and civil engineering services at the new corporate headquarters in Broxburn for Ian Macleod Distillers, a third-generation Scottish independent distiller.
And, as is fitting for a brand which includes names such as Glengoyne, Tamdhu, Isle of Skye and Smokehouse Scotch whiskies in its stable, AED and SLA are including two prominent glass towers in the scheme, which will be modelled on the louvred ventilation shafts found on most traditional Scottish distilleries.
Applied Engineering Design Director Tim Hetherington said: “The building will be the new administrative HQ for Ian Macleod Distillers, which is moving from a nearby location which it has outgrown.
“Our input will relate to the main office building, a storage building, a car park with integral rainwater attenuation tanks and the necessary highway upgrades adjacent the site. However, the attractive glass towers are what really sets the scheme off and they will give the building a strong local prominence and identity.
“This will be the biggest project AED has undertaken apart from a £7 million instruction from Tesco last year. It is being built on vacant ground in the shadow of the nearby shale bing, which reflects another part of Scotland’s industrial heritage.”
The car park area will house 600 cubic metres of attenuation tanks which will collect and store rainwater on site and will allow progressive discharge into the sewage system at the same rate as if the water was running off a green field.
The project, which is being overseen by Axiom Project Services Limited, with landscape architecture by Rankin Fraser Landscape Architects, will go live on site at the beginning of July and Mr Hetherington is anticipating completion in the summer of 2020.
Ian Macleod Distillers is the world’s 10th largest Scotch whisky company. It currently produces and sell more than 15 million bottles of spirits every year. A major supplier to the Own Brand market, it has also supplied own label spirits to some of Europe’s largest supermarket groups for more than 40 years.
Applied Engineering Design was founded in 2008 and now has offices Edinburgh and Bath. It has a turnover of £500,000 and employs 10 people. The company serves individuals and businesses in sectors including industry and commerce, sport and education, infrastructure and property maintenance.
