Holyrood Road. Scottish Parliament

Posted by on 25 May 2010

Client: Edinburgh City Council, Lothian & Edinburgh Enterprise Ltd

Design: The Paul Hogarth Company

Holyrood Road, formerly a through route to the Royal Park, now leads into the William Younger Dynamic Earth Centre and a new mall at the rear of the Parliament Precincts.

The design was intended to feature in a 'Grand Processional Way',

and to provide a strong vertical element.  The design was completed and submitted prior to contract.  The manufacturing process of 30+ columns was completed in three months.

Faithful to the Paul Hogarth design, the substantial 11M tapered columns have a unique lantern bracket arm system which used two pairs of stainless steel rods per arm.  The non load-bearing rods attach to the column at decorative cast collars.

Each column has a base casting 1.8M tall, cast in ductile iron and fitted with a stainless steel chemically etched band inscribed EH 1999 and bearing the local authority's column identifier.  Each column is designed to support a 4.5M banner and features a pedestrian lantern in certain locations.

The lower lantern uses a white metal halide lamp for improved colour rendition, in contrast to the golden yellow high pressure sodium road-light.  Together these achieve a pleasing and functional night-time aspect.

It was a requirement of the local authority that the bases, which are cast from ductile iron, should be fitted and sealed to the column at our works to guarantee ingress protection.  As with any project of this nature, full structural calculations were provided.