1976 – Scottish Widows, Edinburgh, Scotland

In 1970, The Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society bought the six-acre site backing onto Holyrood Park and commissioned Spence’s firm to design it after he had successfully designed their St Andrews Square building in 1962. The building, which was designed by Spence, Ferguson and Glover and constructed in 12 hexagonal modules between 1972 and 1976. John Hardie Glover and John Legge were the partners-in-charge charge, Norman Arthur the project architect, and Ove Arup & Partners the structural engineers. Dame Sylvia Crowe, a leading landscape architect of the period, was involved in the laying out of the six-acre site. The exterior envelope is constructed of double skinned curtain–wall glazing with a brown solar glass exterior, with manganese bronze framing.

The Royal Institute of British Architects puts the work into the context of the area it was built in: “Clad in a continuous curtain wall of brown solar glass with York stone boundary walls, its design emphasised harmony and scale with its site; special consideration was given to its aerial view as it could be viewed from the nearby Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags. The relationship with the exterior continued inside the offices, with planting echoing the gardens designed by landscape architect Sylvia Crowe.’

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