ONE of Scotland's leading contemporary art galleries has revealed its plans for a £3.75m revamp.
The Fruitmarket Gallery, in Edinburgh's Market Street, next to Waverley Station, has submitted a planning application to Edinburgh City Council for the refurbishment of its existing gallery building at 45 Market Street.
It plans to convert the adjacent warehouse building at 36 to 39 Market Street, which for many years was the Electric Circus venue, into a new facility, a two storey-height space - formerly a fruit and vegetable warehouse - which will be used as a visual art, performance and music space.
City councillors will consider the plan in July.
Reiach and Hall Architects have revealed the designs for the project, which join the two properties with a ramped corridor.
The existing main gallery spaces will remain unchanged, although access areas such as the stairs and the lift will be revamped, and new education spaces will be created in the extension.
The project details are a new take on the gallery's long-held desire to expand, a simplified version of the gallery's initial £11m plan.
Of the £3.75m project cost, £2.5m has already been raised.
The Fruitmarket Gallery will close for refurbishment in July this year, and open again in 2020.
During this time the Fruitmarket said it will be working with artists "out in the community and offsite."
Fiona Bradley, the director of The Fruitmarket Gallery, said: "This project has opportunities for artists and audiences at its heart.
"It delivers an inspirational new space for creative, collaborative working and renovates the Fruitmarket’s existing spaces, ensuring that we can continue to operate at the forefront of contemporary culture for decades to come."
Neil Gillespie, director, Reiach and Hall Architects, said: "The new warehouse spaces are designed enter into a critical and dynamic dialogue with the original galleries. As an ensemble, they offer artists, curators and audiences remarkable, contrasting and complementary spaces."
The Fruitmarket attracted nearly 200,000 visitors in 2018.
Reiach and Hall Architects were formed in 1965 and are one of only three practices in the UK to have been shortlisted for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize three years in a row (2015, 2016, 2017).
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