Holyrood architect says the 'scars have healed' at last

Published on Tuesday 30 June 2009 09:43

A LEADING figure in the creation of the £414m Scottish Parliament building today said the "scars had healed" over the reaction to the controversial project.

Brian Stewart, who headed the Edinburgh half of the architectural partnership with Barcelona-based Enric Miralles, helped bring the Holyrood building into being.

Tonight he will take part in a question-and-answer session along with former Culture Minister Linda Fabiani, one of the MSPs charged with overseeing the project, which was ten times over budget and three years late when it finally opened in 2004.

The discussion will follow a special screening of a film about the project at the Filmhouse.

Mr Stewart said he didn't mind if tonight's event reignited the controversy over the project, whose problems dogged the early days of devolution.

He said there were legitimate issues about the way the Holyrood project evolved but added: "The scars are well healed. I never resented people having a go. What I didn't like was when it became a political thing.

"It became a very party political argument. That's fine for a while, but it carried on through the whole life of it – and fatigue with that set in. As far as the building is concerned, any time I'm there I see people moving around and enjoying it. I'm very happy with my involvement in it."

He added: "I don't mind being got at. I feel I ate, slept and drank it for seven years. There are still people who don't like the building and still people who didn't like the process – but it's done.

"Under enormous pressure, we really didn't dilute the original intention. We stuck pretty closely to the original ideas.

"There are some things being done that one doesn't particularly like – I hate the railings at the ponds – but the strength of the building is still there. When I see interviews being done in front of the steps or wherever, I still think that's just great."

Ms Fabiani, who served on the cross-party Holyrood progress group, said despite the controversy during construction people had grown to like the building.

She said: "There was understandable disquiet, but I think now people have got so used to the parliament being there it has become a landmark in Edinburgh and people have moved on from the debacle that was its commissioning."

The film being shown tonight, The Holyrood Files, is the big screen version of a TV documentary which was itself a cause of controversy. Kirsty Wark's production company, Wark Clements, persuaded the BBC to commission it at an original cost of 186,000, but the price tag soared to 980,000. The BBC coughed up 648,000 and there was 332,000 of lottery money from Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council.

The BBC refused to release the tapes to Lord Fraser's inquiry into the Holyrood project before the programme was shown and once it had been broadcast, the production company – by now known as IWC – insisted it would not hand over 400 hours of untransmitted footage and locked the unedited material away in a vault instead.

Lord Fraser said he was "astonished" at the decision and the snub was branded an "absolute scandal" by Margo MacDonald.

The Holyrood Files is being screened at the Filmhouse at 6pm.