Gifted architect who put his money where his mouth was

THE architectural critic Neil Cameron wryly noted that when he ran the name "Doolan" through his computer’s spell-checker, his software amusingly suggested the alternative choice of "dollar". Certainly, the allusion to affluence is an apt coincidence guaranteed to raise a smile with anyone who knew the Edinburgh-based architect Andrew Doolan, who died unexpectedly, aged 52, last week.

A miner’s son, Doolan had discovered a head for business as a schoolboy. Legend has it that at 13 he earned his first 1,000 selling ballpoint pens on an excursion to Russia.

Despite leaving St Ninian’s High in Kirkintilloch with a solitary Higher in engineering drawing, he graduated from Leeds School of Architecture having completed his Highers at night school while working as an apprentice architect in Glasgow. Soon after, he made his first million pounds when he purchased, renovated and resold 12 shops and 80 flats on Edinburgh’s Southside that he had bought for a mere 77,000.

When he died, on Tuesday, he controlled a business empire worth more than 20m that included his crowning glory: Edinburgh’s Point Hotel and Conference Centre.

Doolan’s Point Hotel won an RIAS Regeneration Award in 1996, an Edinburgh Architectural Association Conservation Award in 1997, a Civic Trust Award in 1998 and a Scottish Design Awards Commendation in 1999. In 2000, The Point was listed as one of the world’s 50 hippest hotels and was one of two Doolan projects nominated for inclusion in the book Scotland’s 100 Best New Buildings.

I interviewed Doolan while researching that title and he confided that architecture was an all-or-nothing profession. "There’s no hiding place - everything you build, whether good or bad, lives on to haunt you in such an obvious, concrete way. That’s why I’m genuinely thrilled if something I’ve done wins an award."

Despite boasting 50 or so quality built projects, Doolan’s Morrison Link Edinburgh Travel Inn and the ingenious conversion of a 1914 B-listed former Co-op store into the spectacularly lit, grid-fronted, curtain-walled Point Hotel alone constitute a legacy to be proud of.

An equally courageous entrepreneur and developer, Doolan was also one of the youngest ever Fellows of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. He will be remembered within his profession as someone whose keynote projects kick-started spectacular regeneration schemes in Edinburgh’s Bread Street, Glasgow’s Ingram Square and Dublin’s Temple Bar, and as a kindly benefactor whose generosity bankrolled the largest architectural prize in Britain, the 25,000 annual RIAS award for Scotland’s best new building.

Peter Wilson, director of the Napier foundation for architecture at Napier University, rightly claims that Doolan pioneered a new role for architects as developers: "He was passionately interested in good architecture and he put his money where his mouth was."

Dick Cannon, of Glasgow’s Elder and Cannon, collaborated with Doolan on the Ingram Square development in Glasgow’s Merchant City. He says: "We worked on eight or nine buildings together - everything from new builds and faade retentions to completely renovating Victorian structures.

"Andy saw possibilities where others only saw problems. In terms of urban regeneration in Scotland, he broke new ground, seeing smart housing lurking within the shell of abandoned warehouses.

"He was a great entrepreneur with the subtle insights of a sensitive architect and he allied his exacting creative view to extremely high-quality standards in everything he did."

Doolan was unusual in that he was a Scottish architect whose work found favour at both ends of the M8. Architect and RIAS president Gordon Murray says: "We both had a healthy disrespect for one another’s works, yet I particularly enjoyed his cynicism about many of our industry’s establishment values and preconceptions. I admired his unique brand of modern professionalism, while his self-deprecating humour was a joy."

Doolan is survived by his mother, his sisters and his fiance Marion.