Miralles widow not on extension shortlist

BENEDETTA Tagliabue, the widow of Scottish Parliament architect Enric Miralles, has been ruled out of designing a £5 million security extension proposed for the front of the Holyrood building.

She put her firm EMBT forward for the job, arguing it made sense for the original designers be involved.

"I don't think it is a very good idea to have new hands, new architects, working on the same building," she said.

Now parliament chiefs have published a list of five firms who will be invited to bid for the work, but it does not include EMBT.

A parliament spokesman said 12 firms submitted applications to be invited to tender for the design contract.

"Each company was asked to submit information in their application which demonstrated ability and experience against a set of criteria.

"Each submission was subjected to a standard rigorous procedure and the companies whose submissions ranked the highest were selected."

Security advisers have told parliament bosses they should build the extension so visitors can be screened before they are in the main building.