Our design team was selected following a limited design competition held by Hazledene Estates Ltd. Our overall strategy for the site was designed around the creation of semi public courtyards in the centre of the site and was concerned always to try and establish a new piece of the city rather than just a closed commercial development. That original scheme contained commercial space, a hotel and residential units above an underground car park. In the design process since that time the residential element has been deleted as the costs of developing flats in this restricted site above an extensive car park were not proving economic to our client. The scheme is now split between high quality office space and a Park Inn Hotel for The Rezidor Hotel Group. This hotel creates 185 bedrooms plus all associated public and service facilities. The total office floor area (gross) has increased a little to around 13,000m2. This is a significant building, but it is a new part of the dense urban centre of Scotland?s third largest city, one which has major international connections particularly related to the oil industry. Buildings of this scale are being built elsewhere in the city and are a valuable part of its growth and development. We believe we have successfully resolved the requirements of our brief and achieved a volume comparable with that of previous approvals. Throughout our concern has been to ensure that the buildings have an appropriate scale from the surrounding streetscape.