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From listed waterworks to award winning art gallery
Musewm Mnnapnenr
nnd Curato~~Ixp (1994), 13, 200-205
World of Museums From Listed Waterworks Gallery
to Award Winning
Art
The award of the Scottish Museum of the Year title to the Fergusson Gallery in Perth on Saint Andrews Day (30 November) 1992 marked a fitting culmination to a hectic two years of activity for Perth & Kinross District Council’s Museums and Art Galleries Department. The Fergusson Gallery boasts one of the most unusual rehabilitated and adapted museum buildings in Britain, and the museumgoing public had already experienced its curved gallery walls long before the advent of similar curved walls in the Tate Gallery outstation in St. Ives, Cornwall. Even now, two years on from its opening on 6 March 1992, the Fergusson Gallery ranks highly as one of the newest attractions in the gateway to the Highlands, though the creation of the Fergusson Gallery is simply the latest chapter in the history of one of the oldest public buildings in Perth. Now ‘protected’ by a Scottish Office Grade ‘A’ listing (as a building of outstanding architectural and historical significance), the ‘Round House’ or ‘Waterworks’ had come close to mutilation and even complete destruction on several occasions in the 1960s. Built in 1832 as the city’s first waterworks, the building comprises a principal circular stone drum with five-foot thick walls supporting a bolted cast iron section dome which originally formed part of the water reservoir. To the north is adjoined a rectangular two-storey stone block which housed the boiler and pumping gear and which supports a circular urncapped stone chimney 40 ft. high. The complex stands at the south-east corner of the Georgian frontage which greets the visitor to Perth from the main Edinburgh road. It is close to the River Tay which, through piping from a filtration bed, fed the water it originally processed. Out of respect for its prominent position, the building was designed in the classical style-thereby wholly disguising its very utilitarian function-by the mastermind behind the water supply scheme, Dr Adam Anderson (1783-1846), Rector of Perth Academy and subsequently Professor of Natural Philosophy at Saint Andrews University. In 1882 a large reservoir on the outskirts of the city superseded the function of the cast iron upper storey, but the building continued to function as a pumping station, with a rectangular extension, mirroring that to the north of the site, being built on the southern side of the rotunda in 1898. The building was eventually vacated by the Water Authority in 1965. It lay vacant for several years and was assessed for potential transformation into a restaurant, or an industrial museum, with outright demolition the most severe threat facing it. Eventually, under the auspices of the newly formed Perth Civic Trust and the former Perth Town Council (the owners of the building), the Edinburgh Architects Morris and Steedman in 1973 prepared designs for its transformation into a new Tourist
0260-4779/94/02
0200-06
0 1994 Butterworth-Heinemann
Ltd.
World of Museums
201 I. Exterior of the Round House, Perth, Scotland, built as a waterworks (1832) and rehabilitated and adapted as the Fergusson Gallery (1990-92).
Information Centre. For this the 1898 extension was demolished and the basement collection tanks were filled with rubble and paved over to provide a new forecourt entrance. The remaining machinery was removed, the dome sandblasted and the stonework cleaned. GRP (glass reinforced plastic) was extensively used externally to replace weather damaged stonework and also to make good the section of balustrade, cornice and frieze which had been defaced during the 1898 expansion. The vase atop the chimney was also replaced in the new material, the original having been destroyed when it fell during a storm. Internally, the I973 renovation programme was to leave an even stronger legacy.
World
202
of Museums
GaZZery
GaZZery
2. Schematic
floor plan of the Fergusson
Three
One
Gallery, Perth,
opened
in 1992.
This was the erection of a new information desk and an audio-visual viewing platform which dominated the main rotunda. Built of reinforced concrete, the platform was poured on site along with the ground floor slab, a new staircase and the upper floor landing in the block to the north of the rotunda, thereby giving access to a new upper office area. In 1989, however, the Tourist Board vacated the building, leaving long and dark offices dominated by unhappy contemporary wallpaper, and with its principal area suffering from the 1973 poor system of lighting. The walls here were covered with highly flammable hessian-covered fibre board, and the vivid yellow formica information desk which greeted the visitor on entering curved Water dripped from round the central ‘conning tower’ like a huge banana. countless ingress points. This was how District Curator Jim Blair found the building, but he had vision and conviction as he picked his way through its dark and dank rooms, and a phoenix was about to rise. The building’s future once again fell under the spotlight; another restaurant, office accommodation, another museum (fish this time) had all been considered, and Jim Blair had even submitted proposals for turning it into a contemporary arts venue. Then, in June 1990, a letter reached Perth intimating the decision of the Trustees of the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation to dispose of its principal asset, namely the copyright, archive and single largest and most comprehensive collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and watercolours by John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), one of the Scottish ‘Colourists’ and an associate of Picasso and Dunoyer de Segonzac and a leading British Post-Impressionist. Perth had been selectively shortlisted with three other larger Scottish authorities and institutions, and was invited to submit proposals as to how they would house and display the collection were it to come to them. There was a deadline date, eight weeks hence. Having secured cross-party support from the elected members of the District Council, and backed by his Chief Executive and fellow Principal Officers, Blair finally based his proposals on the Waterworks as the permanent home for a dedicated gallery for the Fergusson collection. By November 1990, following Perth & Kinross District Council meetings and site visits with the Trustees, received official confirmation from the Foundation that the gift would be made to them.
203
World of Museums
Working closely with the Council’s Departments of Architectural Services, Housing and Finance, the Museum & Art Gallery. Department developed its proposals into tangible concepts capable of translatron into reality, taking into account that, as a listed building, nothing could be done externally which would alter the existing elevations, while the budget could not stretch to cover radical reconstruction of an interior full of 1973 reinforced concrete (and, it was later discovered, brown asbestos). The brief for the conversion took as its basepoint the acceptance of the uniqueness of both the building and of the collection, with the interior of the building deemed secondary to the collection and therefore to be developed to a quality, but understated, finish. Furthermore, it sought to maximize the floor and wall space for the display, by rotation, of the collection, as well as providing office accommodation for staff, research-room facilities for consultation of the extensive archive, and a dedicated, fully-equipped, reserve collection store room. A new floor slab was cast at the top of the ‘conning tower’ to create a new first floor gallery of identical proportions to the principal ground floor gallery, fire regulations determining the full height extension of fire walls. The width restrictions on the existing access stair within the 1973 ‘tower’ prohibited the installation of any disabled access chair lift to the upper floor. However, a third gallery was created from an existing office space to the rear of the main ground floor gallery, where two further doorways were blocked up and adjacent to this, the existing male/female toilet zone was upgraded to incorporate a new disabled
3. Interior
of Gallery I of the Fergusson Gallery, Perth, with displays drawings by John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961).
of paintings
and
204
W’oTld of Musrums
persons toilet to the relevant specifications. The irregular floorplan of this third gallery was dictated by the extant housing for the mains services. In the upper floor area further major alterations were carried out. These included the knocking through of the two 1973 offices to create a single access open-plan staff-office-cum-research facility, and the creation of a new room to one side of this which was fitted out to provide a rest room for staff to take coffee and lunch breaks. Finally, following remedial localized strengthening to the floor and ceiling, mesh picture roller-racking was installed alongside five bays of large storage units (to take solander boxes, archival storage boxes and sculptures) in the room designated to house the reserve collection. A complete electrical rewiring of the building was undertaken, and a combination of existing storage, and new convector heating systems, was chosen. This in part reflected the budgeting constraints, but also allowed heaters to be built into cupboards, bulkheads and fitments without intruding on the hanging areas available. A new track system was installed for the lighting and the Erco range of fitments, both halogen and fluorescent wall washers and spots, was selected to provide an even and controllable play of light on far from regular walling, while mobile Defensor PH26 humidifiers and Meaco de-humidifier units were installed in each of the galleries and in the reserve collection area to provide appropriate environmental control. Underground, the local fire brigade took the opportunity of combining a training exercise with the pumping out of thousands of gallons of water from the basement, and all visible inlet pipes were sealed to prevent further water, rodent or intruder ingress. All external windows were fitted with secure iron grilles, some internally others externally, and plain roller blinds were installed in Gallery 2 both to exclude natural daylight and to hide the presence of the grilles. The two circular galleries have solid masonry walls and rely exclusively on artificial gypsum) boarding was used for wall finishes and lighting. GRG (gl ass reinforced new suspended plaster board ceilings have been installed in the rotunda spaces. A pale grey was selected for the wall covering, painted directly onto the wall and ceiling boards. This produced a light airy effect within the building and provided a natural flow from one distinct space to the next. As a foil to the paintings in the collection, which are predominantly vivid in their colouring, it has proved particularly effective. New varnished beech doors, facings and skirtings were installed throughout the building and their soft warm colouring was further reflected in the laminated Lamett floor covering which was fitted to the three galleries. Hard wearing, easily maintained and considerably less expensive than hardwood flooring, it met the budget constraints without losing out on suitability or appearance. Kick and finger plates, handles, stair handrails and directional signage for toilets have been provided in brushed aluminium with the graphics picked out in pale blue as the external signage where the materials used appropriate. Th is mirrored required Historic Buildings consent. At the time of writing (March 1994) the external approach to the Gallery is undergoing major redevelopment with natural stone walling co-ordinating and controlling both stepped and ramp approaches from a foreground gathering point. The ground finish employs a mixture of stone paving slabs and smaller stone setts, arranged in radial clusters to reflect the floor plan of the rotunda itself: A bronze maquette by Fergusson, some 6 inches high, of a stately female
World
of Museums
205
which is in the Gallery’s collection, has been enlarged to nude torso, approximately 6 feet and cast in bronze to provide a focal point to the entire scheme. The project has been co-ordinated by the District Council’s Leisure and Recreation Department with funding from Perth & Kinross District Council, Tayside Regional Council and Scottish Enterprise Tayside. In the years since its opening, the Fergusson Gallery has proved a popular addition to the Perth & Kinross District’s provision of places of interest, and has enjoyed strong support both locally and from further afield. While a cafe would be a welcome addition to what we provide, as would disabled access by elevator or lift to the upper levels, the lack of these is the price paid for saving this particular A-listed historic building within the budget available (total costs were E225,OOO) and abiding by current legislation. Such circumstances require priorities to be made, we believe we made the right ones. Photo Credits: Perth & Kinross District Council. ROBIN H. RODGER
nnd Curato~~Ixp (1994), 13, 200-205
World of Museums From Listed Waterworks Gallery
to Award Winning
Art
The award of the Scottish Museum of the Year title to the Fergusson Gallery in Perth on Saint Andrews Day (30 November) 1992 marked a fitting culmination to a hectic two years of activity for Perth & Kinross District Council’s Museums and Art Galleries Department. The Fergusson Gallery boasts one of the most unusual rehabilitated and adapted museum buildings in Britain, and the museumgoing public had already experienced its curved gallery walls long before the advent of similar curved walls in the Tate Gallery outstation in St. Ives, Cornwall. Even now, two years on from its opening on 6 March 1992, the Fergusson Gallery ranks highly as one of the newest attractions in the gateway to the Highlands, though the creation of the Fergusson Gallery is simply the latest chapter in the history of one of the oldest public buildings in Perth. Now ‘protected’ by a Scottish Office Grade ‘A’ listing (as a building of outstanding architectural and historical significance), the ‘Round House’ or ‘Waterworks’ had come close to mutilation and even complete destruction on several occasions in the 1960s. Built in 1832 as the city’s first waterworks, the building comprises a principal circular stone drum with five-foot thick walls supporting a bolted cast iron section dome which originally formed part of the water reservoir. To the north is adjoined a rectangular two-storey stone block which housed the boiler and pumping gear and which supports a circular urncapped stone chimney 40 ft. high. The complex stands at the south-east corner of the Georgian frontage which greets the visitor to Perth from the main Edinburgh road. It is close to the River Tay which, through piping from a filtration bed, fed the water it originally processed. Out of respect for its prominent position, the building was designed in the classical style-thereby wholly disguising its very utilitarian function-by the mastermind behind the water supply scheme, Dr Adam Anderson (1783-1846), Rector of Perth Academy and subsequently Professor of Natural Philosophy at Saint Andrews University. In 1882 a large reservoir on the outskirts of the city superseded the function of the cast iron upper storey, but the building continued to function as a pumping station, with a rectangular extension, mirroring that to the north of the site, being built on the southern side of the rotunda in 1898. The building was eventually vacated by the Water Authority in 1965. It lay vacant for several years and was assessed for potential transformation into a restaurant, or an industrial museum, with outright demolition the most severe threat facing it. Eventually, under the auspices of the newly formed Perth Civic Trust and the former Perth Town Council (the owners of the building), the Edinburgh Architects Morris and Steedman in 1973 prepared designs for its transformation into a new Tourist
0260-4779/94/02
0200-06
0 1994 Butterworth-Heinemann
Ltd.
World of Museums
201 I. Exterior of the Round House, Perth, Scotland, built as a waterworks (1832) and rehabilitated and adapted as the Fergusson Gallery (1990-92).
Information Centre. For this the 1898 extension was demolished and the basement collection tanks were filled with rubble and paved over to provide a new forecourt entrance. The remaining machinery was removed, the dome sandblasted and the stonework cleaned. GRP (glass reinforced plastic) was extensively used externally to replace weather damaged stonework and also to make good the section of balustrade, cornice and frieze which had been defaced during the 1898 expansion. The vase atop the chimney was also replaced in the new material, the original having been destroyed when it fell during a storm. Internally, the I973 renovation programme was to leave an even stronger legacy.
World
202
of Museums
GaZZery
GaZZery
2. Schematic
floor plan of the Fergusson
Three
One
Gallery, Perth,
opened
in 1992.
This was the erection of a new information desk and an audio-visual viewing platform which dominated the main rotunda. Built of reinforced concrete, the platform was poured on site along with the ground floor slab, a new staircase and the upper floor landing in the block to the north of the rotunda, thereby giving access to a new upper office area. In 1989, however, the Tourist Board vacated the building, leaving long and dark offices dominated by unhappy contemporary wallpaper, and with its principal area suffering from the 1973 poor system of lighting. The walls here were covered with highly flammable hessian-covered fibre board, and the vivid yellow formica information desk which greeted the visitor on entering curved Water dripped from round the central ‘conning tower’ like a huge banana. countless ingress points. This was how District Curator Jim Blair found the building, but he had vision and conviction as he picked his way through its dark and dank rooms, and a phoenix was about to rise. The building’s future once again fell under the spotlight; another restaurant, office accommodation, another museum (fish this time) had all been considered, and Jim Blair had even submitted proposals for turning it into a contemporary arts venue. Then, in June 1990, a letter reached Perth intimating the decision of the Trustees of the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation to dispose of its principal asset, namely the copyright, archive and single largest and most comprehensive collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and watercolours by John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), one of the Scottish ‘Colourists’ and an associate of Picasso and Dunoyer de Segonzac and a leading British Post-Impressionist. Perth had been selectively shortlisted with three other larger Scottish authorities and institutions, and was invited to submit proposals as to how they would house and display the collection were it to come to them. There was a deadline date, eight weeks hence. Having secured cross-party support from the elected members of the District Council, and backed by his Chief Executive and fellow Principal Officers, Blair finally based his proposals on the Waterworks as the permanent home for a dedicated gallery for the Fergusson collection. By November 1990, following Perth & Kinross District Council meetings and site visits with the Trustees, received official confirmation from the Foundation that the gift would be made to them.
203
World of Museums
Working closely with the Council’s Departments of Architectural Services, Housing and Finance, the Museum & Art Gallery. Department developed its proposals into tangible concepts capable of translatron into reality, taking into account that, as a listed building, nothing could be done externally which would alter the existing elevations, while the budget could not stretch to cover radical reconstruction of an interior full of 1973 reinforced concrete (and, it was later discovered, brown asbestos). The brief for the conversion took as its basepoint the acceptance of the uniqueness of both the building and of the collection, with the interior of the building deemed secondary to the collection and therefore to be developed to a quality, but understated, finish. Furthermore, it sought to maximize the floor and wall space for the display, by rotation, of the collection, as well as providing office accommodation for staff, research-room facilities for consultation of the extensive archive, and a dedicated, fully-equipped, reserve collection store room. A new floor slab was cast at the top of the ‘conning tower’ to create a new first floor gallery of identical proportions to the principal ground floor gallery, fire regulations determining the full height extension of fire walls. The width restrictions on the existing access stair within the 1973 ‘tower’ prohibited the installation of any disabled access chair lift to the upper floor. However, a third gallery was created from an existing office space to the rear of the main ground floor gallery, where two further doorways were blocked up and adjacent to this, the existing male/female toilet zone was upgraded to incorporate a new disabled
3. Interior
of Gallery I of the Fergusson Gallery, Perth, with displays drawings by John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961).
of paintings
and
204
W’oTld of Musrums
persons toilet to the relevant specifications. The irregular floorplan of this third gallery was dictated by the extant housing for the mains services. In the upper floor area further major alterations were carried out. These included the knocking through of the two 1973 offices to create a single access open-plan staff-office-cum-research facility, and the creation of a new room to one side of this which was fitted out to provide a rest room for staff to take coffee and lunch breaks. Finally, following remedial localized strengthening to the floor and ceiling, mesh picture roller-racking was installed alongside five bays of large storage units (to take solander boxes, archival storage boxes and sculptures) in the room designated to house the reserve collection. A complete electrical rewiring of the building was undertaken, and a combination of existing storage, and new convector heating systems, was chosen. This in part reflected the budgeting constraints, but also allowed heaters to be built into cupboards, bulkheads and fitments without intruding on the hanging areas available. A new track system was installed for the lighting and the Erco range of fitments, both halogen and fluorescent wall washers and spots, was selected to provide an even and controllable play of light on far from regular walling, while mobile Defensor PH26 humidifiers and Meaco de-humidifier units were installed in each of the galleries and in the reserve collection area to provide appropriate environmental control. Underground, the local fire brigade took the opportunity of combining a training exercise with the pumping out of thousands of gallons of water from the basement, and all visible inlet pipes were sealed to prevent further water, rodent or intruder ingress. All external windows were fitted with secure iron grilles, some internally others externally, and plain roller blinds were installed in Gallery 2 both to exclude natural daylight and to hide the presence of the grilles. The two circular galleries have solid masonry walls and rely exclusively on artificial gypsum) boarding was used for wall finishes and lighting. GRG (gl ass reinforced new suspended plaster board ceilings have been installed in the rotunda spaces. A pale grey was selected for the wall covering, painted directly onto the wall and ceiling boards. This produced a light airy effect within the building and provided a natural flow from one distinct space to the next. As a foil to the paintings in the collection, which are predominantly vivid in their colouring, it has proved particularly effective. New varnished beech doors, facings and skirtings were installed throughout the building and their soft warm colouring was further reflected in the laminated Lamett floor covering which was fitted to the three galleries. Hard wearing, easily maintained and considerably less expensive than hardwood flooring, it met the budget constraints without losing out on suitability or appearance. Kick and finger plates, handles, stair handrails and directional signage for toilets have been provided in brushed aluminium with the graphics picked out in pale blue as the external signage where the materials used appropriate. Th is mirrored required Historic Buildings consent. At the time of writing (March 1994) the external approach to the Gallery is undergoing major redevelopment with natural stone walling co-ordinating and controlling both stepped and ramp approaches from a foreground gathering point. The ground finish employs a mixture of stone paving slabs and smaller stone setts, arranged in radial clusters to reflect the floor plan of the rotunda itself: A bronze maquette by Fergusson, some 6 inches high, of a stately female
World
of Museums
205
which is in the Gallery’s collection, has been enlarged to nude torso, approximately 6 feet and cast in bronze to provide a focal point to the entire scheme. The project has been co-ordinated by the District Council’s Leisure and Recreation Department with funding from Perth & Kinross District Council, Tayside Regional Council and Scottish Enterprise Tayside. In the years since its opening, the Fergusson Gallery has proved a popular addition to the Perth & Kinross District’s provision of places of interest, and has enjoyed strong support both locally and from further afield. While a cafe would be a welcome addition to what we provide, as would disabled access by elevator or lift to the upper levels, the lack of these is the price paid for saving this particular A-listed historic building within the budget available (total costs were E225,OOO) and abiding by current legislation. Such circumstances require priorities to be made, we believe we made the right ones. Photo Credits: Perth & Kinross District Council. ROBIN H. RODGER