THE first rooms inside the historic Deaconess House site on Edinburgh’s Pleasance have been completed by GRAHAM Construction, with the £14.5 million redevelopment of the site on target to be handed over to Mace Real Estate this summer.
Mace’s Investment team is behind the project to create over 300 new student apartments on the site of the former hospital.
The original Deaconess House is being retained and refurbished and three new blocks created to the rear of Deaconess House situated around a central courtyard, which will include an amphitheatre and hard and soft landscaped areas.
The new blocks rise to four and five storeys and contain a total of 315 bedrooms, split across a mix of studio apartments and three, five and six- bedroom units.
A total of 150 GRAHAM Construction workers are currently on site, with internal fit out and electrical works being completed and furniture and carpets down in some of the rooms.
Deaconess House dates back to 1894 when it opened as a hospital and a number of ancillary buildings including nurses’ accommodation were added to the original structure over the years until its closure as a hospital in 1990. More recently, the building has been used as offices.
Regional Director at GRAHAM Construction Neil McFarlane said, “With the scaffolding removed from the facade, the new shape of the site has generated interest from local residents.
“A blend of modern construction techniques such as additional steelwork and support structures has been combined with design features which are sympathetic to the character of the site such as sloped floors and church windows.”
