Scottish Leather

This new cutting factory and office for Scottish Leather in Bridge of Weir was constructed to meet their increasing needs for high–end leather products, for the service industry, which is well known throughout the world. A phased build was adopted to allow for the provision of new car parking facilities ahead of the new steelwork portal framed structure being constructed onto the site, of the existing car park.

The design proposals involved the design of a 37.5m single bay portal frame, with the additional office and laboratory accommodation being adopted by introducing a ‘lean-to’ steelwork frame onto the primary structure. Shallow bedrock allowed direct bearing for the pad foundations, with an element of trench fill, due to varied rock levels encountered. The Locher water runs through the site, between the building and the car park, creating a sense of arrival for visitors to the facility, with a new steelwork bridge being constructed, for the egress from the visitor parking at the front of the building. Historic masonry structures forming the Locher Water were refurbished, to accommodate the new bridge abutments.

The car park was formed on an adjacent green eld site, with the challenging sloping topography requiring a balanced ‘cut & ll’, whereby excavated material was modified for re-use, prior to accepting the finished materials of porous paving. An extensive new drainage network was incorporated with SUDS measures, prior to pumping the discharge via a rising main 200m from the development site.