The application site is located directly onto the boundary of the north west corner of the lower slopes of the Necropolis at the northern end of Wishart Street, just before the corner of Firpark Street.
This gives the site a direct relationship with the Designed Landscape setting of the Necropolis and in the middle distance to the Cathedral which sits on a direct axial view along the immediate line of Wishart Street. Along with the usual recognition of civic frontage to the principal street elevation, this sets up an important dialogue and hierarchy of address to the Necropolis elevations.
The proposal will look to provide a strong formal response to its historic environment and attempt to mediate as an object building belonging to the street level and contributing to the everyday life of the City and its urban form while engaging in a new dialogue with the remembrance garden of headstones and tombs of the Necropolis that rise beyond.
Wishart Street largely follows the original route of the now culverted Molendinar Burn which flows between the rear environs of the Cathedral and the Victorian cemetery of the Necropolis which had been modelled from the Fir Park outcrop. The Molendinar Burn shifts eastwards off the line of Wishart Street at the point of the application site, cutting directly under its north west corner. Built proposals will therefore require structural and groundwork design to take account of this.
The footprint size of the proposal will be kept tight to allow the building to sit well away from all boundaries and particularly to the south and east edges allowing the future form to be read as a clear object able to be comfortably viewed in the round from all angles. This will reduce any primary obstruction of views or vistas within the Character Area while also maximising the benefit of open southerly aspect and skyline views across the Necropolis and towards the Cathedral to as many residencies as possible.
