{"id":4686,"date":"2026-01-21T12:22:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/?page_id=4686"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:16:14","slug":"portfolio-heriot-watt-university-high-mill-galashiel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/?page_id=4686","title":{"rendered":"Portfolio: Heriot Watt University | High Mill Galashiel"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Client:<\/strong>\u00a0Heriot Watt University<\/p>

Project Value: <\/b>\u00a31.5M<\/p>

Project Timescale:<\/b> 35 Weeks<\/p>

Architect: <\/b>ADP Architecture<\/p>

PQS: <\/b>Brownriggs Construction Consultants<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION<\/u><\/strong><\/p>

The project involved the refurbishment of the entire High Mill Building in Galashiels over all four floors to create an enhanced community for both staff and students to improve study experience, general wellbeing and space utilisation. Space utilisation was optimised by redesigning the space to be multifunctional, flexible and integrating with activity timetabling, all combining to facilitate multi-disciplinary use and an easily reconfigurable environment.<\/p>

The High Mill Building in Galashiels dating back to 1873 was\u00a0originally constructed as a woollen mill.\u00a0\u00a0The buildings is a B-Listed, 4 storey, 19 bay rectangular-plan mill\u00a0building constructed with an external envelope of whin and sandstone rubble\u00a0with red sandstone dressings and rusticated quoin features. The internal is an\u00a0open plan structure of cast iron columns and timber beams and floors.\u00a0<\/p>

The building is owned by Heriot Watt University and is home to the School of Textiles and Design (SoTD). It is a centre of excellence in design, bringing together talented students from across the globe to study collaboratively in Fashion Design and Textiles.\u00a0 HWU plan is to locate all learning, teaching, research and support space for this discipline to the High Mill Building.<\/p>

The desired transformation was achieved through a refurbishment project to reconfigure the entire internal floor plates over the four floors of the building, delivered over a 5 phased programme of works.<\/p>

The building remained fully occupied and functional throughout the duration of the refurbishment programme for both students and academic staff.<\/p>

KEY\u00a0CHALLENGES<\/span><\/b><\/p>

Live working environment where the remainder of the building\u00a0remained fully occupied with normal business maintained at all times for both\u00a0academic staff and students, ensuring no disruption to live services feeding\u00a0the remaining areas of the building.\u00a0 Careful planning of access\/egress routes and controlled material\u00a0delivery times and distribution throughout the building ensured minimal\u00a0interface with building users and protected the health and wellbeing of all throughout\u00a0the project.<\/p>

\u00a0The key to the success of this was:<\/b><\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Always\u00a0maintaining excellent working relationships with the building users.\u00a0<\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Detailed\u00a0weekly look-ahead sheets issued each week and weekly walk rounds to show the\u00a0client the progress to date.<\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 Authentic\u00a0and proactive communication with the Design Team and client to ensure full\u00a0awareness and manage expectations at all levels i.e. nothing hidden and no\u00a0surprises.<\/p>

The completion of Phase 1 on the contractual sectional\u00a0completion date was critical to ensure the new facility was fully operational\u00a0for the students returning for the start of the 2025\/26 academic term at the\u00a0end of August 2025 (10 week programme).\u00a0<\/p>

Section 2 completion was three weeks later (12 week programme), again
critical for student use in the new term.\u00a0\u00a0Both phases totalling \u00a3860k (2\/3rd of overall project value) were successfully delivered in the first 12 weeks (1\/4 of the overall contract period).\u00a0 The other three phases were\u00a0 delivered over a less congested 35 week period.<\/p>

\u00a0K<\/b>ey challenges overcome:<\/b><\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Incorporating\u00a0Mechanical Specification changes within the tight programme, ensuring suitable\u00a0equipment was sourced that could be procured and installed in time.<\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 Short lead\u00a0in time to commence works. Critical trades and materials identified and ordered\u00a0within the very tight one-week mobilisation period i.e. Doors, Acoustic Ceiling\u00a0Panels, Glazed Screens, Bespoke Joinery and M&E items.<\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Careful\u00a0subcontractor selection from our tried and tested supply chain, ensuring only\u00a0subcontractors that had adequate resources were engaged to meet the tight\u00a0programme, not just the cheapest.<\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Detailed\u00a0programme management to ensure no programme slippage and early identification\u00a0of any programme changes and accommodation of additional works to maintain\u00a0contract programme dates.<\/p>

\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Immediate and efficient action taken to mitigate any delay on discovering that the existing power supply had insufficient capacity to serve the new improved service installation.\u00a0 Selection of an experienced M&E partnering subcontractor with extensive knowledge of the client design standards with established supplier agreements with the main wholesalers ensured the required additional cabling and boards were quickly sourced and installed allowing the critical programme dates to be maintained.<\/p>

ADDED\u00a0VALUE<\/b><\/span><\/p>

Utilisation of local suppliers and subcontractors to ensure\u00a0benefit to the Scottish Borders community.<\/p>

Assisting the design team in sourcing suitable alternative\u00a0acoustic feature products, minimised lead times, allowed the programme to be\u00a0achieved, provided a small commercial betterment and reduce the carbon\u00a0footprint by eliminating transportation from the USA.<\/p>

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Client:\u00a0Heriot Watt University Project Value: \u00a31.5M Project Timescale: 35 Weeks Architect: ADP Architecture PQS: Brownriggs Construction Consultants PROJECT DESCRIPTION The project involved the refurbishment of the entire High Mill Building…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4686","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4686"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5358,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4686\/revisions\/5358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecspecialistcontractors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}