Plans for world-class museum

The Courier, 11 September 1998

Ambitious proposals for a multi-million pound world-class museum and international visitor centre and club development on the approach to St Andrews, were unveiled yesterday.

Behind the £7 million initiative, alongside the A91 at the Petheram Bridge, is a new company, St Andrews International Ltd, in alliance with St Andrews University, who have submitted a planning application with Fife Council.

Pending formal approval for the St Andrews Gateway Centre, the three-storey building is scheduled for completion early in the year 2000 and is designed to be a millennium project “of which St Andrews can be extremely proud,” said Jeremy Grieve of St Andrews International Ltd yesterday.

Strategically located at the North Haugh campus at Scotland’s oldest university, Mr Grieve added, “We believe that the St Andrews Gateway Centre will serve to bring the world of St Andrews, past and present, to life through interpretation of its three main elements - golf, academia and heritage.

“This project will create an environment of both entertainment and education, and provide a facility which reflects a close affinity with St Andrews and its residents, as well as with its many thousands of visitors.

“In enhancing this vision and further promoting a visitor infrastructure in support of these new developments, the company and the university plan to create a visitor facility which is truly world-class and indicative of the university’s and town’s international importance, and also heighten its reputation as the Home of Golf,” said Mr Grieve.

St Andrews University is a key contributor to one of the complex’s primary features, a state-of-the-art museum and exhibition depicting the integrated development of the university and town and celebrating its international impact.

Its variety of archive collections will be publicly displayed for the first time using a mix of modern and traditional techniques. It will also demonstrate the continuing scientific and artistic pre-eminence of the university through displays of its internationally-renowned research.

University secretary David Corner said yesterday, “The opportunity to display these significant collections in a modern facility is an exciting prospect which, if realised, will offer a fascinating insight into the history of the university.

“Such a centre would also provide a much-needed focal point for prospective, new and former students.”

Within the Home of Golf element of the building, the St Andrews World of Golf will be brought to life in a club environment.

It will offer visitors and residents the opportunity to be immersed in the St Andrews’ golfing culture. It will feature a club lounge, corporate facilities, a golf clinic, a library, a health club and a business lounge.

St Andrews International Ltd. has engaged Davis Duncan Harrold, the Scottish based architectural firm, to ensure the centre - developed on a four-acre site with a moat - reflects the heritage and medieval atmosphere of the town.