The client on Brisac Gonzalez’s scheme for an arts centre in Aberdeen has lost her job after the project was scrapped in favour of a rival.

The £13 million deal slated for Union Terrace Gardens was sidelined in favour of a larger civic square plan following a vote by city councillors last week.

This scheme is being bankrolled by local businessman Ian Wood, who made his £890 million fortune in the oil and fishing industries.

Brisac Gonzalez’s scheme had been commissioned by Elly Rothnie from Peacock Visual Arts. But she has now lost her job after the group confirmed it would no longer be involved in the project.

The bigger scheme, which will involve lifting the gardens, and building a subterranean complex, has been attacked by a number of protesters, including Aberdeen-born singer Annie Lennox, who described it as “architectural vandalism”.

Wood has already given a £50 million donation for the £140 million scheme, for which he now wants to hold an international design competition in an attempt to establish the equivalent of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum.

Topics