David Chipperfield Architects and Reiach & Hall’s revised plans for Edinburgh’s first purpose-built concert hall for 100 years have been passed after a bruising planning process.

The £75m project was nearly derailed by an aggressive legal challenge by the developers of the £850m St James Centre, a neighbouring shopping centre and hotel complex masterplanned by Allan Murray Architects with BDP and Jestico & Whiles, nicknamed the Big Jobbie by hostile locals.

The concert hall, on St Andrew Square in the city’s World Heritage Site, was granted planning in April 2019 after a five-hour debate and knife-edge vote. It was then budgeted at £45m.

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