Anchor Mills

Buro Happold
  • Anchor Mills outside
  • Anchor Mills before the work
  • Anchor Mills after the work

1 / Introduction

The Domestic Finishing Mill, known as Anchor Mills, is a Category A building, located within Paisley, in West Central Scotland. The building was at one time used as a base for the manufacturing of textiles but has been derelict for a number of years. Buro Happold were commissioned by the Phoenix Trust to undertake the civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering for the restoration project. Cast iron stitching methods were adopted to undertake repairs to the columns within the superstructure within minimum intervention to the historic fabric of the building. The architectural objective was to produce a sensitive design, which complemented, and had little impact upon the aesthetical quality of, the historical building. As part of these proposals, the architect, James F Stephen Architects, in conjunction with the residential developer, Persimmon Homes, produced a series of contemporary designs for the proposed residential apartments.

Key facts

  • conversion and formation of a naturally ventilated car park for residents and business users at ground floor level
  • conversion and restoration of the first floor of the building to form lettable small business units
  • restoration of the central atrium space to form a naturally ventilated circulation and hub space for the public and users to enjoy
  • conversion and formation of luxury residential apartments and
  • maisonettes on the second, third and fourth floors, stacked around the atrium
  • repair and restoration of all areas of the building

Related Disciplines

The Project Details

Client: Phoenix Trust/Persimmon Homes

Architect: James F Stephen

Buro Happold services: Structural engineering, building services engineering, fire engineering design & risk assessment (FEDRA), Computational Simulation and Analysis

This is a Buro Happold project - Visit the website to see more stories like this