‘History’ Statue on Roof of Scottish National Portrait Gallery

‘History’ Statue on Roof of Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Client: National Galleries of Scotland

Our involvement was to oversee the project from start unto completion from a structural perspective and to ensure that when the casting was carefully lifted off the transport, there were no problems of fit or other distortions that did not allow the statue to be erected high up in the crowning position of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Building in Edinburgh.

The decision was made early on in the project to dispense with the need for any noisy or visually disruptive scaffold. This meant some early Sunday mornings in cherry picker baskets viewing and assessing the existing stone plinth at high level and assessing the best way in which the sculpture could be made to fit and secured to the high level stonework plinth. From these surveys a template was manufactured and this was used directly as part of the casting process.

On the day of erection, with members of the press on standby, the sculpture, Alexander Stoddart paid very close attention to the final positioning of the statue and when he gave the final two thumbs up the bolts were given their final locking torque before the cradle was lowered and the statue was revealed in isolation.

Since then an exhibition has been held to celebrate the statute which has been well received by press and public alike.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-24473739