Plans to demolish former Aberdeen police HQ based on ‘complete fallacy’ — as heritage boffins fight to save brutalist blot

Plans to demolish the former Aberdeen police headquarters have been branded “completely ignorant” of their potential impact on the environment.

Heritage buffs are accusing the council of “disingenuous smoke and mirrors” in their proposals to raze the seven-storey 1970s block on Queen Street.

Officers vacated the brutalist police tower in 2020 for Marischal College across the road, making way for long-promised redevelopment of Queen Street.

Case far from closed: Fight begins to save former Queen Street police station

The north-east arm of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS) is leading opposition to the demolition.

Queen Street progress previously stalled as council officials were tasked with “soft marketing” to try and find someone who would reuse the building, to little success.

The north-east AHSS chairman John Coyne has blasted the “highly opaque” process, arguing there is a lack of detail as to the lengths council chiefs have gone to in order to find a buyer.

He also questions the council’s judgment of the “stark, utilitarian, brutalist” building it wants to tear down.

“What authoritative academic or professional body has been invited to make an assessment of the building’s architectural value?” Mr Coyne challenged.

“None is cited, so what has been stated is merely opinion.”

Throughout his letter, he repeatedly accused the council of stating “opinion as fact, not backed up by any factual evidence”.

Queen Street police HQ demolition key to ‘urban park’ plans

Queen Street has long been earmarked for redevelopment.

Work has been delayed recently by the need for emergency repairs to Mitchell Tower, at the back of the college and still owned by Aberdeen University.

Redeveloped Queen Street was originally earmarked as a mixed-use cultural quarter, but the council threw out those plans in 2022 in favour of the SNP’s promised £15 million “urban park”.

But, in the application, the council’s Keppie Design states the “end use for the site is yet to be determined”.

In the meantime, the Glasgow consultants say the flattened site will be filled in and fenced off with hoardings, and a small area cleared for seating and a coffee truck.

Council promises branded ‘disingenuous’, ‘smoke and mirrors’ and ‘complete fallacy’

Heritage buff Mr Coyne believes Keppie stating there is no immediate plan for the site is “rather disingenuous, making use of semantics in an appalling manner since the stated intention of the demolition is to prepare the site for redevelopment”.

He is urging council planners hold off on approving demolition until detailed plans for what is to be built in the police station’s place are drawn up.

The building boffin is also rubbishing the environmental promises made in the application.

In Scots planning guidance, demolition is the least favoured option for an existing building, both because of the carbon released during demolition but also all the energy used in producing the materials it was built from and its construction.

Keppie argues that Aberdeen City Council has tried to find an alternative use for the building, but none are “economically viable”.

But the consultants say “99.9% of the building material and demolition product can be reused on or off site, or recycled” after demolition.

Mr Coyne thinks this shows the “complete ignorance” of the council’s experts.

“The claim implies that 99.9% will be recycled, which is certainly not the actuality in demolition projects.

“It is more ‘smoke and mirrors’ in implying that the building’s structural materials will be recycled.

“It is a complete fallacy that [they] will be reused on site.”

[Source: Press and Journal]