Baxter’s Place
This four-star city centre hotel is the second Courtyard by Marriott to open in Scotland and is located at Baxter’s Place at the top of Leith Walk, just to the east of Edinburgh city centre. The hotel offers 240 bedrooms located across three original A listed Georgian townhouses and a modern extension to the rear.
Location: Edinburgh
Client: Chris Stewart Group
Cost: £16m
Completion: 2017
The new hotel was developed by Chris Stewart Group by redeveloping the existing, originally A listed Georgian town houses and constructing a new seven storey block to the rear. The hotel offers circa 240 bedrooms and was constructed by Interserve Ltd.
The Georgian building offers space consisting of reception, public areas, gym, kitchen and restaurant along with bedroom accommodation whereas the new block consists of bedroom accommodation and back of house operations.
Blyth & Blyth were commissioned to provide Civil and Structural engineering services for the project including structural engineering design certification (SER).
Key challenges
Extremely challenging city centre site.
Excavations adjacent to existing public road
Construction of a seven-story block in close proximity to circa 140 year old Georgian building with two storeys of basement
Value engineered piling solution
Addition and alteration to masonry Georgian building for change in occupancy including underpinning works.
Design of link bridge to join old Georgian building with a new concrete Post pensioned Slab building.
Results
The development has resulted in providing a new lease of life to the original townhouses by change of occupancy and offering additional 240 hotel bedrooms to the city centre of Edinburgh. The hotel is extremely popular with visitors to Edinburgh and is a much sought after location, particularly during the Edinburgh International Festival.