Livingston, Grampian Court

Town Centre

Focus of administration, shopping, offices and hotels, rather than a high street or market place (there is a small 'town square' across the Almondvale Boulevard which does not serve as such), Almondvale occupies a plateau just south of the river, enfolded by distributor roads. Two, linear, six-storey, eye-catching slabs with white mosaic panels - Pentland House, 1979, and West Lothian House (formerly Sidlaw House), 1981, both by Michael Laird & Partners - sit at right angles, and sandwich the original Almondvale Centre, by Hay Steel & MacFarlane opened in 1976. Grampian Court and Lomond House, to the south of the centre, are horizontally proportioned with strongly emphasised brick buttresses, in either a dark-brown or a royal-red brick. Bank of Scotland, 1988, Forgan & Stewart, is a financial fortress; crisply detailed in grey panels and dark glazing.

Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk