David Chipperfield Architects and Reiach & Hall have submitted scaled-back plans for Edinburgh’s first purpose-built concert hall for 100 years.

The £75m project was nearly derailed by an aggressive legal challenge by the developers of the £850m St James Centre, a neighbouring shopping centre and hotel complex masterplanned by Allan Murray Architects with BDP and Jestico & Whiles which has been nicknamed the Big Jobbie by hostile locals.

The concert hall, on St Andrew Square in the city’s world heritage site, was granted planning in April 2019 after a five-hour debate and knife-edge vote. It was then budgeted at £45m.

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