An Edinburgh city centre scrapyard is set to be replaced by purpose-built student accommodation next to the Union Canal under new plans proposed to the city council.
The site, at 23 Yeaman Place, located just off Fountain Park, will see all existing buildings and structures demolished to make way for the development with publicly accessible routes from both Yeaman Place and Dundee Street to the Union Canal, with the latter requiring a stair-bike ramp. It is proposed that four new buildings will be erected, comprising 148 studio student bed spaces in total.
A six-storey block with an upper floor setback is also proposed on the corner of Yeaman Place. A five-storey block could consume the south west corner of the site adjacent to the Union Canal and two lower buildings are proposed in the centre of the site, being three-storeys in height to reflect a courtyard.
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The area itself is already awash with students given Bainfield's Edinburgh Napier student accommodation located just a few minutes away opposite Fountain Park. Urban Realm reports that the project team will be led by the landowner and Fletcher Joseph Associates, fronting the popular canal waterside and extending deep through a tenement backcourt to the rear of the site.
An active travel path to the bust towpath will also be built. As part of the work a small section of the Union Canal wall, a scheduled monument, will be removed for access.
In a statement, Fletcher Joseph wrote: "The proposal will look to integrate the remaining sections of the wall into the façade design for the blocks which sit adjacent to it. This is done sensitively on the ground floor by building the structure behind the wall.
"Above it, the floor structure will cantilever over the wall with a clerestory between to ensure the original wall is clearly defined and highlighted. These sections of the wall will also be cleaned to remove the graffiti and it will be repaired or re-pointed where required following a survey.
"To further integrate the proposal into the context of the canal, it will look to reclaim where possible the removed section of the wall and integrate it into the adjacent blocks by returning it into the site on the ground floor, to create a seamless connection along the canal and through the site."
The development will centre on two-tenement scale blocks by the canal responding to the existing tenement district with two smaller staggered blocks framing a 'mews courtyard' to the rear.
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