| AdminHistory | After two brief leases in Edinburgh, the Development Corporation designed and built its own headquarters in Kirk Lane, Livingston Village.
The project soon ran into difficulties, however. After a tendering process a contractor, Perts of Montrose, was appointed to build an office block of some 30,000 square feet; Perts was also to build the first 270 houses of the New Town at Livingston Station. The work was commissioned by the LDC in the Summer of 1963, with a completion date of spring 1964.
The work was not completed by Autumn 1965, and, in some cases, contained serious defects in materials and workmanship. The delays incurred considerable financial costs and by 1965 it had become obvious that the contractor, Perts, was to go into liquidation. The difficulties and costs encountered prompted the Board of the LDC to ask for the resignation of their Chief Architect, Peter Daniels. Six other staff of the architects department resigned as a direct result, and a further eight resigned citing unrelated reasons.
The process of appointing a firm that was relatively small, which was not based in the area, that would have to cope with a substantial amount of work and capital outlay, and had previously worked with the General Manager of the LDC before (when Brigadier Purches had been General Manager at Glenrothes New Town) drew substantial criticism, not least from Tam Dalyell, MP for West Lothian. There was a variety of legal action regarding the collapse of Perts
The building was never entirely satisfactory, suffering from a number of structural faults. By 1983 it was decided that the offices no longer met health and safety standards. The Corporation moved to new accommodation in Sidlaw House whilst the office block on Kirk Lane was sold to McGregor Developments and leased back to the Corporation for a thirty five year period. The Corporation in turn, leased out the small suites as office space. McGregor holdings disposed of their ownership of the building to another company in 1993. |
| ScopeandContent | 4 administration, 5 architects' and 1 engineering file regarding structural alterations and checks to the Corporation Office block at Kirk Lane; and the liquidation of Perts of Montrose, who had constructed the building, 1966-1982.
For the building of projects overseen by the Corporation, Architects' files can include architects' instructions, which comprise specifications and briefs for work to be done and materials to be used; correspondence and minutes of meetings with contractors relating to the work they have been employed for; copies of invoices, contracts, certificates of completion and other financial papers; extracts of Board minutes (relating to policy and approvals); internal memoranda on the project; maps and plans relating to area of work and any other papers as necessary.
Administration files can include: correspondence with contractors regarding the tendering process for specific jobs, and other administrative papers such as the provision of insurance documents or communications with interested parties (such as community groups or tenants). Administration files can also include policy related material, such as papers presented to Corporation Board Meetings for approval of policy, and the recording of decisions in extracts of board minutes.
Engineering files generally relate to the installation of services, such as sewers, manholes, gas, electricity and structural information on buildings. They can also include correspondence with statutory authorities (such as Lothian Regional Council, which was responsible for sewers); papers on costs and materials (quantity surveying); copies of architects' instructions, certificates of completions; maps/plans; invoices and other financial documentation and any other papers as necessary.
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