Practice History

Having completed his education at Harvard University in the USA, Allan Murray worked in the USA for several years developing designs for large scale urban projects including high rise structures in New York City and Boston. Allan Murray established the practice in 1993 with Alexander Fairweather. 

The practice has enjoyed great success in architectural competitions, having won numerous prestigious competitions, including the international competition for the development of a £50 million office and leisure development at Greenside, Edinburgh (one of the largest development sites in Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site), and more recently the competition for the Caltongate masterplan in Edinburgh. 

Other competition wins include the urban design for the Edinburgh Park Site A Developments (250,000sq ft), Hamilton Arts Centre (an arts, theatre and library complex, awarded the Medal for Architecture by the Royal Scottish Academy), the MacRobert Arts Centre (an invited national competition for an arts centre, theatre and children's theatre in Stirling), the 'Visions' John Logie Baird Centre (an invited national competition for an innovative visitor interpretation centre in Glasgow celebrating the inventions of Logie Baird), the mixed use Urban Development at Coalhill in Edinburgh (an international invited competition), The Tun: Holyrood (an invited competition for a mixed-use commercial development at Holyrood, Edinburgh). 

The practice's first building - The Peterhead Maritime Heritage Museum (an international open competition) was awarded 'Best Building of the Year' in 1996 and incorporates state-of-the-art multimedia interactive displays.