Renderings depicting how Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland, will look following a planned £43m (US$66m) revamp have been unveiled.
Featuring indoor and outdoor athletics tracks alongside 3G synthetic pitches for rugby, detailed plans also present a stadium with arched ceilings and an airy, open-plan interior. Among the facilities are football pitches, an eight-court sports hall with 500 permanent seats, a gymnastics area and a possible base for Edinburgh Rugby as it seeks to relocate from Murrayfield. A healthcare centre offering physiotherapy, remedial massage, injury rehabilitation, and nutritional advice has also been included.
The revamp project faces a £20m (US$37m) shortfall and the naming rights to the new stadium could be sold off to fund the redevelopment. The planned revamp comes as council chiefs warn the city has only five years to save the 45-year-old landmark from closure due to its increasingly run-down condition.
Jim Grimley, director at Reiach and Hall Architects – the firm behind the new designs – said: “Our preliminary design places the new building between the existing outdoor sports arena and London Road which achieves two aims – it maintains the facilities at Meadowbank, whilst enabling the creation of a welcoming building, with a strong civic presence on to London Road.”
If funding is secured the complex could open its doors as early as 2018.
