16 Church Street

West Dunbartonshire Councils flagship office building at 16 Church Street Dumbarton, provides modern workspace for 500 staff, together with associated public services, in the heart of Dumbarton Town Centre, replacing their dilapidated building at Garshake Road on the outskirts of town.

The site for the new building was identified to create a catalyst for the regeneration in Dumbarton Town Centre, together with ambitions to conserve the façade of William Leiper’s Grade A listed former Burgh Hall and Academy Building which, until it suffered a second major fire in 1976, had formed the heart of the local community. Completed in 1865, the former burgh halls marked the zenith of shipbuilding in Dumbarton in the late nineteenth century, upon which the town had originally expanded and prospered. For many years, the building was on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland.

The brief was to promote a culture of flexible, collaborative working in a safe and healthy workplace, provided in a frugal, efficient and sustainable building.