TWO SCOTTISH projects one small and one large, have taken the top honours at the 1995 Galvanizers' Association Award ceremony held in London. The award icr innovation and quality in architectural steel work was made to the Edinburgh firm of Richard Murphy Architects for its unusual but functional drawbridge staircase in the city's Fruitmarket Gallery. Every part of the staircase, from treads to handrail supports (with the exception of the wooden handrails), is hot-dip galvanized. The staircase is pivoted at the top and suspended by cables at the bottom. When the galley needs more floor space at the lower leverl, the drawbridge can be raised, sealing off the upper floor. One of the judges of the architectural award, Dr Mark Swenarton, commerited that galvanized steel "...made an important contribution to the architecture of the projecct...The pivoted staircase forms the centrepiece of the project, both literally and metaphorically."
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