Loch Lomond Gateway and Orientation Centre
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The Gateway and Orientation Centre merges with the landscape, taking inspiration from a Loch Lomond steamer
Keith Hunter Download Original
Reception and orientation centre, containing an exhibition space, shop, administration and ancillary service spaces
While Loch Lomond is a gateway to the highlands, Bennett’s building is perceived as the gateway to the site of The Loch Lomond Shores development. It sits between the visitor car parks to the south, and the woodlands and the open expanse of Loch Lomond to the north.
Visitors move from their cars to a linear walkway which runs west to east towards the loch, before arcing southwards to the Page\Park tower.
The line of the route is reinforced by the linear form of the new building and by the 100m long green-oak screen wall. This timber element screens and filters views into the woodlands before layering the glass curtain-walled building itself. The storm-felled oak was gifted to the National Park by France. Elements of the building, stair and entrance lobby span the ambiguous space between filter and facade.
A straightforward 12m-span steel portal repeats at 6m centres for six bays, before being infilled by a second floor for the remaining two bays. The open space is rendered in Caithness stone for the floor, oak panels for the ceiling, and black paint for all frame and metal elements.
Data
- Begun: Mar 2000
- Completed: Dec 2000
- Floor area: 859m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £1.5M
- Tender date: Dec 1999
- Procurement: JCT98 Two stage tender
- Address: Ben Lomond Way, Balloch, G83 8QL, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Bennetts Associates
- Project architects: Denis Bennetts, Doug Allard, Mark Dawson, Rab Bennetts
- Client: Loch Lomond & The Trossachs Interim Committee, Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and the Trossachs Tourist Board
- Project manager: RM Neilson Partnership
- Quantity surveyor: Banks Wood & Partners
- Structural engineer: Fulcrum Consulting/ WW
- Landscape architect: Ian White Associates
- Exhibition designer: Campbell & Co Design
- Main contractor: Barry D Trentham
- M&E engineer: Hully & Kirkwood
Suppliers
- Oak decking: Broadwalk Joinery Services