Dundee Institute Of Art & Technology, 36-40 Bell Street, Dundee

Dundee Institute of Art & Technology, 36-40 Bell Street, Dundee

A major educational complex of 1907, comprising a symmetrical front building to Bell Street designed by James H Langlands and William G Lamond, with a substantial rear quadrangle building designed by Robert Gibson.

The front building is a three-storey, thirteen-bay structure in Edwardian Baroque style, constructed in red sandstone ashlar with the ground floor pavilions channel-cut and finished with a slate roof. The façade is articulated by a base course and moulded lintel courses to the ground, first and second floors, with a corniced ground floor and wallhead course. Windows throughout are six-pane timber top-hoppers with cavetto-splayed reveals and keystoned moulded lintels; the recessed bays at second floor contain sash and case windows with pendant keyblocks and recessed dwarf Ionic columns. Pediments crown the advanced centre bay and pavilions.

The advanced centre bay features a round-headed entrance archway with a cartouche keystone and cavetto-splayed reveals, flanked by two wrought-iron gates with richly decorated panels. Small multi-pane windows flank the entrance, and above rises a massive consoled broken pediment with a swagged cartouche at the tympanum. The first and second floors above contain three windows each, flanked by paired Ionic half-columns that are banded together in their bottom third and set on cartouche bases. A keyblocked oculus occupies the tympanum. Five bays receding to left and right of the centre contain five windows to all floors. The pavilions at the far left and right are advanced and feature keystoned round-headed arches to the ground floor with recessed multi-pane glazing; one incorporates a round-headed close entrance to Irvine Square. Each pavilion has two windows to the first floor and a recessed window to the pedimented second floor, with a round-headed lintel panel flanked by paired dwarf half-columns and pilasters.

The rear courtyard elevation presents a five-bay symmetrical composition. The centre bay is advanced and contains a recessed two-storey keystoned round-headed panel, a rounded projecting bay at ground floor with four windows and a demispherical roof, flanked by bipartite windows. A five-light stair window lights the first floor above, with a five-light window to the second floor. Two bays slightly recessed to left and right feature keystoned round-headed windows to the ground floor flanked by bipartites, with bipartite and four-light windows to the first and second floors.

The interior of the front building contains a marble-lined entrance foyer opening into a large segmental-arched inner doorpiece comprised of paired, pedimented two-leaf semi-glazed doors with sidelights and a leaded fanlight incorporating a timber oculus and Art-Nouveau pattern stained glass. An imperial staircase rises with turned timber balusters and eight elongated newel posts bearing decorative metal lampstandards. A large Diocletian-type stair window with Art-Nouveau pattern stained glass illuminates the top of the stair. Plaster relief figures representing learning and knowledge occupy the spandrels. Panelled and boarded dado treatment runs along the principal corridors, whilst the former first-floor board room is fitted with oak dado featuring fielded and carved panelling.

The rear building forms a three-storey quadrangle adjoining the rear of the front block. It is constructed in stugged and snecked pinkish sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and a piended slate roof. String courses run to the first and second floors, with corniced and coped blocking courses at wallhead. Round-headed doorways with two-leaf semi-glazed doors, sidelights and leaded fanlights punctuate the elevations. Windows are mostly bipartite and tripartite with chamfered arrises, timber frames with plate glass to the bottom and leaded top-hoppers. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative fixings complete the exterior.

The north outer elevation comprises an eleven-bay symmetrical block to centre. A slightly advanced centre bay contains a ground-floor door and a four-light window to the first floor, with a four-light segmental window to the second floor beneath a gable. Four bays recessed left and right of centre contain four bipartites to all floors. Bays slightly advanced at the far left and right feature keystoned round-headed tripartite windows to the ground floor, with tripartites to the first and second floors beneath gables. Five bays recessed to the outer left have their ground floor masked by a bay linking to the former boiler house, with five bipartite windows to the first and second floors above. Three bays recessed to the outer right contain three bipartite windows to all floors. Two single windows occupy each floor at the right return elevation. Three hall-finial gables with blind oculi feature on this northern elevation.

The eastern outer elevation to Irvine Square contains seven bays with various windows to all floors. The western outer elevation was altered as part of a later twentieth-century addition, which includes a two-storey link over the right side bay.

The south inner courtyard elevation is a six-bay symmetrical composition. Two slightly advanced centre bays contain two tripartite windows to all floors. Single bays recessed left and right of centre feature four-light windows to all floors. Outer bays are slightly advanced and splayed at the re-entrant angle, with a door to the ground floor and tripartite windows to the first and second floors.

The east and west inner courtyard elevations are each five-bay and symmetrical. Three slightly advanced bays to centre contain three tripartite windows to all floors. Slightly recessed bays to left and right have four-light windows to all floors.

The interior of the rear building contains a well stair with decorative metal balusters supported on three Doric columns at ground floor, three Ionic columns at first floor and three Corinthian columns at second floor.

A former boiler house is advanced from the north-east angle of the north elevation of the quadrangle. It is a two-storey rectangular structure in stugged and snecked pinkish rubble sandstone with a piened slate roof, base course, moulded cornice to the ground floor and corniced and coped parapet. Timber-framed bipartite windows with single panes to the bottom and leaded top-hoppers occupy the ground floor. Multi-pane horizontal oval windows appear above, with two ranges of continuous rooflights to the roof.

The western inner elevation features two-leaf panelled doors at centre right within a keystoned round-headed doorcase with a leaded fanlight, flanked by two windows and five oval windows above. A slightly advanced bay to the left contains a ground-floor door with an oval window above. A single-storey gabled bay to the right, containing a door, links to the north elevation of the quadrangle.

The eastern outer elevation displays four bipartite windows to the upper level and a keystoned round-headed doorway with two-leaf panelled doors and a fanlight to the left. The base of the former chimney stalk remains to the right.

The interior of the former boiler house contains a full-height space with steel roof struts. The base of the stalk is clad in white ceramic tiles, and one original boiler remains in situ.

A north wing, originally of single storey over a raised basement, extends as an eleven-bay wing in the style of the main buildings, though it has received additions to its first floor and western side.