Aviva UK Insurance, Necessity Brae, Pitheavlis, Perth

The Aviva UK Insurance Building is a late-Modernist insurance company headquarters designed by James Parr and Partners and built between 1979 and 1983. It was constructed as the world headquarters for the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, with structural and service engineering by Ove Arup and Partners and built by Sir Robert McAlpine. The building occupies an extensive landscaped setting on the slope of Craigie Hill, with views northwards over Perth.

The building consists of five modular terrace levels stepped back into the hillside with landscaped rooftop gardens. The plan adheres to a 10 by 10 metre tartan grid system. Nine enclosed garden courtyards penetrate through the levels and are planted in the Japanese manner with evergreens, shrubs and rockwork. The external cladding comprises ribbed pre-cast concrete and quartz aggregate panels with matching cills and copes. The vertical ribbing suggests the appearance of striated rock. External walls contain a high proportion of bronze-tinted solar-control glazing.

The building falls 30 metres in level from front to back. The superstructure is reinforced concrete with 309 pre-cast cruciform columns suspended on piled foundations over exposed clay bedrock. The lower core houses the control room, plant rooms for security, heating and lighting systems, workshops and garages, with an air-handling plant room running the full length of the building. External retaining walls employ the Criblock system, which uses cellular concrete structure.

The interior comprises approximately 25,000 square metres of floor space. The entrance hall, reception area and boardroom receive special architectural treatment. The double-volume entrance hall is clad in Botticino marble with extensive planters and a geometric floor pattern referencing the 10-metre grid. A marble-clad cantilevered stair accesses the gallery and upper floor, while escalators to the rear provide access to large open-plan offices on the lower floors. The boardroom features solid rosewood doors and panelling with a modular central ceiling panel in maple. Offices have elm-panelled walls and coffered ceilings. Washrooms and communal sinks have veined black marble tops and solid timber fascia.

Later alterations include modifications to the first-floor reception space, canteen and staff gymnasium area. Glazed partitions have been added to separate offices from the ground-floor reception space, and a row of small retail units has been added.

Two abstract stainless-steel sculptures flank the main entrance porch, created by Glasgow-born sculptor George Wyllie (1921–2012). To the right of the entrance porch stands a series of bronze plaques commemorating employees of the insurance company who died in the First and Second World Wars. These plaques were relocated from General Accident's former headquarters building on Tay Street, Perth. A 14.5-tonne sculpture in silver-grey granite titled 'Return of the Prodigal' by Ronald Rae (born 1946) is located beside the approach drive to the northwest. The sculpture portrays a parental figure protecting a child.

The power plants to the west, car port and car parking area to the south, and former recreation centre to the east are excluded from the listing.