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Leading Architecture Firm Celebrates 100 Years

A leading Scottish architecture firm is celebrating a century of business.

BMJ Architects was launched in Glasgow 100 years ago and now employs 55 staff members in offices across Glasgow, Aberdeen, Belfast and London. Far from its small beginnings, the company now sees nearly £4million annual turnover.

Beginning as a specialist in cinema design, BMJ later established itself as an expert in healthcare, sciences and education design. Within its 100 years, BMJ has designed landmark builds around the UK, including many in Glasgow and the surrounding areas.

Founded in Glasgow in 1911 as George A Boswell Architects by George Arthur Boswell, the practice originated as a specialist in cinema and theatre architecture. Mr Boswell completed work on the New Grand Cinema and Savoy Music Hall in the city, among other projects.

One of Mr Bowell’s early high-profile projects was designing an extension to Templeton’s Carpet Factory in Glasgow, in which he utilised his stark, modernist design as a contrast to the building’s original grand, palatial style. This project cemented his reputation as a design expert and eventually earned him election as president of the Glasgow Institute of Architects.

The company grew throughout Glasgow and the West of Scotland, and was commissioned for projects around the region. In the 1940s, Ninian Johnston and Peter Mitchell joined as partners and, upon Mr Boswell’s death in 1952, the practice became known as Boswell, Mitchell & Johnston, and was viewed as a leading modernist practice.

In the post-war boom, BMJ designed and developed two of the UK’s largest housing developments in Woodside and Pollokshaws, Glasgow. At that time, the high-rise buildings at Pollokshaws were the highest pre-fabricated buildings in Europe. BMJ also masterplanned and designed Queenslie Industrial Estate, an influential industrial hub in Glasgow that is still in operation today. The business boom also brought BMJ to design IBM’s factory and offices at Greenock, which became the largest employer in the area.

BMJ finished its first of many large healthcare projects upon completion of Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary in 1975. The company continued work in the healthcare and education sectors in the 1980s and 1990s with big projects including St. John’s Hospital in Livingston. Most recently, the firm completed an expansion of the A&E unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

In the 1930s, BMJ started designing schools, setting groundwork for its near 80 years of education design. In the 1950s and 1960s alone, BMJ designed and built more than a dozen primary and secondary schools around Glasgow and the West of Scotland, with big projects including Hutchesons Grammar School in Glasgow, Auchentoshan School and Renfrew Academy. BMJ also has a 20-year history with The Glasgow Academy.

In 1988, BMJ won a prestigious design competition to oversee the design and build of Glasgow’s iconic Bell’s Bridge, a build that eventually won a prestigious UK design award for its use of steel.

As BMJ moved into the new millennium, it completed major sciences projects for the Universities of Glasgow, St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Dundee. The practice opened its London office in 2000, and Belfast and Aberdeen offices soon followed.

BMJ Director Graham Stuart said: "We are tremendously honoured to have reached our centenary year and it's a privilege to have the opportunity to continue the legacy of the last 100 years. For the future we look forward to building on our history, meeting current challenges and continuing to help our clients achieve their goals.”

Looking ahead, BMJ has exciting projects in the works, including the Scottish Crime Campus and Europe’s largest laboratory block building at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. BMJ is also working with the NHS Lothian on the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

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