Trump's 'golf Disneyland' under fire

THE design of Donald Trump's new £1bn golf resort has been criticised by the government's architectural watchdog, which has "serious concerns" about the tycoon's vision for a Scottish country estate.

Earlier this year, the New York-based Trump Organisation submitted a series of sketches of the proposed five-storey hotel, clubhouse, holiday homes and other buildings to planning authorities in Aberdeenshire.

Drawn up by the US firm Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo (WATG), which has also designed fantasy-style resorts for the Disney Corporation in Florida, they show baronial-style structures with turrets and flags. WATG specialises in what it calls "Victorian vernacular".

The initial sketches are the only glimpse the public has had of what Trump's resort on the coast north of Aberdeen will look like.

But Architecture and Design Scotland, the body set up by the Scottish Executive to review nationally important projects and provide expert guidance, has advised that they should not be approved as they stand.

The Trump organisation has indicated that it is willing to revise its drawings, but its plans are likely to divide architectural opinion. One Scottish architect described the buildings as "Brigadoonish Victorian kitsch" reminiscent of Disneyland, while a second argued that they were an American "hunting-lodge" fantasy that could give the resort a distinctive flavour.

In a letter to Aberdeenshire Council, which will hold a series of crucial meetings over the next two months to decide whether the resort should go ahead, Angela Williams, ADS's head of design review, says: "Should a world-class golf facility be located in such a sensitive landscape, it needs to be realised through an exemplary design process to secure a built development and reformed landscape of exceptionally-high quality. We do not see such an aspiration in the designs as currently submitted.

"They would not only have a negative impact on an area of high landscape value but would also devalue the Scottish architectural tradition that they attempt to emulate. We consider that an outline planning application should not be approved on the basis of the information submitted."

The report concludes: "We do not believe that the designs submitted are of sufficiently high quality for this unique location, for a project with such an international profile, or for Scotland as a whole."

The Trump Organisation submitted its application for outline planning permission in May, reiterating its claim to be creating the "world's best golf course" on land at Menie Links. The plan also includes a 450-bedroom, five-storey hotel, 950 holiday homes and a golf clubhouse and teaching academy as well as two courses. Around 500 luxury homes will follow.

The project has already run into serious opposition from environmental groups, including Scottish Natural Heritage, as part of its flagship course will be built on a sand-dune system and officially protected wildlife site.

WATG has been hired because of its reputation as one of the world's leading holiday resort developers. Previous projects in the US include Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino complex in Las Vegas.

George Sorial, Trump's head of international development, was in Scotland last week to review progress. He said: "These were preliminary concept drawings submitted for the purposes of outline planning permission. It is a process that involves a lot of back and forth moves between the government and consultants. As the project evolves the design will evolve.

"We have demonstrated we are flexible and willing to compromise."

WATG was unavailable for comment.

The north-east business and tourism community is firmly behind the plans. Trump has estimated that the project will create more than 1,000 permanent jobs and inject around £47m into the local economy every year.

Good, bad or ugly

• PETER WILSON, architect and director of Manifesto Foundation for Architecture at Napier University.

The Trump International Golf Links' ambition is "to create the greatest links golf courses in Scotland, as part of a golf development that will become the finest in Europe, if not the world" but the architecture it intends to build around them is a confection of Brigadoon-ish Victorian kitsch.

A note to Mr Trump: Wouldn't you prefer the buildings that carry your name to be lauded rather than laughed at? Trump or Trumpton?

• BENJAMIN TINDALL, award-winning architect responsible for the Hub and the Queens Gallery in Edinburgh

I think you can be far too serious in architecture and it is necessary sometimes to provide an element of joy and fantasy.

To say this development should somehow fit in with local architecture is crazy, as a huge and distinctive golf development of this size is never going to do that.

What we have to ask is, is this particular fantasy, the American shingle style, suitable for the Aberdeenshire dunes?