Listing protects more than just the building

Architectural merit is as much in the eye of the beholder as beauty, so not everyone will agree with the new listed status of Aviva’s headquarters in Perth.

The building will be familiar to anyone who has used the road network around Perth, sitting near the Broxden roundabout since the late-1970s and housing various incarnations of the insurance giant.

Described by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) as “among the finest of Scotland’s commercial office buildings of its period”, it is now considered of national importance and is afforded the many protections A-listed status confers.

Its hard lines and concrete may not be to everyone’s taste, but it has become something of a landmark.

The protection afforded the building also grants some respite to the erosion of visual amenity in the scenic western edge of Perth.

The Cherrybank Gardens have largely gone and the sweep of Craigie Hill golf club and Buckie Braes now gives way to a modern housing estate; desperately needed for ever-expanding Perth but a blow for those who enjoyed the previous vista.

Does it also afford protection to the workforce, many of whom have endured years of speculation about their jobs?

That the familiar modernist insurance headquarters will remain is somehow comforting.