Architecture
The stations are generally white, Modernist structures, highly glazed and with large airy turbine halls. The designs were stylistically advanced for their time and can be viewed as some of Scotland's earliest Modern buildings. The credit for the design is given to Alexander Gibb and Partners however is seems likely that the design received input from H. O. Tarbolton, the architectural advisor to the scheme's 'Amenities Committee'. This Committee was set up to "make to the Company such recommendations as they may think are reasonable and proper for the preservation ot the beauty of the scenery" (from the 1929 Galloway water power act). Tarbolton was designer of the Pitlochry power station which bears some striking similarities to the Galloway turbine halls. Whilst no direct credit for the design work can be given to him, it is unlikely that he had no influence on the outcome.
In their book 'Power from water' (1960), two partners of Alexander Gibb and Partners, A.O.L. Paton, and J Guthrie Brown (the latter of whom is known to have worked on the Galloway scheme) write that "The architecture of the power stations, under the watchful eye of the amenity committee...was given the most careful attention."
The buildings are now listed.
In great contrast to the bright pristine nature of the stations, the dams are organic and entwined with the natural rock. They are generally arch dams, curved in plan, bearing onto the side walls of the valleys except in those dams where only one side of the valley is suitable for bearing. In these latter cases, the end of the dam straightens out, and the last section of gravity dam (where the weight of the dam itself resists the force of the water) then acts like a buttress to the more efficient arch dam.
Read more about this topic: Galloway Hydro-electric Power Scheme
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