A multi-function local government building overlooking the River Almond from within Almondvale Park on Howden South Road in Livingston, the West Lothian Civic Centre was built at a cost of £53 million and opened in 2009 by First Minister Alex Salmond (b. 1954). Designed by BDP architects and built by Laing O'Rourke Scotland, a canopied entrance leads to a copper and glass clad drum, which connects the wings of the building, which are finished in buff ashlar, zinc and glass.
Thought to represent the broadest public-sector partnership in Britain, the building
is shared by the headquarters of West Lothian Council, a divisional headquarters for
Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Courts
Service, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, Scottish Fire and Rescue
Service, and the West Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership. It includes the
Council Chamber, Livingston Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court. Bringing these public services together under one roof was intended to facilitate the delivery of coordinated services.
The circular Council Chamber has a quote by critic John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) prominently displayed to inspire the Councillors:
"Therefore when we build let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such Work as our descendants will thank us for and let us think as we lay stone on stone that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labour and the wrought substance of them, 'See this our fathers did for us.'"