THE renowned architect Sir Norman Foster has agreed to design a new FBI-style police headquarters in Scotland.

Foster, whose most notable buildings include the Swiss Re headquarters in London — popularly known as the Gherkin — the refurbished Reichstag in Berlin and the Mayor of London’s headquarters on the south bank of the River Thames, is the favoured candidate.

He has been approached by senior officers who believe his flair and reputation will ensure the centre at Gartcosh, Lanarkshire, becomes one of the country’s most iconic buildings.

Sources close to the project say Foster is “delighted” and wants to be involved. A senior partner in his London-based firm Foster and Partners has already visited the site.

Although the preferred architect, he may still have to submit an official bid in a competitive tender to the Scottish executive.

Arguably the world’s most commissioned architect, Foster recently attracted worldwide plaudits for his part in creating the Grand Viaduc du Millau, a two-mile bridge that spans the Tarn gorge in southwest France. At 1,127ft, the tallest of the seven pillars supporting the roadway is nearly 150ft higher than the Eiffel Tower.

His studio also designed the Great Court for the British Museum, the headquarters for HSBC bank in Hong Kong and London, the Commerzbank headquarters in Frankfurt, and the Metro Bilbao, in Spain.

Foster was responsible for one of Scotland’s most recognisable structures, Glasgow’s Scottish exhibition and conference centre (SECC), also known as the armadillo, which opened in 1997 on the banks of the Clyde.

Last year, senior police chiefs unveiled ambitious plans for a major new crime-fighting centre that will, for the first time, house a number of Scottish agencies including the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency (SDEA), Customs and Excise, immigration, forensics experts and procurators fiscal under one roof.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) the British equivalent of the FBI, is expected to be based there, as is the Inland Revenue. The building is expected to be completed by 2006.

They hope it will reduce bureaucracy, improve communication and intelligence gathering and ultimately help to combat serious crime such as drugs smuggling, human trafficking and counterfeiting.

In the past, the failure to share crucial intelligence has enabled criminals to evade justice.

It has also emerged that MI5, the government agency responsible for domestic security, is preparing to establish a permanent office in Scotland for the first time.

Professor Andy MacMillan, emeritus professor at Glasgow’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, said: “He has built in Scotland before and produces high-tech buildings. It’s a prestigious project and I’m not surprised Foster wants to do it.”

However, not everyone has welcomed Foster’s interest. “I think it’s depressing,” said Gavin Stamp, a leading Glasgow-based architectural expert. “There are plenty of good firms who could build this in Scotland.”

A spokesman for the SDEA, said: “This is an exciting project which we are looking forward to and await developments.”

Foster was granted a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1990 and was appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit. In 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, as Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

He became the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999 and was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture in 2002.

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