Died: December 23, 2020. TOM Laurie OBE, who has died aged 82, was a quantity surveyor who helped transform Scotland’s cultural landscape both physically and creatively. He played an integral part in the founding of Cumbernauld Theatre, and was key to the setting up of WASPS Studios at a time when affordable studio provision for artists was hard to find. He was Chair of the Traverse Theatre during one of Edinburgh’s new-writing theatre’s golden periods, and brought artistic life to every project he was involved in. One of Laurie’s finest achievements was in the development and subsequent transformation of Glasgow’s Merchant City. Setting up office in the city’s old fish market that would soon become the Briggait Centre, and sharing a space with trade union-founded arts festival, Mayfest, he would map out plans that would transform a once-derelict inner city area into a vibrant hive of activity.