The museum was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1983, and was named as Scotland's second greatest post-war building (after Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's St Peter's Seminary) in a poll of architects by Prospect magazine in 2005.
The building was awarded A-listed status by Historic Scotland in February 2013 in recognition of its position as one of the country's finest examples of 1970s architectural design [REF].