Floor space - Building 1 : 124,874sq/ft
Building 2 : 40,602sq/ft
Building 3 : 62 flats + 13,197sq/ft retail and leisure
Cost - £75 million
Location - York street, James Watt street
Status - Approved
Start date - n/a
Completion date - n/a
Under revised plans a "B" listed facade at York Street will be demolished, the "A"listed facade on James Watt Street will remain. The block adjacent to building 2 on York street has this Residential planned. Public realm will see heavy investment providing wide whinstone kerbs, porphyry slab and setts, granite setts, stainless steel bollards, benches and lighting columns. Building 1 will be designed to reflect the materials and style of building 5.
Location - 45 Finnieston St (SP5), 110 Finnieston St (SP7) & 125 Houldsworth St (SP9)
Status - Masterplan Approval submitted
Completion date -
SP9: Houldsworth Street site
A stepped profile concedes to adjacent gable elevations to defer to a listed building and allow daylight penetration to street level. A corporate blue fin will be uplit in LED lights adorned by the Skypark brand. Unfortunately the grey dressing of SP9 is more liable to deaden than sparkle in low light blending with the drab SP5, not cogniscant or consciously abandoning its scrapped revamp.
Materials - Corten steel rainscreen cladding and brise soleil, satin finished steel roof cladding and clerestory glass and glazed curtain walling
Location - 280 Craigton Rd
Status - Cancelled
Despite having planning approval in the bag councillors have elected to scrap the CHCP, reflecting a new climate of fiscal restraint. Alan Dunlop is reported to have been scunnered by the whammy so soon after the toppling of 236 Broomielaw, it having been assumed public funding would underwrite the scheme: “We thought because it was a public building it would be protected from the downturn. We’ve been working on it for over two years and we were all ready to go. We think it’s a brilliant project that would change the way social services are delivered in Glasgow.”
As GCC pick up the pieces options being explored include securing: “new facilities at the Junction 24 business park development on a lease basis with a neutral cost effect to the Council.”
GCC's current biggest capital project would have provided community care and office facilities for Govan. The signature building was sunk low to the ground working with the contours of the land across a sequence of six linear blocks which shadow lanes of the adjacent motorway and interact with internal courtyards to provide light and break out space. Public and private areas are segregated by an east/west "blade". The scheme boasts strong environmental credentials promising to become Scotland's first carbon neutral building by harvesting rainwater, utilising natural materials and incorporating the mass of the land to provide insulation with aerofoil roofs oriented to maximise daylight penetration.
Opinion
Striking serrated blades of metal should cut a dash in an unattractive corner of Govan although the peripheral location combined with secluded form and setting does limit the buildings impact. A more central location and urban character would have lent greater community presence to the design.
Materials - Red brick, rainscreen and stone cladding
Total beds - 250, 3*
Total homes - 361
Commercial - 9,249 sq/m
Retail - 1580sq/m
Height - 9 floors (hotel), 13 floors (office)
Cost -
Location - Lancefield Quay, 145-203 Elliot St, Lancefield St
Completion date -
Jurys Inn are to proceed with a second Glasgow hotel, despite a damning verdict on their first venture by architecture pundits. Taking the form of a standalone element the hotel falls within a wider masterplan for the former BT site which entails a neighbouring office block (“a dynamic elegant vessel afloat within Lancefield Quay”), multi storey parking and apartments in later phases. The scheme defers to a new public square at the junction of Elliot Street and Lancefield Quay built atop a landscaped podium deck containing basement and semi basement parking levels. The scheme will be flanked by Park Lane's Lancefield Quay to the east and Cooper Cromar's Lancefield Quay to the west.
Attempting an industrial aesthetic more akin to Jurys recent King’s Dock venture in Liverpool the approach sees the hotel attempt to embody the nearby Finnieston crane, the most architecturally significant structure in the area. In attempting to marry such divergent forms the architects have devised a strong corner element to represent the trunk of the crane, an attic penthouse storey picks up imagery of the crane jib with the elevational façade presented as being suspended from the jib. More prosaically the hotel will reinstate the street frontage and provide good quality paving and planting along Lancefield Quay.
Jurys Inn, Clyde Street (2005)
The future site of Vantage apartments is visible. An early Jury's Inn model is also shown alongside for comparison.
Glasgow City Mission : Published 20/12/07 Official site
Glasgow City Mission are in process of a flit courtesy the god of capitalism. Land for the ministry has been provided free of charge in exchange for an existing property on McAlpine St (the site of 220 Broomielaw). The only costs incurred on the Jesus loving carers will be the expense of adding facilities and systems that do not exist in, or cannot be moved from, their current offices. The block is situated adjacent to the mooted Fraser Suites Serviced Apartments.
Presently dispersed administration and storage units will be combined within the new hub saving on logistical and rental expense. As a shelter for the homeless the new unit provides one to one support, pastoral care, clubs, trips and activities. These will all benefit from a new IT room and café, open plan arts space with kiln and potters wheel, gym, music room and a rooftop garden. In addition a range of catering, educational and medical facilities are provided.
Trains could be pulling into St Enoch Station for the fist time since 1966, when the Beaching axe fell upon the gothic barrel vaulted splendour of the Victorian original, according to the Strategic Transport Projects Review from Transport Scotland. The document postulates a back to the future style urban transport makeover for the city which would pursue a “step-change” in capability above and beyond the piecemeal, ad-hoc solutions we are familiar with. Necessity breeds invention and as rising passenger numbers and capacity constraints at both Central and Queen Street bite, the need for a new city centre station to alleviate congestion becomes ever more acute.
St Enoch Spur and/or Crossrail
Reconstruction of the spur across St Enoch’s Goods Yard, of which only a short aqueduct remains at Trongate, would connect rail networks south and east of the city and allow north bound trains to divert past Central, freeing up capacity. More fanciful measures include construction of a line below the city centre with a new subsurface station around George Square to connect the networks north and south of the city via Queen St and Central Stations.
Crossrail would see reinstatement of the Goods only City Union line for passenger use. This would reopen Glasgow Cross High level for possible interchange with the Argyle line at Glasgow Cross low level. In addition an interchange facility with the subway would be provided at West Street and Gorbals station would be reestablished.
Metro System (Incorporating Clyde Fastlink)
Establishment of a Metro system would see the conversion of some heavy rail lines, such as the Cathcart circle, into light rail. Such a hybrid system would be able to navigate heavy and light rail lines enhancing operational flexibility. Branch lines could be added to the rail network by utilising disused tunnels along with construction of cut and cover and overground track. One such idea is to reopen the London Road tunnel from Bridgeton to Parkhead thus connecting the SECC with Celtic Park, two of the primary venues for the Commonwealth Games. Following the existing Argyle line to Exhibition Centre it is imagined interchange at Glasgow Cross would open up services to the south but necessitate Argyle St stations closure and an underground pedestrian link could be constructed between Central and St Enoch. Successive phases would see the line extended westward from Exhibition Centre through to Maryhill.
Notice buses will use existing roadway for the restricted stretch in front of River Heights, the scrub land is the site of a later phase of Central Quay. The trams are a medium term ambition likely only to emerge as spine within a wider network.
Refurbishment of the Grade 2 listed former Govan Police Station and original Burgh Hall has provided a business centre adapted for open plan and `incubator` community offices, with new vertical circulation and secure parking. A previously painted and `blackened` stone facade has been restored, with the north wing having its facade rebuilt and a new floor added. Various later ill advised additions to the grade B listed John Burnett designed original have been removed and new curtain walled stair/lift towers inserted, providing visual clarity to the two separate building types.
236 Broomielaw is the latest high profile scheme to be laid low by the credit crunch. The international style slab would have towered above the Clyde riverfront, an unprecedented sight amongst Glasgow’s resolutely low rise real estate. These modernist pretensions ultimately proved an ambition too far for overstretched Kenmore whose appetite for risk dissipitated in the stomache churning convulsions of the financial markets. This market cooling has put any hope of regeneration on the key site on ice until the property market heats up. The location remains hot property however and land owner Scottish Enterprise have stated a warm reception will be afforded to any new bid when the site is re-marketed. The news comes as a blow to Glasgow’s International Financial Services District and gm+ad architects whose monumental vision must now remain trapped in 2-dimensional limbo, a glimpse of what might have been. With similar calamity afflicting Elphinstone Place future high rise prospects now rest on the shoulders of Glaswegian businessman Charles Price with Jumeirah, an onerous burden for one man who must now be feeling trapped in children’s nursery rhyme, “10 green bottles standing on the wall”…
The school will take pupils from Dowanhill, Hillhead, Kelvinhaugh and Willowbank primaries. All of which will close when the new school opens its doors. Assembly rooms and sports halls will be built on Gibson Street, linked by a covered walkway to 20 classroom areas and a nursery which will flank Kelvingrove Park.
The Carbuncles : Published 07/12/08
Scotland on Sunday article on the Carbuncle awards.
Prospect 133 : Published 03/12/08
In Winters Prospect we High Five Jumeirah Hotels arrival in Glasgow, reveal how a Lighthouse can hit the rocks and establish the first century of players in the built environment. We go back to school at Hazelwood, Andy McMillan and Tom Connolly reveal some home truths and it's the Don of a new era in Aberdeen. Gareth Hoskins Architects Venice zenith is explored and a virtual future is revealed.
Cost - £300 million (Total)/ £50 million (Faculty of Education)/ £36 million (Biomed)/ £17.6 million (Sport Centre)
Location - Cathedral Street/George street
Status - u/c (Biomedical Bdg)
Materials - Curtain wall and aluminium coloured soffit panels (Biomed)
Start date -
Completion date - Summer 2011
Strathclyde University propose substantial expansion across their Townhead estates. The first fruits of this program will emerge on the Cathedral/Taylor St intersection where existing surplus buildings will be demolished to make way for a new Biomedical facility bringing together a multi disciplinary team to tackle drug discovery and development, architecturally this will sit on an elevated glass podium interlinked with the existing John Arbuthnott Building via link bridges. It represents the universities largest single project to date and is hoped the laboratories will attract leading scientists to Glasgow.
Opposite this will rise the planned Sports Centre featuring 25m pool, two halls, fitness suite, treatment rooms and a climbing wall adjacent to the existing Library.
Migration of the Faculty of Education to a George St will free up land at Jordanhill for a new masterplan which will see refurbishment of the B listed David Stow building into residential accommodation, offices or a hotel. Selective demolition on the remainder of the estate will see removal of several later additions, notably the Sir Henry Wood Building. In a display of enlightenment key entrance and roof canopies will be bathed with light from the interior as it passes through a composite glazing, filtered by a mesh cladding to produce an ambient glow. This system takes advantage of the shadows cast by users within to become a “living element”, achieved by projecting light from the back wall. Lines of light on all floors reinforce an appearance of verticality. Motorised translucent fins create an animated façade by day whilst enhancing colour and reflection by night. Recessed LED strips in the structural beams are intended to extrapolate this dynamism into the roof space with alternatively concealed up lighting to bask the soffits in an even light. The piece de la resistance (given suitable funding) could be a mesh of LED’s embedded into a rooftop plant level, acting as a matrix wall for images, video and text to impart sponsored messages. Budget constraints however may entail simply extending vertical light in an equaliser pattern.
Works in the longer term involve demolition of the 17 floor Livingstone Tower for a new McCance Building. A new "Front door" will rise on site of the old Rottenrow maternity Hospital facing a landscaped garden area and the existing Colville building is to be refurbished.
Materials - fair faced brickwork, zinc rainscreen and limestone column encasures atop a granite plinth
Height - 7 floors
Total flats
- 111
Cost -
Location - 35-47 Kyle Street
Status - Proposed
Start date -
Completion date -
An abject tract of lands in embarassing proximity to City Chambers could soon play host to a 2,562sq/m car dealership below residences each enjoying basement parking and helping to obscure Victoria Hall. A U-plan profile lends itself to enlargement should the neighbouring Douglas Park BMW garage ever be redeveloped, sowing the seeds of a fresh future as Buchanan Galleries parks in the bus station
Previous scheme
A utilitarian wall of spartan White concrete panels, standing seam metal cladding, steel framed glass balustrade is tempered with bold red PPC metal balconies, raising the bar somewhat in an area otherwise devoid of stimulation. Come nightfall though (if visualisations are realised) the structure more readily asserts itself, enveloped within a luminescent shroud of cobalt blue uplighters as golden light burns through mettalic skin to define a randomised patternated sequence.
Reaching the big four-o remains a cause of anxiety for many, but in cityscape terms it looks to remain a forever unattainable goal. This emerald palace would have set a new height limit for the city by busting the 40 floor barrier housing a 600 person banqueting facility, hotel and associated office block. In the end up the scheme fell by the wayside as the partnership between Kenmore and gm+ad stormed through. In marrying visually with the distinctive palette of an ill fated Elphinstone Place, Cooper Cromar’s vision alludes to an alternate city where the future’s bright, the future’s turquoise.
Breaking News
Engineers have successfully broken through the outer hull of the crashed craft, which appears entirely inert but for one low level power source traced to a hold area in the bowels of the ship. The scarcophogus like structure, cold to the touch, is conjectured to represent some form of cryogenic storage device. The military for their part maintain that sufficient firepower has been put in place to deal with any eventuality.
A heated debate is said to have erupted amongst the investigating team with factions calling for a release mechanism to be activated. It is reasoned contact with any sentient life represents the only way the complex scrawls of hieroglyphs within the craft can be deciphered and knowledge gleaned of the advanced technology contained within. Others sage that hasty moves now prior to properly establishing the origin, motive and designs of the vessel may prove unwise.
This schism was put in sharp relief earlier this afternoon when assistant technician O'Brien was spotted scampering from a side door. The haggard boffin upon finding his passage blocked by the throng of waiting press chose to ignore tabled questions and instead shouted into the middle distance:
He's mad, mad I say... stroking it, he SPEAKS with it... low chuckle... well this puppy isn't going to play... incoherent muttering... THE DEVIL POSSESSES!!
With that the wild eyed prof lunged passed the curious crowd of onlookers and careened down Argyle Street, disrupting traffic and narrowly avoiding collision before staggering into a cab thought to be bound for the airport. A written statement was later issued on behalf of Chief Science Officer Evans by the military press attache, clearing up the confusion... The disturbing scenes witnessed earlier today were shocking but sadly not unexpected. O'Brien's erratic behaviour is evidence of a troubled mind festering malcontent at being passed over for promotion. His contract has been terminated. My team and I remain united in our determination to secure the safe exhumation of the craft and its contents for the benefit of all mankind and I assure the public that all necessary precautions are being taken. We have a world class team of scientists on site and I ask for calm as we pursue our common goal.
Published 26/11/2008
A heavy military and police presence around Central Station has stoked ongoing rumours that excavation work in the blocked off basement area of The Arches has uncovered something unusual, apparently now corroborated in a recent press statement by an Arches spokesperson.
An Alien Spacecraft discovered in the basement of the Arches has been quarantined by the British Army who are now patrolling the site.
Archaeologists have been baffled thus far by inconclusive radio carbon dating, leaving the experts in a quandry as to the likely veracity of the find other than to intimate that surrounding geology indicates that the craft has been buried for many millenia. In the interim the public are asked not to panic or impede the work of government agencies. Scientists stress that any entity capable of such technological prowess is unlikely to be malevolent in nature and would in any event have perished over such a prolonged period without nourishment. As a precautionary measure however the quarantine period will remain in effect until Dec 6 whereupon the venue owner hopes to capitalise on the find by organising small trips of sightseers to the site, strictly by accompaniment with military personnel only.
Leaked accounts from the scene cite: You know it could come from anywhere, above, below, a duct, that dark corner... but you know it will come!!, another warns: Fear hangs heavy in the air as strobe lights and screeching sirens hammer home the chilling warning that we are at war... these reports have already been dismissed however as further evidence of media scaremongering and tabloid excess.
Materials - Red Locharbriggs sandstone, blue/black granite and facing brick
Cost -
Location - 27-31 Waterloo Street/82 Wellington Street
Status - u/c
Start date - 26th November 2007
Completion date - 2009
Replacement office provision funded entirely by insurers on a like for like floor area basis reinstates retail provision across its frontage combined with the cities newest watering hole. The build contributes to a marked pace of redevelopment in the vicinity with Central Exchange, Shaftesbury House and Apsley House all in close proximity.
USA 2008 : Published 23/11/08
New York
Fly to Newark and plant yourself in the left hand aisle for a ringside seat of Manhattan, reverse the strategy on the way out and you may be lucky enough to fly over Central Park.
Miami
An unintentional CSI homage sees us in the Southern boom town (and correspondingly priced) city of Miami. Beautiful weather, beautiful people and beautiful seas in this beach mecca. A snap decision takes us for a bite to eat in the gator theatre croc walk that is the Everglades.
Florida
Space shuttle Endeavour takes off for the International Space Station to repair a damaged solar array and facilitate enlarged six man crews. Seemingly half the eastern seaboard had turned up to see the last ever night launch with four hour traffic jams along local highways. Even outwith the 60 mile exclusion zone it is an incredible sight, an artificial sun rising into the night. The fleet will be decommissioned by 2010 leaving a capability gap until the planned Orion spacecraft enter service in 2014, vanguard to the ultimate goal of mounting a sequence of manned moon shots by 2020, finally opening a doorway to Mars.
Breaking News 
