Materials - Metal panels and glass with wood or leather
Cost - £125 million
Location - 311-319 Argyle St, 85 Robertson St
Status - Approved
Start date - 2009
Completion date - 2011
A planning application has been submitted for this 6 star deluxe hotel development occupying a new build tower at the Argyle St/Robertson St intersection interconnected with 68 serviced apartments at the York St/Argyle St junction within a 2nd smaller tower and refurbished and expanded tenement block. The brainchild of Glaswegian businessman Charles Price the development is designed to be as green as possible by incorporating bore hole technology to get water from the ground to supplement heating, high efficiency boilers, automatic lights, very high insulation and the latest lighting technology.
Hotel Facilities
630 person banqueting suite
25th floor Health spa and gym
Pan Asian restaurant
137 space twin level basement car park
Conference suites
Rooftop infinity pool
Publically accessible Sky bar and restaurant
Coffee shop and pavement cafe
Hi tech Business Centre suspended above lobby
Opinion
Requirement to accommodate the demands of business visitors to the International Financial Services District has produced the most ambitious new build scheme yet seen within Glasgow. An energy efficient skin of metals increase solar reflection by rainbowing through the warm end of the colour spectrum as the tower soars skyward. Public spaces at street level are encased within a glazed atrium, minimising wind sheer and physically marrying new build with retained tenement. Conference suites burst out from the bulk of the tower in a sequence of organic barnacles, warty extrusions on a sleek veneer.
The first truly confident development of 21st century Glasgow promises to redefine the IFSD by creating a beacon across the physical and perceptual barrier of Central Station, something that will be accentuated come nightfall as the building is turned inside out as the glass foyer vanishes and dramatic internal environments are illuminated. Aligned with the waterfront grid the tower is set back from Robertson St to accentuate views. The serviced apartments have a dynamic relationship with York St cantilevering to form a veil beyond the retained stone facade, this differing approach of extruding one tower beyond the building line whilst containing the other within continues the theme of juxtaposition deliberately employed across the complex as elements of hot and cold, internal and external, short and tall, old and new, solid and transparent, all combine to enrich the visual experience.
Maximising a tight footprint the tower bulges outward to a point 1/3 up whereupon it tapers inward to a summit creating a unique form in profile when viewed from the river. Like Babel the tower can't quite reach heaven, although the triple height atrium crown containing sky bar, restaurant and "infiniti" pool promises to go one better in encompassing the best that the divine and Mammon have to offer. Illuminated at night it will create a glowing lantern visible across the city certain to elicit envious stares from those not fortunate enough to be resident whilst affording guests a spectacular eyrie from which to survey the city.
Charles Price Interview (Jumeirah Hotel) : Published : 21/10/08
Do you see rival hotels as direct competitors? Are you involved in a race?
I think that every hotel has a particular niche, Jumeirah have a particular approach to others even in the luxury field, competition is healthy and I hope that everybody raises their game and I hope that these hotels will be a major success because it helps us be successful.
How has the situation with Robert Fox (owner of Biggars pawnbrokers on site) been resolved?
A compulsory purchase order has been issued and that will resolve itself in the not too distant future.
Do you have funding in place?
Not an unexpected question! We have our funding arrangements in place, not only for this but our other developments over in east Dalmarnock. I can’t give you specific details because I’m also one of the approved bidders for the Commonwealth Games Village and that’s involved in it. So at this moment in time I’m not able to disclose any details but as you can see from the look in my face (smiles), I am quietly confident that even in the present circumstances we will have money available to develop.
What timescale are you working to?
There is no specific date yet but there will be one shortly and we will announce it. At the moment there is a lot of preliminary work going on, todays signing in the background with a technical services agreement. That means we can get on and do the final designs of the actual interior, we’ve done a lot of them already and start to appoint the professional team, some are appointed, there are some more to be appointed getting contractors, specifications etc. So there is a lot to do but sometime next year we will be on site.
The scheme was earlier described as “six star”, now a “deluxe five star”. What accounts for this difference?
Well no, basically it was the media and others looking at it which described it as six star. There is no six star classification anywhere in the world at the moment, it’s in the eye of the beholder. If people think it’s better than the normal five star fare then we’ve accomplished our purpose and aims. I think it will be, I think one day there may even be a new classification in the world starring of hotels but the designation that’s been given to us as something special will apply to this building.
What proportion of inspiration for this project comes from the heart and which from the head?
I think the two happily coincide. It was a commercial decision carefully researched, it’s very nice to be in a city that you were born in and come back to it, but it’s purely coincidental that we’ve had this building on a portfolio and expanded into the site. We saw an opportunity which others didn’t see and we’ve proven that opportunity to be real and we’ll build that into a major success.
Ian Simpson Interview (Argyle International Hotel) : Published : 29/05/07
futureglasgow was granted an audience with Ian Simpson at the press launch of his latest and greatest scheme, The Argyle International Hotel.
fgWelcome to Glasgow and congratulations on your first project here, you certainly know how to make an entrance! I.S It's exciting working in Glasgow, we've had a couple of schemes that we've tried to push forward at some stage in the past and we've never moved forward but it's a great city to have the opportunity of working in really. It's exciting for me to be working in cities which embrace change and look forward by recasting themselves in the 21st century in whatever way it is. It just so happens that I'm an architect and we try and make our buildings contribute positively to the cities future, we support that political agenda of regeneration, jobs and investment.
fgWhat was GCC's response to such a large tower next to the central conservation area? I.S The time we spent over the past few months working with GCC and the officers, people like Steve Inch and so on has been very, very positive and they have been very constructive in their approach and requirement for information and so forth. We've never been in a situation where we've been battling each other, it's been a case of trying to find the right solution for this scheme.
fgDid retention of listed buildings on site pose any problems? Has the scheme benefitted from their inclusion? I.S Not really at all, I've tried to take a very positive move in terms of integrating the listed facade and existing cupolas on York St and Argyle St and letting those original floor plates and floor heights dictate the heights within the rest of the development so it is totally integrated at ground level and podium level, we've even taken the parapet height and string courses of the old building and brought those through into the new building and inhabited the space behind the old facade as part of the serviced apartments and also the large ballroom which we're creating there as well. I like the idea of this juxtaposition of the old and the new in the sense of the solid and the transparent and what we've got is a solid existing building and a transparent new portion and then sitting above the transparent podium we've got the solid tower housing the hotel rooms, then over the solid base we've got a more glazed and lightweight tower sitting over the top of that, so it's an inverse effectively.
fgThe central tower makes dramatic use of colour, what materials express this? Was it always intended to create a landmark building? I.S The main tower is going to be flush, a very smooth surface with 50% of the building taken by glass which will be windows and the other 50% will be a metal panel, we're going through a process of investigating a variety of different panel types in order to get a gradation of colour from the ochre red sandstone through to the blonde colouration of sandstone as it goes higher. I think it was important on this site which was always a bit tucked away, it's an important piece of the IFSD and an opportunity to create a marker for the business quarter. It tries to take people across the barrier of Central Station, waving at them to show them what's going on this side past the shopping. It's a visual and physical connector but I don't really see it as a very tall building, it's a medium scale building really and we've tried to create something quite distinctive with its form in that's a faceted and tapering structure that's based approximately around the notion of the old cupolas that are on the existing listed building that we're retaining the frontage of.
fgBoth towers sport dramatic rooftop crowns highly visible from the Kingston Bridge, Was this intended as advertisement for passing trade? I.S I think the main tower will be, the smaller tower probably sits more comfortably within the scale of the context of the new developments, it's not really very tall. It's more to do with having quite an interesting juxtaposition of forms from street level, but the taller building will certainly have a presence from the bridge. It won't be something that stands out, we're used to designing 50 storey buildings and we just didn't think it appropriate in this instance here. This was about just trying to create something very specific to Glasgow and just tailor it to suit and I think the height that we've gone to, some people will say is tall but we think it's what it needs to be in order to create not only of the critical mass but to change the perception and visibility of the area as well.
fgThe angular forms of the design are broken only by curved appendages projecting into the atrium, what was the rationale behind this? I.S The main tower takes its angular faceted form from the idea of these sloping cupolas on the old listed building, so we had the idea of this structure that hit the ground and was supported on columns although it was wrapped with this glass foyer space, it rose up flared out and then tapered in to the high level and then the business pods were then elements that were almost floating in the space so they could take a softer more delicate feel to them rather than the angular form of the tower which really had sitting on the foyer space. We're exploring different types of wood and leather so they're quite tactile materials, organic in terms of shape. We want them to be as objects within the space, so with lighting and so forth will have a very dramatic street frontage onto Argyle Street and Robertson St.
fgThe tower employs a unique profile by bulging outward initially and then tapering inward. Was this to maximise floorspace on a tight footprint? Will this allow greater light penetration to street level? I.S What tends to happen is if you have a smaller footprint at street level then it does allow more light to come into space so we wanted the foyer to be very light obviously it's faced with glass but then the structure sits quite delicately within that and the tapering of that form will emphasise, reinforce the quality of light in that space.
fgThe site neighbours gm+ad's award winning Radisson Hotel. Did this present specific design challenges when contextualising your build? I.S Not really, no. I think Alan and Gordon have produced a fantastic scheme there on that site, it's a much bigger floorplate than our building but I just felt their building had a much greater street presence, we've really just got Argyle St effectively. To get the quality of spaces we wanted and the number of rooms we wanted to do, we've decided to adopt the height. You look around that area, you've got the Radisson, The Bridge residential building opposite, the other financial district buildings at the back. It's quite a mixture of not only uses but styles as well and I think we've tried to engage with the building that we've retained and integrate it within the design but then give it almost a simplified contemporary approach in terms of filling in the block with glass and then having the taller structure rising out to the top of it and that's probably more of our approach rather than layers of materials, we're more spatially driven.
fgWhat measures have been taken to integrate the tower with the street? and what degree of public access will there be to the site? I.S The ground floor is a big public realm space that has cafes, restaurants, entrances and staircases it's a part of the street really. The Skybar and restaurant will be publically accessible at level 23, which interestingly enough is the same height as Cloud 23 the Skybar we've devised at the Hilton in Manchester and that's a fantastic panorama across the city. What we'll get here in Glasgow is the formality of the rigid grid to the north and then the river to the south and that contrast from the restaurant and bar will be dramatic because you'll obviously have 360 degree views around the building.
fgHow have you brought together the seperate buildings and functions across site? I.S We've taken the facade of the old building and it's just become the facade of the new building so it's one building but it has two different languages to the street. One is the sandstone of the existing building and the other is the glass of the new building but we've integrated as I say serviced apartments behind that facade and we've worked with the floor to floor heights of the old building so the people who occupy those serviced apartments will get a sense of that historic building through the windows, the proportions, the old shutters and the details with that and the floor to floor height which are greater than the new build which sits on top of it, so it's just been encapsulated within the scheme really. There's no point in keeping it unless it can become a totally integrated part of the new proposals.
fgProgress Property seem to have pulled out all the stops to outdo the competition, are they the perfect clients? I.S They're very good clients to work with and very ambitious. They want the best and it's about having that positive outlook, just that ambition to try and achieve that and to push us as well architecturally to respond so it's been a very good working relationship.
fgLooking beyond the Argyle International, is Glasgow a city you would return to for future projects? I.S I'm working around the country and internationally, so I'd love to have the opportunity of working in Glasgow, it's easier to get to than London is for me. It's a city I feel a lot of affinity with in terms of the same way that Manchester's an industrial city that's reinventing itself, I feel an affinity with Glasgow in the same respect.
fgTall buildings have taken off in the southern cities in recent years, particularly within your home city, Manchester. Do you think Glasgow is slipping behind? I.S Not really, I think Glasgow is different in that it has a very strong and very powerful and forceful architecture and grid pattern but you've got these blocks and these grids and this stone and I think that's something great to preserve. But around the edge of the city in areas such as the IFSD then I think you can start to break that down because in many ways that complements the Victorian city itself. I think it's always about an appropriate response, I'm not sure that I would go much taller than we've gone to date in and around that conservation area but certainly further out you could produce taller structures.
fg Thank you for taking the time to speak with futureglasgow, we wish you well as you take the project forward.
Materials - Curtain wall glazing and stainless steel
Previous: Black and profiled silver aluminium panels with glass curtain walling, marble, natural dark red sandstone and granite tiles
Height - 20 floors
Total beds - 119
Cost - £7.2 million
Location - 54-58 Jamaica St
Status - Proposed
Start date -
Completion date -
Planning officers have eked out further refinement from y&g in this the third and final design iteration, proving (perhaps) that a belated push for good design is being mounted following recent architectural horror shows. Jury's Inn being only the most pertinent.
A fiery explosion of glass radiates outward in inverse cascade diffusing to clear with altitude and surmounted by a beacon of light, clean typeface stencilled into the service core fuses corporate identity with architecture whilst service access is concealed behind electrically secured railway arches. The resultant solution is observant of successful neighbouring development serving to simultaneously augment the Central Station arrival corridor whilst encouraging putative pedestrian revival of Jamaica St. Perhaps best appreciated from afar the lightbox promises to keep good company alongside more illustrious peers, the cumulative impact of this hotel rush potentially representative of the first gestative twitchings of a genuine skyline prior to 236 Broomielaws debut. Having weathered a storm of opprobrium Staybridge promise to confound the cynics with a welcome addition to the urban scene.
Opinion
Irrespective of the designs subjective merits, real concern was generated by the automated criticism of height originally given voice by Conservative opposition. Contrasting subjective opinions cited in justification variously veered from "hideous", "ghastly", "not high quality" and "not good enough" to "a slick modern building". Wider argument that "design standards fell well below what the city attained in Victorian and Edwardian times" and "below the level of design quality currently accepted by our competitor cities" are substantiated by the growing disparity of construction between regional capitals. Fortunately this particular brand of conservatism, more attuned with middle England nimbyism than promoting business and limiting state intervention, has been quashed by raised design ambition. Local precedent now exists for an optimistic appraisal of future attempts to deviate from 19th century building codes.
Previous Design
Consideration of perspective at street and skyline previously saw the towers verticality broken into 3 distinct sections. Street frontage had been toned down with a remodelled canopy so as not to overpower the listed Macsorleys building, the body (modelled on Optima) respects and maintains the existing building line whilst the crown reflects vertical emphasis and random pattern of mullions seen on The Sentinel. Feature lighting advertises the base complemented by relief lighting at the boundary of sandstone and glass with 2 parallel runs of LED's to north and south elevations. Concern lay at street frontage which appeared conservatised to the point of blankness, a double height glazed restaurant/foyer would better publicise space and facilitate street security.
Hotel suites are enveloped within a glass curtain wall which forms an inner skin overlayed by black and silver aluminium panels through which the glass interior is revealed by a sequence of regular horizontal and vertical voids, the effect of which creates a "light box" whereby the interior glows from behind expressing facade detail. Attention is drawn to the street front by a feature red highlight outlining public areas and an upgraded specification of glass and marble. LED lights will run the height of exposed glass on the towers north and south faces these will pick up a stainless steel fin detail in subtly changing single colour.
Opinion
Success come nightfall seems assured with dramatic lighting luring pedestrians down Union St although daylight effectiveness appears mixed. As each facade offers differing treatment some are inevitably superior to others with Union St apparently favoured over Howard Street where the strived for visual termination falls flat with a blank 20 storey wall of stacked aluminium. The design statement alluded to the aluminium panels giving way to greater glazing near the summit allowing the tower to merge with the sky by day and act as lighthouse by night, but this is not visible on published perspectives and could certainly be enhanced by dropping the height of aluminium further.
Location - Bothwell, Douglas, Pitt and Waterloo St
Status - Proposed
Start date - Late 2008
Completion date - 2011
futureglasgow set sail with Aedas through stormy economic waters for the launch of the practices landmark £100 million Bothwell Plaza scheme. But will the architects sail rings around the competition? Or end up all at sea? Initially penned by SMC Jenkins and Marr the originally submitted scheme hit an impasse with planning officials, critical of over scaled service bays, lop sided public realm and a lack of active frontages. Stuart Graham, Aedas project architect reveals: “A lot of the townscape analysis was criticised by the urban design panel and various other bodies in the consultation process. There was quite a lengthy dialogue with the planners who were not supportive of the scheme as it stood and as a means to breaking that impasse, European Development Company approached us (in February) because of our involvement with the Anderston area, to bring a wider vision to the area and join up what’s happening down here. “
The planning department subsequently stipulated to Aedas that any successful submission would require as a pre-requisite to have Waterloo and Bothwell Street’s treated equally. In addition the full ground floor should be enlivened with active frontages and diminished service access. Inclusion of the Holiday Inn Express “looked like over development” and was removed. “What we’ve tried to do is go right back to first principals, basically ignore the previously submitted scheme.” Stuart continues: “You’ve got a strong dense historic core and then a different sort of urbanism down to the motorway beyond that. The site is in a transitional zone, the motorway forming a boundary. You’re starting to look at a tall buildings zone, with the planners looking at where tall buildings might be permitted and encouraged. You have this cluster running up the side of the motorway with things like the Cheapside development, the Broomielaw and Elphinstone which is certainly approved as a tall building, if unlikely to go ahead in quite that form.”
Stuart adds: “You have to look at the wider context as well with the Commonwealth Games, this is a big issue for the council as is the general shortage of circa 3,000 beds. Losing the Albany has obviously impacted on that, five star beds are what the city’s crying out for. There is a big opening in the market, it’s really under provided for and the client sees this as part of that. They want this to be the best hotel in the city centre.“ The result of this intensive dialogue is a singular building comprising three wings wrapping around a south facing courtyard atrium space, orientated to maximise natural light and views. Clad in anodised aluminium, black granite effect plinth, polished white carea rainscreen cladding, a taller 19 storey curtain wall element is oriented to the western gable, the tallest commercial premises in the city, this minimises the effect of a prevailing south westerly wind. Weather combined with limited size of the city block and commercial imperatives counted against an external square.
An element of height was considered desireable from an early stage as Bothwell plazawill assume skyline significance given elevated positioning. Glasgow’s relatively low level and compact city centre is ringed by clusters of much taller social housing towers. From long distance views and from the air the city centre is difficult to locate, the reverse of North American cities. There are approx 150, 20 storey towers within the city, only 15 in the city centre. Stuart attributes this to a loss of confidence in the 60’s and 70’s. Right through the 80’s it was difficult to do things not in historical styles. Stuart says: “Glasgow has traditionally put tall buildings on the periphery, in suburban areas. There are a whole number of reasons for that, land values and things like that. But brownfield sites are getting used up, people are starting to go higher in the city centre. Our client wants a bit of confidence. Our aspiration is not a million miles from the College of Building and Printing, but dealing with each side of the building in a different manner. It’s responsive architecture.
But how receptive will the authorities be to such ambition? With over a 100 objections received from the Pinnacle despite no legal right to a view and extensive sunpath analysis, might the authorities back down? Stuart comments: “Planners have been historically supportive of gateway features in that location. They wanted the Eagle building to go higher. We’ve been looking at something that fits in with that cluster of tall buildings and forms a significant gateway feature. We want to respond to the immediate context of Bothwell and Waterloo St and the wider context of long views. In general planners are fairly responsive to that but there has been an ongoing dialogue over key views and some of our responses to that, there’s a kind of compromise. We’ve looked at 24 and 25 floor options, floated 35 floors at one point, but once you start to go beyond 20 stories you start to get into completely different lift solutions and lifts are a real killer in commercial buildings. The lift consultant initially came back and quoted 10 lifts which take up half the floorspace, you get to a point of diminishing returns. You have such a high population in the building so you need 10 lifts but then you have 10 lifts so you can’t have such a high population. It’s slightly different when you put the hotel part of the tower because you don’t have such high volumes of traffic and waiting times.”
Explaining the physical make up of the complex, Stuart describes: “Office space has been placed in the tower to give more height with the different floor to floor ceiling heights. The hotel sits on the eastern part with an entrance off Douglas St, a real grand entrance for a five star hotel. Then you’ve got the atrium space in the middle from there you’ve got access into the bars, function space and offices from there. So you can come down and have a coffee, use the café and the bars so we see this as quite a lively space and quite a unique one, certainly for Glasgow It’s that principle of a genuinely mixed use development, its something that is knitted together as much as possible and functioning together. The Exhibition space that the hotel uses, they’re talking about launching new cars there with one of the best restaurants in the city. They’ve got real ambitions for this and then you’ve got the function suite of the hotel looking down into it and then up on top of that you’ve would have a landscaped roof terrace.” Despite this noble aim however Aedas Director Richard Blair advised Prospect that planners remain uneasy about offices in a tower format, stating that the commercial case needs to be proven. Concern has been voiced that bringing such a volume of office space to market here may compromise competing developments along the Broomielaw.
Stuart continues: “We’re looking to create this big, bold statement. Glasgow is a city of big and bold architectural statements, it’s about being pretty straight forward and simple about how you do it, there’s some pretty broad brush strokes, applying some detail to give it a bit of richness. The big glass feature wall faces toward the west but imposing upon that is a big steel latticework that adds a bit of texture and pattern. We’re still developing the cores at the moment but there is a strong possibility that you’d be able to see the lifts running up and down behind the glass. We have a couple of images that we are developing that will show how these lift lobbies will look, a couple of glass walls and then uninterrupted views out to the motorway and the west. Unique outside of London at that sort of height. So the office space is going to be pretty spectacular and unique, certainly in Scotland.”
This dynamism is set to be reflected within a system of LED lights behind ETFE bubbles similar to the Allianz Arena, Munich. Down on the ground different treatments have been adopted for each frontage to recreate a richness of the city block. Bold, abstract elements express corner conditions while elevations are treated with a play of horizontals and verticals. Modular off site construction will be employed for the construction of all hotel rooms.
A key consideration has been linking with the final phase of the Anderston Centre masterplan. This would remove the remainder of the existing megastructure and overhead walkways to re-establish pedestrian through routes. Speaking on the neighbouring Anderston area Stuart says: “We’re also looking at a wider vision for the masterplan area for how it might expand into the Marriott site. It’s very early days, it’s all up for grabs at the moment, nothing’s finalised. We just want to set the context here where you can start to look at a wider part of the city. We can address the motorway on ramp there so you can start to look at this as a series of objects or events across that route, this is all speculative stuff but you could have that whole corridor as a sequence of events, a cluster of towers.
Previous design SMC Jenkins and Marr's Original scheme encompassed three seperate buildings, a 5* Crowne Plaza on Pitt St incorporating Glasgow's biggest function suite catering for 1,000 guests, a brasserie, two floor piano bar, gym and conference centre. Waterloo St would have accommodated a 3* Holiday Inn Express and an office block featuring ground level retail above 2 levels of underground parking accommodating 155 vehicles.
The Bothwell St elevation will form a public entrance to a new courtyard illuminated by decorative low height columns, recessed LED's embedded in the overhanging canopy bathe the courtyard in a cool white light. Signature lighting will transform the complex by night with with the glass facade floodlit by powerful up and down lighters and a layer of sequenced colour changes. Bothwell Plaza represents just one front in a massive transformation of Glasgow's hotel sector over the coming years, joining as it does similarly ambitious plans for the Thistle and Marriott. Holiday Inn also have a new hotel planned for Hamilton. The site neighbours the completed Pinnacle, Aurora, the under construction Franborough House and mothballed Douglas House.
Opinion
Bothwell Plaza constitutes the North's single largest hotels complex representing a quadrupling in scale from the present premises, unfortunately this scale has not manifested itself exceptionally in height terms as the design seeks to exploit the presently underutilised full city block. Consequently the rear elevation has a massiveness which whilst lending urban gravity lacks the elegance a taller solution would have brought, nor is it aided by service bays lining Waterloo St and an outmoded pedestrian link to the Anderston Centre.
A courtyard links twin projecting wings onto Bothwell St offering a dynamic gateway to the CBD from M8 whilst providing a new public space in a high quality setting opening obstructed views to St Vincent St Church, although repositioning to the Bothwell/Pitt St intersection would have created a less claustrophobic environment and exposed the church fully to view. Nonetheless the proposal represents immeasurable improvement of amenity, built form and urban environment ushering significant welcome investment. The creaping canyon of glass and stone now edging down Bothwell St certainly speaks of quality. Unfortunately the contemporary disregard for detailing, grounded in idealistic and cost terms, has contributed to a certain blandisement of environment. Bothwell St suffers immensely from the loss of the YMCA and Christian Institute.
Materials - Curtain walling, brass/copper cladding and copper mesh
Height - 14 floors
Total beds - 182 bed, 4 star hotel
Cost - £16 million
Location - 236-246 Clyde Street
Status - Approved
Start date - Early 2008
Completion date -
A row of undistinguished Georgian terraces are to make way for the city's latest hotel development immediately adjacent to Unicorn. An impressive full height atrium aligned with St Andrew's suspension bridge rises to a glazed roof making fullest use of available light whilst a Steel Mesh Screening device is employed to provide a sense of enclosure and privacy to bedrooms which face onto Clyde St. Spa and function facilities are provided within a split level basement.
Opinion
With the present attraction of riverfront and city centre property Clyde Street is developing beyond recognition. The most impressive build thus far unveiled marks the cities first attempt at contemporary deco with NY style set backs aligned with key datums and a rich mettalic palette of copper and brass echoing the neighbouring "witches hat" before tapering skyward with a correspondant lightening of finish. This evocation of architectures golden age and its exponent city marks a departure from gm+ad's trend to modernism and a welcome return to the Gotham extravagance of the Radisson.
The phased treatment of the neighbouring Unicorn developments makes for greater visual interest by increasing the diversity of architecture. Organic development across each individual plot is how Clyde Street has traditionally developed, but of course all this is soon to be obliterated by Custom House Quay.
New hotel provision is proposed to augment Glasgow's exponentially mushrooming stock following hot on the heels of neighbouring Staybridge. Located at a long standing gapsite of some 5 years, the hotel aims to heal a wound in the streetscape whilst simultaneously contextualising the neighbouring Grade A listed Gardners Warehouse. Proposals seek establishment of a basement kitchen area servicing a bar/restaurant on the street frontage, 9 floors of accommodation rest above, the uppermost 3 recessed to negate intrusion.
A large central glazed area surrounded by a frame is set back from the pavement line, echoing the proportionality of solid to void seen on Gardners. Further consistency is achieved by extrapolating the rhythm of columns on Gardners, suggestive of 2 additional bays. Restricted street frontage is overcome by intoduction of a central atrium allowing bedrooms per floor to be maximised, satisying the demands of accountants. The Central Station corridors importance is equated with Jamaica Street such that front and rear elevations are accorded equivalent architectural consideration.
Opinion
Recessed bay and columns are the schemes strongest feature, yet compromised by excessive subserviance to adjacent properties. The 6th floor pediment, designed to bridge a height differential between warehouses, is clunky and muffles elegant classical proportion.
Materials - Smooth acrylic render & black ceramic granite tiles
Cost -
Location - 11 Oswald St
Start date -
Completion date -
Recent commercial expansion of the IFSD makes viable renovation of this warehouse into boutique hotel accommodation following a succession of failed leisure & retail ventures from the 1990's. An independant steel frame will support a 3 storey rooftop spa extension, permitting continuity of roofscape along Oswald St when read in relation to Fusion.
Contrasting silhouettes of old and new aim to ghost the extension under cloak of darkness leaving window apparitions to flicker below the ornate Clydeport chimmney, commandeered as visual signpost by feature lighting. A diverse mix of individual suites will be created including gothic styled interiors in the basement benefitting from restoration of brick vaulted ceilings.
Opinion
Sombre Classicism looks to be rudely awoken by a top heavy granite monolith and Crazy House lighting. Eroded stonework is to be repaired but overpainting strips character, exposed stone would have sat more readily alongside granite.
Materials - Natural Sandstone, granite, glazing & metal louvres
Height - 6 floors
Total beds - 200
Cost - £19 million
Location - 65 Ingram St/Albion St & Candleriggs
Status - Proposed
Start date - Early 2009
Completion date -
An embarrassing NCP looks set to finally meet erasure thanks to James Montgomery's scheme to supply a hotel with street level bar, restaurant, retail and underground parking under internal roof terrace to this long dormant corner of Merchant City.
Opinion
The hotel follows a collage of individual gables housing 79 homes from AWG & CMM. collectively interesting if individually poor they marked an attempt to marry contemporary architecture with historic styles, and not particularly succeeding. Current plans offer a more cohesive, conservative and arguably tasteful solution. A seamless shear surface of polished granite sets a playful fenestration of mixed flush and deep set glazing, continuation of traditional sequential window alignment abrubtly juxtaposes with a staggered chessboard itself now routine but with ground and upper level significance imparted by extruding to double height. Above the tenement roof line design has been freed from convention to allow a penthouse floor of full height glazing broken by random angled louvres. A sequence of Mondriaan dark metal enclosures and colour highlights outline the retail frontage which serves to interlock light and dark build elements.
Following announcement of a revamped Olympia Shopping Centre, G1 Group have revealed plans to replace the current dilapidated Stuart Hotel with a cutting edge new build housing restaurant, bar, cafe and function rooms below hotel accommodation.
Opinion
A striking cube of mettalic and glass elements could soon grace East Kilbride. A distinctive look is achieved by visualising distinction of use in interlocking silver and bronze halves to form a whole that aims for gold in East Kilbride's leisure circuit.
P&P have a tough (impossible?) challenge in replacing the Elgin Congregational Church with new hotel provision although the Church's loss does present significant opportunity for substantial new build emphasising a key corner location. To what extent this opportunity is grasped now rests in the hands of developer and architect. Historical image provided courtesy Scottish Cinemas.
Blythswood Square : Published 11/08/07 Official site
This B listed building comprises a section of Adelaide Place, designed by Robert Black around 1839 which will be augmented by a contemporary block of accommodation to the rear access at Snewmilnsiehall Lane. This melds with the town house by way of a top lit atria space to improve internal circulation. Many original features such as decorative staircases, cornicing, doors, skirting and skylights remain present although spaces have been subdivided, this will be reversed. The street will be activated by public use of the impressive brick vaulted basement and ground floor areas.
This 104 bed hotel forms part of the Hamilton Ahead initiative which includes new retail and cinema multiplex. Supplements Intercontinental's Glasgow plans.
Hotels
Please note that further hotels are planned within wider mixed use developments at Meadowside Quay, SECC East, citizenM, Collegelands, Skypark, Speirs Locks and Queen Margaret Drive 
