Present restrictive practices on the sale and use of Housing Association land are proposed to be lifted opening up run down districts to private investment. It is anticipated some £1.5 billion will be spent through to 2022 demolishing 10,300 homes (the bulk high rise) and building 8,200 private homes with 3,800 for social rent. From an inheritance of 238 high rise blocks the standing tally has now been reduced to 223 with a further 34 high rise buildings scheduled for demolition. It is expected that Glasgow's count of approximately 167 remaining tower blocks of 12 stories or more can be reduced to around 120 within the next decade.
Additionally Glasgow Housing Association have entered into partnership with Wates Construction/3D Architects to refurbish city council blocks. Using rainscreen panels and thin coat insulated render, current works encompass 55 multi storeys and 41 8 storey blocks in 12 locations across the city. The first block to be reclad is at Curle Street in Yoker, followed by 12 blocks at Sandyhills and Sighthill. Other refurbs include 18 blocks at Gorbals, Pollokshaws, Mosspark and Cardonald, and 25 West end towers.
French High Wire artist Didier Pasquette attempted to traverse three of Glasgow's tallest condemned tower blocks on 22/07/07 by means of a suspended steel wire, one can only presume the lifts had broken down again. Despite conquering Red Road itself Didier proved no match for the Glasgow summer and the stunt had to be cancelled.
250 Edgefauld Road : Published 05/04/08 15 Croftbank Street
A scrolling pattern inspired by the decorative fretwork from Walter McFarlanes foundry is to be projected to twin tower blocks, the tallest on the Glasgow skyline circa 2015. The pattern can be programmed to "grow" over the course of an evening reflecting the passage of time. Secondary low level lighting will illuminate existing trees and a goal post halo will define entrances to facilitate improved security and access.
81 & 105 Taylor Street : Published 21/10/07 12 Dobbie's Loan Place Grafton Place
In a suprise bonus GHA have added neon roof lighting to their Townhead Works. This will see 4 blocks benefitting from re-roofing, cladding, new bathrooms and kitchens, secure doors, communal area improvements, lift replacements and an upgraded environment bringing the estate up to the same standard as the neighbouring Dundasvale.
Site photographs submitted by Robert Gray.
Opinion
A central location a stones throw from Buchanan bus station and Strathclyde University makes the Townhead estate popular with tenants and students despite Soviet design. Published perspectives have been both poor and ambiguous but provided a conservative palette has been chosen refurbishment should temper the austere brutality of the estate and prolong its future in the medium term. Image shown courtesy Rupak Sinha.
The three towers of the Dundasvale estate are to get replacement doors and windows in addition to recladding works. Warmer tones certainly lift the mood in a depressing corner of the city centre but it remains to be seen how well a render finish will weather on a highly exposed tower.
Two of the more architecturally interesting tower blocks, of identical design (though smaller) than the five Broomhill blocks. Demolished as part of the ongoing regeneration of the Gorbals and Oatlands, block 487 was the first to fall.
New Laurieston : Published 01/06/08
Planning ref. - 06/01855/DC
Developer - gha/Laurieston Regeneration Steering Group
Height - 12 floors (Green Park/Bridge Street)/minimum height of 4-6 floors on primary routes, maximum of 4 on secondaries replacing 4 X 23 storey towers
Area -
Total homes - 1,726
Commercial space - 32,395sq/m
Retail - 1,750sq/m
Health/social - 3,570sq/m
Cost - £450 million
Location - Eglinton/Cumberland/Laurieston/Adelphi and Bridge Streets
Status - Outline Planning Permission
Start date - July 2008
Completion date - 2020
Major demolition contracts continue to be awarded across the city with activity now on site at Shawbridge, representing an unprecedented scale of works. This program complements an ongoing sequence of removals across the city centre as sixties era blight gives way to a new generation of Commercial & Leisure facility, transforming the face of 21st century Glasgow and preparing the ground for a new vision for Laurieston.
The New Laurieston masterplan seeks reinstatement of the urban grid by configuring land use around a sequence of blocks, attention is focussed on primary nodes such as Bridge Street which will be reinstated as the districts main trade route by reintroduction of business, leisure and retail, secondary streets will be tenemental in scale and tertiary streets will accomodate flats, town houses and terracing. Further, Gorbals Cross will be reborn at the junction of Norfolk and Gorbals streets whilst Green City Park (its crescent form reminiscent of Liverpool's Paradise Street renewal) will terminate the grid, a primary school at its heart. Taller and "landmark" buildings such as the school will be subject to design competition. Transport improvements are integral with a remodelled Bridge Street underground station accommodating higher densities with Crossrail and the M74 circling the periphery.
Project timescales have not been finalised, but will be phased as follows...
Phase 1 - New residentials will be constructed fronting Cumberland and Eglinton Street.
Phase 2 - Stirlingfauld Place is demolished and strong street frontages are created along Cumberland and Gorbals Street. Light industrial units will be created beneath the elevated railway.
Phase 3 - Norfolk Court is demolished allowing cohesive streetscape to reform along Norfolk and Gorbals Street. Gorbals Cross is rebuilt and the Green City park is landscaped.
Phase 4 - Bridge Street underground is replaced and a new 1391 space multi storey car park is built.
Opinion
Any visitor to Laurieston would scarcely credit it as a central district within a major city of one of the world's largest economies with some of the worst housing in Europe. Remedial plans invoke a continuation of the ethos that has worked so well for New Gorbals, this involves upping densities and forming a proper civic heart around a school and park with twisting arms of landmark housing reaching out to the river. Public and private areas will be clearly defined channelling pedestrians down public rights of way over watched by tenements thus minimising opportunity for anti social behaviour.
Prior plans
Eleventh hour proposals have sprung from Quality Street seeking rehabilitation of Norfolk Court. Director Paul Magnaioni has appraised the most central of gha's surplus multis adhering to the location, location, location maxim calculating that the twin slabs worth at resale will bank a healthy return on a relatively small capital investment. Shorn of obligation to the destitute Quality Street will be hoping to be less hobbled than the disastrous state tenure. Tabled plans hijack the eco wagon with token turbines installed on roofspace, reuse of the concrete shell will save additional toxic manufacturing processes and the grime textured brickwork will be punched out for thermally efficient glass and steel continued through new build podium structures attempting interaction with the ground.
Opinion
Presently crossing all tick boxes of the Council's newly unveiled tall buildings policy, it is difficult to conceive of any reclad successfully masking the blocks let alone mitigating heavy stigma from a populace and banks wary of suspect construction. Such scepticism is however tempered by the proffered £6 million cheque stemming the haemmorage of further tax resources through disposal costs. Although the scheme faces significant hurdles from vested interest ranged against notably residents demanding continuation of subsidised housing, Laurieston Steering Group angry that their masterplan has been dingied and everyone else lamenting detrimental impact on a £450 million scheme that had been poised to commence this summer. In saying such futureglasgow recognises the benefit of retained height and if Mr Mugnaioni can demonstrate a viable business case then Urban Initiatives should be receptive to that, integration would be awkward but not impossibly so. A greater eclecticism may even benefit the whole. Elected officials are certainly premature in so cavalier a dismissal.
With 12 Riverford Rd and 21 Riverbank St now reduced to dust process of demolition will switch to 124 and 142 Shawbridge St which currently lie vacant.
Opinion
Shawbridge retains a quirky atmosphere perhaps attributable to the eponymous bridge and stream which meanders through the schemes heart and maintains a healthy count of mature trees. The estate was built to a higher density than most with a mix of housing types and styles filling the voids between towers and are generally faced with warm pebbledash. Whether by accident or design almost enough heritage is retained to get a sense of history when ambling through, the fallen tombstones of the graveyard perhaps prophecied the estates ultimate demise.
The Lincoln Avenue council housing complex has been earmarked for demolition by GHA. Towers front and right will be removed in the first instance, the remainder following thereafter in a phased sequence of improvement. This follows reports of subsidence in the area, throwing doubt on the long term stability of the structures.
2-4, 16-18 Fountainwell Place : Published 13/07/08
EXCLUSIVE
Those taking an early kip this 13 July would have been rudely awoken as much of the city reverbrated to the sound of explosives. Network Rail insisted on a series of early hours implosions to minimise disruption to rail services ensuring a sequence of spectacular floodlit demolitions, the first of their kind on UK soil. Kicking the evenings entertainment off was Fountainwell Place at Sighthill where twin 20 floor slabs came thundering southward at approx 02:30. The Pompeiian ash storm barely having settled when a further dawn triple explosion was carried out at Millarston, one Sunday morning wake up call not to be ignored. GHA have confirmed demolition of 5 Fountainwell blocks with demolition of the remaining 5 Pinkston blocks the "preferred option".
Graveyard photographs submitted by Fraser Thompson.
Opinion
Sighthill must unfortunately rate as one of the bleakest housing schemes in the city, an apparently random scattering of slab blocks as wide as they are tall dominate a post industrial landscape of wasteground and, perhaps symbolically, a graveyard. Opportunity for improvement is therefore huge with chance to establish a proper streetscape and better integrate the estate with the city centre by overcoming the physical barrier of the M8 with ample land for any amount of housing and parkland.
Nevertheless even at this early stage tentative proposals seem to have aroused a degree of negativity by a minority of residents. In a diverse community of some 3,500 homes you cannot hope to achieve full unanimity, responsibility therefore rests with gha to properly present their plans, such a move is certain to assuage the waverers.
Three multi's at Dougrie Place currently undergoing recladding are to receive signature lighting making for a distinctive feature on the Glasgow skyline. Wind and solar energy will be harnessed as part of the project.
138 Fastnet Street 25 Soutra Place 7 Longstone Place
Red Road awoke to find one of its fellows absent this morning following a dawn raid by GHA. A now familiar mound of ash grants clue to a grisly demise as 15 Forge Place begins a new and happier life as roads aggregate. Significant in as much as this constitutes the first domino to fall in a sequence spanning the entirety of the estate save for widowed Forge Place (distance right) over a period of 7 years commencing with Petershill Court (slab centre left) next Summer, although risk of a cancerous cloud of smog drifting across the city may encourage less spectacular slow dimemberment.
Amidst widely publicised plans to demolish Red Road it seems the neighbouring Germiston estate has slipped silently below the radar. Lurking in the shadow of its bigger, badder neighbour demolition crews have been busy gutting Forge Place in preparation for blowdown as the decaying Red Road towers look on. Images courtesy Zolita and Ron Stirling.
14 Shaftesbury Street (Anderston) : 18 floors, 52m : Published 13/12/07 52 St Vincent Terrace (Anderston) : 12 floors, 36m
Height - Predominantly 5 floors with 6 floor features
Materials - Facing brick, render and aluminium cladding
Cost - £50 million (£12 million phase 1)
Total homes - 495
Location - Anderston
Start date - June 2008
Completion date - December 2015
Status - Demolition Approved
A full planning application has been submitted for phase 1 of the Anderston estates regeneration. The proposal seeks to reinstate the historic street pattern of urban blocks permitting secure backcourts with private parking and delineation between public and private space, maintaining density at 87 dwellings per hectare. The problem of the existing open plan layout will be tackled with reconfigured CCTV and improved lighting centred on a funding dependant feature sculpture on a prominant Expressway facing gable. GHA currently have no plans for reprovision on their site but masterplan allows for future integration within the new streetscape. Complementing Mizu (such as is possible) and a proposed refurbishment of Anderston station.
Opinion
Incredibly MAST's proposals seek to "conserve the skyline of the tenemental city", despite proximity to an alleged high rise district. The result is a suburban housing scheme that is ridiculously out of scale with existing and proposed development at City Wharf and Elphinstone Place, exacerbated by a bizarre block on the sale of land for commercial use stifling the life out of a significant expanse of city centre real estate, severing an avenue of funding which could have raised the bar on a desperately low quality build and perpetuating the estate as low income ghetto.
The desire to restore urban vigour bulldozed away 30 years ago is commendable, see Anderston as It Was for what has been lost, but the limp interpretation presented is more evocative of East Kilbride than the second city of the empire, the overwhelming lack of ambition is palpable with absurdly low density. The (Scottish) government had overruled a decision by Glasgow City Council to block demolition of the Anderston estate, describing the council's aquiescence to a vocal minority of residents (25% of those who voted) as "irrelevant and incompetent". That may be true and removal of some of the worst housing in the immediate city centre is to be welcomed but the plans as presented represent a crippling missed opportunity.
.
Location - 11,39,83 Waddell Court and 12 Commercial Court
Status - Approved
Start date - Summer 2007
Completion date -
The Waddell Court estate in New Gorbals is to benefit from new balconies, entrances, insulation and overcladding with associated landscaping. Flats will benefit internally with new kitchens, bathrooms, central heating and rewiring.
Opinion
A mettalic finish with fully glazed balconies make for a superior refurbishment, enhanced by symmetrical pairing and riverfront setting.
Woodneuk Court : Published 13/07/08 West Court Millarston Court
Amenity of a pleasant local park hasn't lessened pronounced social problems within the Ferguslie district of Paisley, factor in structural flaws and sharp demographic decline and you have three more explosive blow downs. Images courtesy Historical Paisley.
Opinion
Peripheral demolition of prominent negative architectural landmarks will enhance views of the historic centre of Paisley and reduce concentration of poverty but the sorry collection of noddy homes rising in their wake do nothing but suburbanise the inner city. A short term solution that is unsustainable and will come to be regretted.
Ardgowan Court : Published 23/06/08 Blackhall Court
It's not often something will slip below the radar at futureglasgow but on 15 May Ardgowan & Blackhall Court achieved just that when excavators levelled the last bricks of the estate. Precision destruction was called for due to proximity of high voltage power lines.
Materials - curtain walling with insulated infill panels and insulated render
Total homes - 336
Location - Anderston
Status - Proposed
Start Date -
Completion Date -
Structural repairs, including overcladding and re-roofing, are to be carried out on the Dalriada, Columba and Davaar blocks of the Anderston estate. The architects have attempted to retain the integrity of the existing buildings by reflecting the highly modelled facades in material and colour selection. Balconies will be enclosed on the principal elevations with tinted glazing at inset levels accentuating horizontality.
Multis
EXCLUSIVE 
for what has been lost, but the limp interpretation presented is more evocative of East Kilbride than the second city of the empire, the overwhelming lack of ambition is palpable with absurdly low density. The (Scottish) government had overruled a decision by Glasgow City Council to block demolition of the Anderston estate, describing the council's aquiescence to a vocal minority of residents (25% of those who voted) as "irrelevant and incompetent". That may be true and removal of some of the worst housing in the immediate city centre is to be welcomed but the plans as presented represent a crippling missed opportunity. 
