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Stallan-Brand think big with ‘Style Mile’ hotel

October 7 2016

Stallan-Brand think big with ‘Style Mile’ hotel
Stallan-Brand Architects have lodged plans to build a 17-storey ‘Style Mile’ hotel tower on the junction of Dixon Street and Clyde Street, framing views of the UK’s second busiest shopping street in the process.

With retail, a restaurant and public realm defining the lower levels the design adopts a ‘figurative’ approach to its northern flank, prominent from Buchanan Street, with a design ‘inspired by abstract images of Glasgow's ships, bridges and cranes’.

To the south, facing Dixon Street, the design is more rational with inspiration deriving instead from Glasgow’s grid iron city centre layout.

In a design comment the practice said: “Critically the architects propose an architectural language of Glaswegian design, embedded in the memory of the city's inhabitants, a meaningful architecture that responds to alternate street scenes.

“To the north overlooking St.Enoch Square the architecture is more figurative inspired by abstract images of Glasgow's ships, bridges and cranes, whilst the elevation onto Dixon Street is more influenced by the Victorian City's gridiron tradition.”

The scheme is the latest ambitious proposal for the waterfront site, presently occupied by a three storey tenement, most recently with an organic Page\Park design. It also complements a growing number of high rise proposals on Clyde Street including a Hilton Doubletree hotel and student flats further along Clyde Street.
 Glasgow City Council has been receptive to tall buildings in this area
Glasgow City Council has been receptive to tall buildings in this area
A bold design is being sought to enhance the skyline
A bold design is being sought to enhance the skyline

A more restrained southern elevation contrasts with a playful confection to the north
A more restrained southern elevation contrasts with a playful confection to the north
A pedestrianised forecourt will announce where the tower hits the ground
A pedestrianised forecourt will announce where the tower hits the ground

Extensive new areas of public realm will be created at both ground and rooftop level
Extensive new areas of public realm will be created at both ground and rooftop level

35 Comments

Sir Ano
#1 Posted by Sir Ano on 7 Oct 2016 at 14:32 PM
Are you having a laugh?
Charlie_
#2 Posted by Charlie_ on 7 Oct 2016 at 15:13 PM
Hmm. I thought it was an allusion to a (albeit inverted) map of scotland! This seems the perfect spot for something 'iconic' of exactly this kind of height but - despite loving their recent proposals for trongate and the Bhs development- im not totally sold on stallan brands execution here. Maybe it'll grow on me
Bob
#3 Posted by Bob on 7 Oct 2016 at 16:29 PM
Mental...!
Terra
#4 Posted by Terra on 7 Oct 2016 at 16:35 PM
I like it!
Tommy J
#5 Posted by Tommy J on 7 Oct 2016 at 17:05 PM
Brilliant.. exactly what the city needs.
A refreshing change to the bland architecture that's going up elsewhere in the city..

Also, I prefer this to some of Stallan-Brands usual work... piece of art!
Ines
#6 Posted by Ines on 7 Oct 2016 at 17:09 PM
I love it, will bring people down to the water.
Basho
#7 Posted by Basho on 7 Oct 2016 at 17:40 PM
What a curious melange of architectural elements. I like the tower bit, not sure about the funky wind tower thingy.
And why are suddenly Stallan Brand designing everything? Apparently they're designing my new bathroom suite. They suddenly seem everywhere.
Archibald
#8 Posted by Archibald on 7 Oct 2016 at 18:48 PM
Stallan Bland strikes again... kiddin on its brilliant
SM
#9 Posted by SM on 7 Oct 2016 at 19:00 PM
It's incredible. I love it, go on Stallan-Brand, think big!
Billy
#10 Posted by Billy on 7 Oct 2016 at 19:32 PM
I like it . What with the other proposal where the old Somerfield used to be, the area is picking up. The Morrisons building on Clyde st needs torn down next. What an eyesore! And the St Enoch hotel needs revisited.
toen planner
#11 Posted by toen planner on 7 Oct 2016 at 21:26 PM
Yes please. Could even make it a few stories taller...
Fraser
#12 Posted by Fraser on 7 Oct 2016 at 22:08 PM
Fantastic
Renzo Trumpet
#13 Posted by Renzo Trumpet on 7 Oct 2016 at 22:12 PM
Mmm lets guess who has been reviewing past AA files from the 80's. Peter Wilson loud and proud towards St Enoch. But Chippers towards the Clyde. Please decide which face you prefer and then make it consistent throughout!
Charlie_
#14 Posted by Charlie_ on 8 Oct 2016 at 10:43 AM
It HAS grown on me. Imagine the view of that from near the top of buchanan street! Wow
STW
#15 Posted by STW on 9 Oct 2016 at 20:25 PM
Exactly Charlie and imagine what the wind will be like on that rooftop garden.

I'm sorry but if the "abstract images of Glasgow's ships, bridges and cranes" on that north elev hadn't already made me feel nauseous then I probably wouldn't have thrown up in my mouth when I read that line about "an architectural language of Glaswegian design"
Tam
#16 Posted by Tam on 10 Oct 2016 at 08:59 AM
Love it!
notscot
#17 Posted by notscot on 10 Oct 2016 at 10:24 AM
It will be interesting to see how accessible to the public that the 'Extensive new areas of public realm will be created at rooftop level' will be.
Stephen
#18 Posted by Stephen on 10 Oct 2016 at 11:51 AM
Oh my god. Stallan Brand don't half want us to notice them. This aberration is more of the same, writ-large in built form, so we can all be insulted every day by the SB ego and architecture can be consigned to a dustbin of hubris and meaningless projects guided by hollow aesthetics.
Stephen
#19 Posted by Stephen on 10 Oct 2016 at 15:20 PM
The Feeling of Things by Adam Caruso articulately explains why this project and others like it are so poor. As will the midday shadow cast over St Enoch Square.
Ryan
#20 Posted by Ryan on 10 Oct 2016 at 17:52 PM
A very interesting scheme, perfect for the location, well done SB. Especially the elevation onto Buchanan Street ... why not!
Phil McGherkin
#21 Posted by Phil McGherkin on 10 Oct 2016 at 21:56 PM
Looks miles better than the daft 'Erotic Gherkin' which was originally proposed for the same site..
George
#22 Posted by George on 11 Oct 2016 at 07:01 AM
I really like this and it could help kickstart the regeneration of St Enoch's area which is crying out for improvement from the no go zone it is just now. Lets get it done!
Someone's at it
#23 Posted by Someone's at it on 11 Oct 2016 at 10:57 AM
Suspicious amount of positivity about an obviously bad scheme on a notoriously negative blog. It'd take a pretty arrogant architect to spin the comments on a public forum, although some might argue that would seem to fit right in with a pretty arrogant design.
Notice as well that none of the positive comments refer to anything even approaching analysis, just inane reference to how it looks.
Egbert
#24 Posted by Egbert on 11 Oct 2016 at 11:33 AM
I like it. It does look rather like someone's diploma/MArch thesis project hitching a lift on the back of one of the current crop of pared-back grid-elevated neo-modern towers, but that's no bad thing here. And it's infinitely better than that execrable Jury's Inn just up the way. Definitely a step forward for the genre, and for Glasgow.
QMD
#25 Posted by QMD on 11 Oct 2016 at 13:48 PM
Looks good but I worry about the shadow overcast onto St Enoch square. Any analysis on that?
MoFlo Bro
#26 Posted by MoFlo Bro on 12 Oct 2016 at 08:40 AM
Agree entirely with #23. Can't quite believe the comments on this story are genuine. This building is very, very clearly an ugly sticking plaster on a very big scar. Can't help feeling I'm being trolled here.
woh
#27 Posted by woh on 12 Oct 2016 at 16:57 PM
did stallan do one part and brand the other? one of them has gone a bit dada
mole
#28 Posted by mole on 13 Oct 2016 at 13:09 PM
C'mon Paul, you can do better than that!
Make the building with it - don't just tack it onto the gable of yet another generic, vertically-ribbed block.
George
#29 Posted by George on 13 Oct 2016 at 17:08 PM
#23 and #26 - so only negative comments are allowed, more your kind of comfort zone? Gracious, you must be miserable folk to work alongside...
Big D
#30 Posted by Big D on 13 Oct 2016 at 19:16 PM
Had a look at the application. Not enamoured with the stick on bit but I couldn't find a sun path/shadowing report. What is the point of upgrading the St Enoch realm to turn it into a sundial? There also seems no input from SPT regarding the Subway running directly under the site.
by George
#31 Posted by by George on 14 Oct 2016 at 09:50 AM
@29. That's obviously not what was being said at 23 and 26. I like how you follow your pious sarcasm with a personal insult as well. Such positivity!
The scheme design is awful by the way. Why blight one of Glasgow's few public spaces with this? Why so tall? Why so obviously driven by vacuous aesthetics? Why waste money and resources on vacuous aesthetics? Looks like arrogance to me.
GraemeM
#32 Posted by GraemeM on 14 Oct 2016 at 11:18 AM
Certainly eye catching. I have looked at this many times over the past couple of days, but I just cannot take to it. Wonder what it would look like from a view down Buchanan Street?
Armchair critic
#33 Posted by Armchair critic on 20 Oct 2016 at 17:20 PM
I like the idea and ambition to do something more than the rationalist architecture that is appearing everywhere, however the figurative elements just seem stuck on rather than integral to the architecture. Would like to see more of this type of approach though.
Tenement
#34 Posted by Tenement on 18 Nov 2016 at 16:07 PM
Regards #23 and #29, jus because people have a differing view to you, doesn't necessarily mean they are at it. By the way, I don't really like this very much, I'm not a stick decoration onto the side of a building kind of guy, but can appreciate the positive comments for what they are.
Helwyn Bellard
#35 Posted by Helwyn Bellard on 10 Apr 2017 at 18:53 PM
I cannot comprehend how they would even contemplate building this "thing" when they could build a completely different "thing" instead. Have they finally gone quite MAD?

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