March 12 2024

The closure of a historic distillery in Port Dundas, Glasgow, has accelerated the transition of the largely industrial zone to residential use. The latest example of this shift comes from Halliday Fraser Munro Architects who propose a 454-bed student residence at 99 Borron Street on the 1-hectare site of the now demolished Dundas House.

Coordinated with substantial ongoing regeneration in the area, most notably the 100 Acre Hill site next door, the developers have held initial discussions as to how to tie their schemes together with a strong street presence.

Split between two blocks of accommodation framed by courtyards and gardens the development will be formed above a pale grey concrete base with upper floors in grey brick and dark grey standing seam. Responding to a substantial change in levels the main entrance to the front block would be positioned at low level off the street, with a ramped arrival route leading to the second block behind.

Discussing the need to build across two base levels the architects wrote: "Our solution to this is to create a base to the buildings with two clear horizontal datum's. The lower section of the base responds to the main entrance area and lower level of the site. Expressed horizontal string courses create a top to this level and provide architectural relief to the façade.

"The upper section of the base is formed with an ordered grid of extruded columns topped with an expressed string course. This treatment defines the base to the parts of Block A that sit at the upper platform."

Contrasting roof treatments for both blocks will be employed to add skyline variety with a saw tooth profile of the main block swapped for a sloped profile on the taller element.  

4 Comments

#1 Posted by Roddy_ on 12 Mar 2024 at 10:49 AM

Another example of the lack of design governance in the city with this perfect little island building hived off from the rest of Port Dundas. It was clear for many a year that Diageo wouldn't be there for the long term in a building that was long past its best. The site should have been acknowledged in Igloo's masterplan for the wider area and a proper street network designed accordingly. Those sharp changes in level needed to be addressed to make the thing coherent. Alas no.

The last thing the area needs is for building frontage to be hidden away behind walls/railings/trees with buildings that shrink away from their adjacent streets.Urban design 101. A poor, poor show from City Design (or whatever they are called these days).

I see too that the architects have been choosing bricks from the Ibstock 'Dreich' range.Top of a windswept hill - a grey palette - just the ticket.

#2 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 12 Mar 2024 at 14:29 PM

Herd instinct in play.

Klondyking off the back of the overseas student boom.

Hope they are running a bus -- back of beyond location regarding colleges and unis.

Deserves to fail.

#3 Posted by David on 12 Mar 2024 at 14:59 PM

This really baffling, and hugely frustrating. The Design & Access Statement is at pains to note that 'the 100 Acre Hill masterplan exerts a major influence on the proposals', and there are plenty of extracted diagrams from the 100 Acre Hill masterplan documentation. Whilst 1 no. proposal early sketch eludes to 'create strong north south link' from the proposal site to the 100 Acre Hill site, the submitted proposals appear to COMPLETELY turned their back to the 100 Acre Hill masterplan, with no link at all. How can you take a Design & Access Statement seriously when the descriptive narrative and 'design development' bares no resembelence to the final proposed scheme? If Planning / City Design have any gumption they should be calling this in to question, but why haven't they already before now?

#4 Posted by Roddy_ on 12 Mar 2024 at 16:47 PM

@#3
Yes, quite.
The answer to your question is the discretionary nature of the planning system in Scotland. Pretty much anything can be negotiated away under the premise of cost savings/economic uncertainty or having supporting documentation calling for x or y changes to design.

There will be little in the way of this receiving consent. The area is uncontroversial ie a former industrial backwater, and hence little opposition to the scheme (no neighbours). There is also a mix of non-student housing already on site. In terms of the design, it will easily meet the very low standards with which these things are judged by the planning department. Deviations from concept / design sketches will not feature negatively in the case officer's recommendations and even if they did there will be a clever reason from the designers and developers to promote that it was not the correct move in the first place.

Despite the odd, anomalous non-consented scheme, Glasgow is 'open for business'. This should fly through.

I had high hopes for this area but it's looking more and more like a busted flush. The 100 Acre masterplan and framework were pretty solid, but the stuff coming through ; flats by Collective and the townhouses by Stallan Brand are just dismally dreich. The mooted appartments on North Canal Bank Street need to be decent to lift what is hitherto really very ordinary.

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