August 13 2018

Cooper Cromar and Drum Property Group have filed plans for a revised masterplan for three hectares of land off Govan Road at Glasgow’s Pacific Quay.

Fronting the current Canting Basin the land has already received planning permission in principle for a mix of business, residential and amenity use which will slot within a ‘geometric framework’ to provide future flexibility.

These plans have been revised to subdivide the land into nine development plots, increasing the residential space on offer while adding a visitor centre and micro-distillery to the mix while opening up- view corridors to Govan Town Hall.

Explaining their masterplan approach Cooper Cromar wrote: “The central view corridor, terminating on the entrance to Govan Town Hall has been a key driver in the final positioning of the urban blocks.

“The pedestrian route through the centre of the site widens between the central plots to allow commercial activity to spill into this zone and provide usable amenity to all residents, sheltered from the road traffic to the south, and to a lesser extent the quayside road.

“The design of the Distillery has also been carefully positioned to allow the quayside road to terminate on a large picture window, housing 2 traditional copper whisky stills.”

Revised plans call for 25,000sq/m of office space alongside 450sq/m of leisure uses and 60 homes, each with active ground floor uses. All buildings will be unified through a common use of brick, with regular window reveals to create the impression of a ‘modern wharf’.

14 Comments

#1 Posted by You cant fit quicker than a kwik fit fitter on 13 Aug 2018 at 13:57 PM

Cooper Cromar are fair getting their money's worth out of that generic elevation template. Like Nike strips at the world cup there.

#2 Posted by boaby wan on 13 Aug 2018 at 15:01 PM

Hopefully this is just a very early visual and the actual development is of a higher standard...

#3 Posted by Tomazz on 13 Aug 2018 at 18:00 PM

I thought this was the new Gorbals. Looks like copy pasted :D so much for being different and creating an original waterfront

#4 Posted by Billy on 13 Aug 2018 at 19:56 PM

Really? The Whisky Factory looks awful. Are they hoping to attract visitors? I will be giving it a miss and will not be taking any visitors there. Just looks like a factory. What a wasted opportunity. On the other hand the distillery across the river looks good and deserves the attention it’s getting. You have the Science Centre, The Tower, the IMAX then these pieces of .....too polite to say. These buildings don’t fit in with the three futuristic buildings. Hopefully they won’t go ahead. But knowing Glasgow bold designs and ambitious projects get rejected in favour of blandness.

#5 Posted by Pablo on 13 Aug 2018 at 21:52 PM

Surface car parks facing Govan Road... Just what the area needs. Sigh. Yet more ineptitude along Clyde.

SNP City Architect? Anybody? Has that idea just been quietly dropped? These are the kinds of basic pieces of anti-urbanism that a city architect should kibosh.

#6 Posted by E=mc2 on 13 Aug 2018 at 22:42 PM

Already value engineering the rear elevations to the open courtyards.....

Why is is the Dutch and guys like Caruso St John Architects (plus many others) can pull this typology off?

#7 Posted by Elmo on 14 Aug 2018 at 08:29 AM

#5 WTF is an SNP City Architect?

#8 Posted by Liam on 14 Aug 2018 at 09:37 AM

#7 - among the many wonderful things the SNP Glasgow council manifesto promised was to create the role of City Architect, à la Copenhagen... "we will learn from the city’s past mistakes and work with developers to ensure they create neighbourhoods that are well designed," they naively promised.

Oddly enough haven't heard much about this since they became the (albeit minority) council administration!

Then again, haven't heard much about their slightly more headline grabbing promise to "achieve the first extension to the Subway since its creation in the 1890s" either...

#9 Posted by Ghost on 14 Aug 2018 at 09:50 AM

So, so bland.
Big dumb biscuity boxes that have become the shorthand for 'housing' it seems.
Just pure beige........

#10 Posted by Elmo on 14 Aug 2018 at 10:54 AM

#7 possibly because you would need to employee an architectural firm to oversee this scale of work, and what one firm is to decide 'what is best' for a whole city? Looks like a promise that in actual reality is unfeasible, although it might just be that Cooncil Departments such as Building Control have been wrapped up in Sauchiehall Street for the best part of this year??

#11 Posted by Pablo on 14 Aug 2018 at 14:16 PM

#10... Tina Saaby, not an architectural firm, has managed the job in Copenhagen since 2010 just fine.

#12 Posted by Elmo on 14 Aug 2018 at 16:30 PM

#11 So if Tina Saaby doesn't like it then that's the end of that? Sounds a bit authoritarian to me, Glasgow would end up like the Edinburghers forever living in their historical pastige that nothing new can ever be built!!

#13 Posted by jimbob tanktop on 14 Aug 2018 at 18:54 PM

I always thought cities would be better off with 6 or 8 Neighbourhood Architects as opposed to a city-wide role. That way we might see variety from one part of the city to another and not have an individual spread so thinly. Of course, that would require a willingness to give the built environment some sort of importance.

#14 Posted by Wonky on 16 Aug 2018 at 12:50 PM

I accept all the criticisms as legitimate but one of the worstaspects of tbe proposal is not only the rejection of the Clyde, but also the rejection of Govan Road, especially refusal to recognise a prize wi nong view onto the magnificent Govan Town Hall aka film city- why for example does the distillery proposal not contain a viewing area of this stunning edifice? Here we have the oppprtunity for constructing urban edges and again failing to do so- also alongside the failure to connect pacific Quay to the subway at Cessnock as a long term stragetic plan for the wider regeneration and connectivity of the area--where essentially is the comprehensive vision we need to sew the city up again?

Post your comments