September 18 2018

A planning application has been drawn up by new practice Carson+Sall with the aim of erecting 144 apartments at a longstanding gap site on Hydepark Street, Glasgow, next to the Central Quay masterplan.

Rising to 18 storeys the proposed scheme rises above a double-height plinth containing parking to a varied skyline with fully glazed bays broken by solid columns and would employ off-site manufacturing methods to speed construction.

Describing the proposed appearance of the development the architects wrote: “The development includes west facing shared private amenity space located above the car park and private individual terraces to flats adjacent to this and on the roofs of each step back.

“The overall development in essence is an optimistic ‘living machine’ celebrating Glasgow’s architecture, design, urban planning and engineering located near its birth place on the banks of the River Clyde.”

It is proposed to clad the build in Jura limestone panels or similar with powder coated aluminium wall panels and glazing.

9 Comments

#1 Posted by Mikey on 18 Sep 2018 at 17:25 PM

Before the usual Urban Realm naysayers lay into this, I’d recommended following the link and reading the full design and access statement. You get a much better feel for the proposal than from the images or blurb above.

While it’s no V&A creatively, there’s a lot of positivity here. The scale and height is great, and will add weight to the skyline (seems as though that’s where the wider riverfront is heading, which is no bad thing.) The finishing looks much better than the plastic cladding of elsewhere. Also it’s good that it’s a mixture of private rental, and just student flats or another hotel.

The full proposal gives you more of a sense of its context too. It’s going to (hopefully) be embedded and surrounded by other new and larger buildings, so shouldn’t really be judged in isolation.

Would be great to produce a visual summary of all the proposed developments along the Clyde.

#2 Posted by rossboss on 19 Sep 2018 at 12:53 PM

I am sorry but this looks dire. I just do not understand the obsession in Glasgow of building high when all it does is sterilize the streetscape. Views for the few and misery for the rest of us that have to look at it.

#3 Posted by James Hepburn on 19 Sep 2018 at 13:05 PM

Tiny little rooms in overpriced shoe boxes. Another development that will promote isolation in an already non-existent community while helping to further 'wall off' the river.

#4 Posted by Flavius Claudius on 19 Sep 2018 at 13:52 PM

Residential projects should be restricted to two stories. Who wants to live ten stories in the sky? Modern Architecture = Communism...

#5 Posted by CADMonkey on 19 Sep 2018 at 15:26 PM

Some lessons are never learnt...
18 storeys
144 flats
Single escape stair (apparently shared as a fire fighting stair!)
C'mon, are architects not better than this?

#6 Posted by pawel on 19 Sep 2018 at 18:53 PM

Get it made. As long as there is no corrugated iron. the country's economy depends on it.

#7 Posted by pooka on 20 Sep 2018 at 09:39 AM

There's some bizarre things going on here. In what is effectively a gap site they've pulled the building away from one edge to create a deep north facing 'amenity' space. Why not fill the full width of the site? Also the living rooms are set back so they have no view down the street to the river and a funnelled view in one direction. It is very obviously too high if the height of the other residential developments in the area is anything to go by. Why don't they use the full width of the site and take something off the height? They might even get to a similar amount of flats and have space for another stair. Confused-dot-com.

#8 Posted by Mikey on 20 Sep 2018 at 10:17 AM

I think it's a fair and interesting point around the broader wisdom of high-rise living. Personally I wouldn't either. But it does seem like the 'plan' (if there is one, perhaps I'm being too complementary toward GCC planners) is to push toward urban density.

This does make strategic sense for Glasgow, particularly in a site like this one. The centre needs repopulation and a higher volume of professional workers living amongst the businesses and retail. Because it's so industrial and quiet by the Broomielaw, we easily forget just now central the area is, relative to the city centre and west end. There's just two giant roads cutting it off.

So my issue isn't with the height, but whether this development PLUS the Central Quay one can inject life and economic vitality – at street level.

#9 Posted by QMD on 20 Sep 2018 at 23:24 PM

My main concern is the caption of the last image; why would someone design a multistorey carpark entrance as ground floor elevation? Where's the effort of revitalising the river?

Don't agree with the cladding materials. Will check their planning application soon!

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