October 29 2018

Aberdeen City Council is supporting a bid to demolish the Atholl House office block to enable construction of a 17-storey mixed use development comprising a 192-bed hotel, 413 student accommodation rooms and ground floor retail.

At the heart of halliday Fraser Munro's approach will be a new public square, offering direct access to both Guild Street and Bridge Street, serving as connective tissue between the railway station and Union Street.

In a report justifying approval council officers wrote: “Whilst the development has an impact on the setting of the A listed Aberdeen Rail Station, by reason of the scale of the proposed building relative to the modest scale of the station buildings, Historic Environment Scotland are content with the impact of the development on the station.”

The Station Gateway masterplan accepts the principle of high-rise development as the ‘scale and form’ of the existing Atholl House already impinges on its listed neighbours.

14 Comments

#1 Posted by Jon on 29 Oct 2018 at 15:59 PM

...................just............? ~poo emoji~

At last, HFM can construct their glittering skyscraper-come-evil layer from which they can observe their masterplan of mediocrity arise from the ashes of Aberdeen.

Seriously though, how does one "architect" have such control over how a cityscape is allowed to develop. HFM are dodgy at best, and sadly the polar opposite to those who shaped the city before them such as Archibald Simpson.

#2 Posted by Matt on 29 Oct 2018 at 16:20 PM

Quite possibly the most offensive effort released from the bowels of HFM in a good while...which is saying something.

#3 Posted by E=mc2 on 29 Oct 2018 at 20:43 PM

WtF is that?
That is truly terrible and agree totally with#2

#4 Posted by alibi on 29 Oct 2018 at 21:40 PM

We have learnt nothing and will be detested for it.

#5 Posted by monkey9000 on 30 Oct 2018 at 00:07 AM

Wonder if any wind tunnel testing has been carried out on that overhang/entrance - looks ripe for whipping people off their feet.

#6 Posted by AB on 30 Oct 2018 at 08:25 AM

This is absolutely awful. The location is pretty grim currently, but replacing the Atholl House block with this beggars belief. How can this firm continue to provide such awful creations? Metal panels to go with the metal-clad Union Square across the road. Grim. Depressing. Soulless. Cheap. Nasty.

#7 Posted by Trombe Wall on 30 Oct 2018 at 08:30 AM

High Frankenstein Monstrosity. There are many acronyms.

#8 Posted by FHM on 30 Oct 2018 at 08:41 AM

Welcome to Aberdeen, The Oil Capital Of Europe! Well for a few months at least....

This is unfortunately typical of this Practice and the standard rubbish that gets spewed out their offices. As one of their Directors liked to explain at an annual lecture during Part 3 studies at SSSA; "I am a business man, not an Architect", and this probably sums up the whole sorry situation with them getting so much work up here despite the mediocre output.

The Local Authority have not learned any lessons, not even from Dundee down the road, at how best to regenerate the city and this scheme is symptomatic of the lack of cohesive master-planning. The straddling of one of the blocks over the listed former ticket office is offensive at best, utterly disgraceful otherwise. Sad times.

#9 Posted by M is for Mungo on 30 Oct 2018 at 10:06 AM

Yay, Aberdeen is finally getting a Signage Zone! Woot

#10 Posted by Partick Bateman on 30 Oct 2018 at 12:03 PM

What is the point of Historic Environment Scotland?

#11 Posted by alibi on 30 Oct 2018 at 21:52 PM

The other thing worth mentioning about this form of high-rise, is it sucks the demand out of the rest of the town. There really is no benefit.

#12 Posted by Charlie_ on 31 Oct 2018 at 10:55 AM

Composite and anodised metal panels. Swish.

#13 Posted by zoltan on 31 Oct 2018 at 11:32 AM

413 student beds won't get built, next application will be for PRS apartments. Hopefully done prior to starting on site however, unlike Triple Kirks round the corner where they've applied to drop the 'student' planning condition in favour of PRS, having recently topped out the structural frame.

#14 Posted by Philip on 31 Oct 2018 at 21:00 PM

Embarrassingly tacky edifice that only HFM could pen. Butt ugly beyond belief, and along with other large HFM projects, defining and proving Aberdeen to be the architectural and urban design grave yard of Scotland.

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