January 6 2021

The B-listed former City of Glasgow College building is to provide 120,000sq/ft of office space alongside a new build 260-bed hotel after winning consent from Glasgow City Council.

The £100m project is led by Osborne & Co with Cooper Cromar Architects and will see the glass and travertine facade of the 1964 Wylie Shanks landmark replaced on a like-for-like basis while opening up floorplates internally.

Centrepiece of the new design will be a double-height rooftop incorporating a fully glazed gable and commanding views across George Square and the wider city.

Demolition of an attached podium on Cathedral Street will allow an 11-storey block to join the rebranded Met Tower via a landscaped deck, capping a double-height auditorium below. Designed to accommodate technology firms drawn to the designated Innovation District around Strathclyde University.

Stuart Patrick, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce chief executive, commented: "It is a bonus that the Met Tower office and hotel development sits within the University of Strathclyde’s Glasgow City Innovation District and as such is the kind of project that will help shape Glasgow’s growing role in the industries of the future. The provision in the design of a new public space for the heart of the city is also to be applauded.”

The precise accommodation mix is yet to be decided and may include a market hall or co-working space dependant on demand. 

The project team includes structural engineers Woolgar Hunter, environmental design and mechanical & electrical consultants Atelier Ten, planning and property advisors Savills, construction consultants Gardiner & Theobald and quantity surveying consultants Thomas & Adamson.

8 Comments

#1 Posted by spike on 6 Jan 2021 at 10:29 AM

Excellent - looking forward to the site start

#2 Posted by monkey9000 on 6 Jan 2021 at 11:43 AM

Echoes of the old Queen Street Bank of Scotland in that first image.

#3 Posted by Chris on 6 Jan 2021 at 14:26 PM

What a depressing vista in the first image. I don't understand Scotland's obsession with monochrome buildings, it looks awful in our climate.

#4 Posted by Alf on 6 Jan 2021 at 15:35 PM

Its good to see new towers being built, but what on earth is happening with the one on Clydeside, next to the student digs/Custom House? Anyone know?

#5 Posted by Bob ra Builder on 6 Jan 2021 at 20:07 PM

Great to see but offices? In that area?
Alf, heard they went for change of use from student accom to hotel to resi, etc (or vice versa) but seem to have given up. The insulation that's been left exposed will be well goosed.

#6 Posted by MV on 7 Jan 2021 at 10:03 AM

Its slightly bewildering to think that visuals of that quality have formed part of an approved planning submission on a presumably contentious site. I have no issue with towers (plural) and have no issue with the proposed uses, with offices and hotels in abundance in the George Square area. But those visuals? Given the emphasis at GCC to rely on the input of their “designers” who comment on the adequacy of the submitted design, I’m surprised that this has passed that test. The quality of design proposals should be going up, not down.

#7 Posted by Gandalf on 8 Jan 2021 at 11:58 AM

Great to see something done with the College building, but unless I am missing something, the 'Apart Hotel' is a pretty depressing lump.

#8 Posted by Riddrieonian on 15 Aug 2022 at 14:00 PM

The proposed "Podium Building" is just another stereotypical Glasgow city centre development.

From Cathedral Street it has no redeeming features at all, it's as if it's just intended to be the backside of the building. And hasn't that "V" supporting pillars been done before in the city?

Another opportunity missed.

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