HFD Group launches Bothwell Exchange consultation
March 19 2015
Designed by Michael Laird architects and master planned by Sheppard Robson the scheme wraps around a city block bounded by Waterloo, Pitt, Douglas and Bothwell Streets with a landscaped courtyard at its heart above a function suite with a capacity of up to 1,000 people and car parking.
At a potential occupiers behest the office block has been sited on Waterloo Street. Discussions are ongoing with a number of possible hotel operators on a separate corner block fronting the Douglas/Bothwell Street intersection.
A apart-hotel/residential tower rising to in excess of 20 storeys has been placed on Pitt Street to maintain views south from the Pinnacle building.
A public consultation board read: “The office building will incorporate a high quality glazing façade on three sides and is recessed at ground and first floor level to provide enhanced public realm and to articulate the building’s main entrance.
“The overarching principles employed in the design of the architectural form are simplicity and understated elegance. Adjacent building heights and building lines have been respected and reinforced through the positioning and massing of the proposals. The proportions of the façade work to reinforce the famous Glasgow grid iron pattern on the southern edge of the site at Waterloo Street and create clear strong edges which powerfully define the city block.”
A full planning application for the office element of the project is anticipated by June.
Correction:
An earlier version of this article previously stated that a pre-let had been agreed for the office component of this scheme. In fact negotiations are still ongoing and the text has been updated to reflect this.
No public through routes will be cut through the block
Plans are being worked up for a showpiece tower to cap the development
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13 Comments
#2 Posted by shiny beast on 19 Mar 2015 at 16:12 PM
Never seen anything like that before....
Bobby Blando strikes again.
Bobby Blando strikes again.
#3 Posted by D to the R on 19 Mar 2015 at 21:59 PM
GCC ask for better ... Zero contribution to the city other than 'A' development. Money talks !?
#4 Posted by Charlie_ on 20 Mar 2015 at 15:53 PM
IFSD - all filler no killer.
#5 Posted by Neil C on 20 Mar 2015 at 19:57 PM
#5 - I guess we're Still Waiting for something exciting to be proposed...
#6 Posted by monkey9000 on 21 Mar 2015 at 00:26 AM
Best building designed by an Accountant and a QS I've seen in years! :D
#7 Posted by A Local Pleb on 23 Mar 2015 at 13:06 PM
Is this what life has come to...bland, bland, bland...all hail the new world...where's my stick of dynamite!
#8 Posted by Nessie on 23 Mar 2015 at 16:09 PM
Negotiations are still ongoing with Morgan Stanley who will consolidate their offices into a new building here in 2018.
#9 Posted by james on 23 Mar 2015 at 17:19 PM
#7 yes, ironic that the aesthetics of 'truth and modernity' result in that facelessness of the corporate - The Burolandschaft of 50's america.
Roark went on in the courtroom:
'The contest has another name: the individual against the collective.
“The ‘common good’ of a collective—a race, a class, a state—was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in men’s hypocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. They believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A humanitarian who starts with declarations of love for mankind and ends with a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing for themselves. But observe the results.'
Yes, Observe the results, indeed, Howard! Fascinating. Oh well, back to mah dpc's.
Roark went on in the courtroom:
'The contest has another name: the individual against the collective.
“The ‘common good’ of a collective—a race, a class, a state—was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in men’s hypocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. They believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A humanitarian who starts with declarations of love for mankind and ends with a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing for themselves. But observe the results.'
Yes, Observe the results, indeed, Howard! Fascinating. Oh well, back to mah dpc's.
#10 Posted by Charlie_ on 25 Mar 2015 at 18:22 PM
Why the hell are we being subjected to long, extraneous quotes by political extremists on an architecture page?
#11 Posted by james on 25 Mar 2015 at 21:47 PM
Dear Charlie,
The hell is that I was struck by the ironic similarity between the aesthetics of the 'individualist' Roark's architecture as illustrated in the film of Rand's The Fountainhead and this 'neo-liberal' corporate structure illustrated here. Sometimes, it pays to think about what lies beneath the skin, you know? I is sure you do. Have a nice day.
The hell is that I was struck by the ironic similarity between the aesthetics of the 'individualist' Roark's architecture as illustrated in the film of Rand's The Fountainhead and this 'neo-liberal' corporate structure illustrated here. Sometimes, it pays to think about what lies beneath the skin, you know? I is sure you do. Have a nice day.
#12 Posted by Charlie_ on 26 Mar 2015 at 19:10 PM
Gotcha! Sorry.
#13 Posted by Billy on 5 Apr 2015 at 07:11 AM
Find it hard to get excited by this glass box. If we have to have glass boxes can we not at least top them with a large piece of modern art /fun art or attach something to the side or front of the building? I liked the skeletons with hard hats which once scaled one of the buildings in the Merchant CIty.
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“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”
? Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Ironically, enough.