August 29 2023

Varsity Developments have returned to the drawing board in their plans to transform the central portion of a Glasgow city block, in a fast-moving market that has seen the developer flip flop from rental apartments to offices and back before settling on student housing.

Works would entail the full demolition of a tenement at 70-72A Waterloo Street and partial demolition of its neighbour, the ornate B-listed Distillers' Building, at number 64.

This would clear the way for a high-rise student tower to rise behind. Outlining their changed approach in a consultation statement, Varsity wrote: "The project team are working within the design parameters established through the approved office development to create a high-quality living environment for future residents." Restricting the building footprint to that of the consented office block the new approach pulls the north face of the block back from the site boundary to provide greater facade articulation.

Sprouting from the partially retained Distillers' building, complete with a new dome, early massing models propose greater roof variance by pushing and pulling at the corners. 

Rooftop terraces will also be provided overlooking Waterloo Street. 

2 Comments

#1 Posted by Whispering Andy on 29 Aug 2023 at 17:17 PM

Whisper it.......but it looks good in principle. I like the retention of the old distillers with the tower set back from the street. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

#2 Posted by Mick on 30 Aug 2023 at 16:22 PM

Varsity are stating they will ‘partially’ demolish part of a B listed building. No more detail. Shouldn’t that ring some alarm bells?

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