White knight emerges for death-cloaked Argyle Street building
February 28 2024
Long-held plans to revive a prominent B-listed Argyle Street building as apartments have been reheated by ZM Architecture following a change in ownership.
50 Argyle Street, a seven-storey red sandstone block on the junction with Miller Street, is to be turned into 13 flats in a programme of partial demolition, extension and repair for the Blailok Group.
Planned works will conserve the primary south and east elevations while replacing unsound rear brickwork with metal cladding to resolve damp issues. Ground and basement-level retail will also be provided.
The building was previously stripped back to brick in a failed 2015 conversion when corrosion of the hybrid concrete and steel structure was uncovered. Outlining some of the difficulties inherent to the project ZM wrote: "As the building is over 18 metres in storey height, the technical standards for fire fighting, fire rating of structure, ventilated smoke lobbies and accessibility are specific and become onerous.
"Due to the constraints of the existing stair core and configuration of the existing shafts, it is not possible to design a compliant lobby solution to fully meet the regulations. Therefore, we are bringing forward a fire engineering based approach that maintains the core and original stair but by design and mitigation resolves the issues so that layout of the core and stair can be maintained."
Vital stone repairs could be carried out as part of enabling works as early as this year should consent be obtained, paving the way for the removal of unsightly scaffolding which has shrouded the building while it stands in limbo.
Long awaited stone repairs could be carried out to ornate principal facades
Wet areas will be stacked in a new build metal clad section to the rear
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