August 23 2024

A planned hotel earmarked for a commanding B-listed Glasgow office block has made way for a student residential development by FaulknerBrowns Architects.

Originally designed as a hotel 250 St Vincent Street was extensively remodelled in a 1988 facade retention scheme as commercial space, but has latterly stood empty since 2018 due to a lack of occupier demand. The latest bid to reinvigorate the Blythswood Hill property would see 146 studio rooms created, maximising views from its elevated vantage at the top of the street by positioning 764sq/m of amenities at the centre of the deep plan structure.

A majority of rooms will adhere to minimum space standards of 18sq/m but the developer has requested permission for smaller rooms to maximise floorplan efficiency and follow 'modern compact living trends'. The architects argue that smaller room sizes will be ameliorated by innovative storage while reducing utility costs and improving affordability.

Arranged around an internal courtyard modelled on a glasshouse to draw light down to basement amenity spaces and interior rooms. In a design statement, the architects wrote: "There are 20 studio rooms which face into the courtyard situated on level 02 to 05. The design of these spaces has been carefully considered to balance natural light, privacy, acoustics and visual amenity.

"Placing the workstation against the window wall and adding vertical fins and a 250mm projection around the windows helps to mitigate overlooking whilst retaining the visual amenity and daylight provided by the courtyard."

To minimise privacy issues interior courtyard windows have been carefully positioned such that none directly face any others. 

2 Comments

#1 Posted by Sven on 23 Aug 2024 at 11:48 AM

There is waning demand for student lets as well, as foreign students numbers decline again and global demographics means there just a lot less students age groups.

#2 Posted by Mick on 23 Aug 2024 at 12:19 PM

A majority of rooms will adhere to minimum space standards of 18sq/m but the developer has requested permission for smaller rooms to maximise floorplan efficiency and follow 'modern compact living trends'.
Developer weasel words to maximise profits. Let’s hope that verbal sleight of hand gets stopped in its tracks.
Otherwise a feasible use of a defunct building

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