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Cafe opening shows the University of Glasgow means business

Cafe opening shows the University of Glasgow means business

November 11 2024

The final phase of the Adam Smith building in Glasgow has been completed, with the opening of a new street-level cafe in its public podium.

Opening onto a newly landscaped Dumbarton Road the space will serve as a southern gateway to the university's developing western campus, knitting into the historic area via six floors of red sandstone.

Professor Eleanor Shaw, head of the Adam Smith Business School, said: “The opening of the cafe on the ground floor will benefit our community, offering a welcoming place for staff, students, partners and the local community to come into the Adam Smith Business School, enjoy a refreshment and have a look around our fabulous new building. I very much look forward to spending time in the cafe and to welcoming staff, students and visitors into our new building.”

Completed in December 2023 by Hassell the 11,500sq/m business school and postgraduate hub combine teaching, research and commercial functions arranged across a cascade of three interconnected 'stepping blocks' or 'stacks' which push teaching and research spaces north and south of a shared atrium.

The school stands next to the B-listed Anderson College building, itself up for development as student flats.

Communal circulation spaces will foster collaboration

The teaching hub has been designed to blend into the West End neighbourhood

9 Comments

#1 Posted by Roddy_ on 12 Nov 2024 at 19:53 PM

If you're going to set back a building this far from the street edge, you really need to define the space in front a whole lot better than this. Especially with such mute and coarsely detailed elevations. The same could be said for much of the Gilmorehill masterplan with its homogenised facades and sterile public spaces. A beautiful cafe in a beautiful plaza would be a wonderful thing, but this is not what is being proposed.
The question that most folk are asking, including myself , is will the developments along church Street somehow make up for the sterility of the edge-of-town science park hitherto delivered. I really hope so, but given that development will be underpinned by the same masterplan , it really would be a surprise.

#2 Posted by Roddy_ on 12 Nov 2024 at 20:34 PM

Here is a pic of said cafe.
https://x.com/UofGlasgow/status/1856302947455365186/photo/4
Why couldn't the windows open onto the external space thereby activating a south-facing external space. Why couldn't we have some awnings or something to shelter patrons or make folk stop to look in on the way past. Why can't we have proper seats with proper armrests instead of granite that no one really wants to sit on for any length of time. And as I said above why couldn't this space - at a critical juncture in the path of Dumbarton Rd / Gilmorehill / Kelvingrove - be a beautiful space to stop and take in the surroundings over a coffee.
It is these very basic human concepts that look to the both the immediate context and the needs of people that this masterplan has almost entirely overlooked.
In light of all this, locally distinct buildings are something of a pipe dream when you can't even get the basics right. Alas.

#3 Posted by EM0 on 12 Nov 2024 at 22:50 PM

This entire phase of this master plan is horrendous! To wait so long to do something and these be the designs just beggars belief! It is literally like an out of town science park! Altogether it is looking like a communist block other than the trees softening things. To think these designs are approved by an institution they should be known for creativity, innovation and all the rest, it is stunning for all the wrong reasons the direction most of the buildings have gone!

#4 Posted by Fresh Prince of Bel End on 13 Nov 2024 at 10:33 AM

#3: Exhibit 4949585 in Glasgow 2020s - unimaginative, provincial architecture for provincial University in provincial town, sadly. Loose your hope. Yes, there is a room for improvement, but we never get there. End of story, please move on.

#5 Posted by Heidfirst on 13 Nov 2024 at 10:37 AM

I noticed this from the bus, yesterday. Other than those saplings in front it is very cold & sterile - it needs more planters or similar around the building.

#6 Posted by James Hepburn on 13 Nov 2024 at 11:02 AM

Glasgow University has done little of architectural merit since moving to Gimorehill in 1840. In fact it has detracted from the area. Adam Smith would be just as disappointed with this unremarkable offering.

#7 Posted by PumpingStationBlues on 14 Nov 2024 at 14:05 PM

#2 Its not the granite that no one wants to sit on for any length of time, its smell of Partick Pumping Station across the street that makes you run for the hills