November 12 2024

Detailed plans for a towering 531-bed student residential development at Carrick Street, Glasgow, have been brought forward by Flow Design Architects and Valeo.

Promising to activate a dislocated section of the Broomielaw with a 'fitting and worthy architectural offering' the build will bring life to a desolate tract of the city centre by demolishing surplus buildings around the retained Glasgow City Mission.

Finished in a mix of smooth and textured clay brick the stepped tower, capped by a collonade of stone-effect cladding framing landscaped roof terraces. Extra thick walls permit deep reveals to the windows, reducing wind shear, while permitting the use of additional insulation.

In an elevation statement, Flow wrote: "With a clear brief to keep this residentially-oriented-building ‘honest’, we have embraced the stacked nature of the accommodations which is reflected in the fenestration pattern of the building. The consistent rhythm is enhanced with the use of an articulated grid where an interplay of textures will provide variations with light & shadow."

Amenity provision includes a cafe and cinema on ground and first floors with a sky lounge, bouldering gym and wellness studio situated on the 22nd and 23rd floors. 

20 Comments

#1 Posted by Pat Lally on 12 Nov 2024 at 12:28 PM

Is this designed to reference the nearby Anderson Centre?

Good god.

#2 Posted by Bob Smith on 12 Nov 2024 at 13:20 PM

Looks pretty awesome ...... get it built !

#3 Posted by Ben on 12 Nov 2024 at 15:22 PM

This looks fantastic. Really great to see momentum building in this area, soon to be Scotland's densest and most urban skyline. Get in built and let the momentum continue!

#4 Posted by justmesaying on 12 Nov 2024 at 16:06 PM

We must be pushing circa 20 new PBSA in the city centre. Oh dear... When do we reach saturation point...

And just across from MOD - no security risk there at all...

#5 Posted by Kong on 12 Nov 2024 at 17:13 PM

That entrance is horrendous!
The stepped massing is atrocious!
The material palette is as dull as ditch water!
Pure rubbish.

#6 Posted by Annie G on 12 Nov 2024 at 18:16 PM

I like it and it'll be good to get some life back into Broomielaw.

#7 Posted by Aaron on 12 Nov 2024 at 18:29 PM

#4 What security risk ahahaha

#8 Posted by KB on 13 Nov 2024 at 09:34 AM

#5 While it's not exactly the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, would you prefer another 50 years staring at a brown muddy pit?
Finally, someone is investing in the area and it should be welcomed.

#9 Posted by Georwell84 on 13 Nov 2024 at 10:38 AM

Sad that the only investment Glasgow can attract these days is student accom.

#10 Posted by James Hepburn on 13 Nov 2024 at 10:59 AM

The bar for architects in Glasgow seems to be pretty low. No doubt it will be demolished within 20 years.

#11 Posted by Sven on 13 Nov 2024 at 11:00 AM

Design is poor and difficult to redevelop for non-student use. Given foreign student numbers are down and especially Chinese given Chinese demographics and economic outlook in China, India and Nigeria, not going to recover, should we not be demanding design that future proofs use? Sustainability has been a major concern for years and the student bubble has already started to bite across universities.

#12 Posted by David on 13 Nov 2024 at 12:47 PM

#5
...lack of investment is mainly due to the Scottish Government rental cap disaster, not so much Glasgow's fault

#13 Posted by spike on 13 Nov 2024 at 12:55 PM

The right design solution for this part of the city

#14 Posted by Gavin Smith on 13 Nov 2024 at 13:34 PM

Investment in the city centre is essential to keep its heart beating and anyone prepared to do so must be encouraged. Kentigern House (MOD) will be vacated soon, its no longer fit for purpose.

#15 Posted by Jimbob Tanktop on 13 Nov 2024 at 14:12 PM

#12
The average price for a private rental flat in Glasgow is £1190. If developers can't make those numbers work, maybe the fault lies with them.

#16 Posted by devilish advocaat on 13 Nov 2024 at 15:13 PM

#11 - I presume you haven't bothered to look at the information on the portal before commenting on the proposal's re-use potential?

Looks good. Get it built.

#17 Posted by Roddy_ on 13 Nov 2024 at 20:18 PM

We're still not getting the slenderness ratio of our talls quite right.

And this has much to do with the typology of student blocks which tries to load the floorplate with as many single aspect units as possible (of course the corners are dual aspect - but not always). The result is that the footprint here is a rectangle rather than a square which, when elevated, makes for quite a chunky, squat form. They have tried to vary the heights here and there to create set backs but the expressed 'frame' visually over-rides the effect of the supposed breakdown in massing.

The response to the massing of the City Mission is welcome , but over all it looks really heavy set and the goal post arrangement at the crown is an already hackneyed trope. Who will break cover with an inventive termination to their tower. The design looks like it could do with another couple months of design develoment.

The Ard at Elmbank Cres. is slightly cleverer by proposing 2 intersecting rectangles with the short sides facing due south. The effect is that the tower reads as slender in the North-South axes but with a beefier floorplate in the opposite (one suspects, though that the East-West views will be less elegant).

#18 Posted by Sven on 14 Nov 2024 at 12:11 PM

@16, I will not be looking at a portal. We hit peak student numbers in 2021. We should be planning for long term demographic change and that means 4-6 universities in Scotland, a third or a quarter of current domestic student numbers and similar for overseas students.

#19 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 14 Nov 2024 at 20:54 PM

Why is it that when a certain viewpoint discusses higher education the stench of their overwhelming desire for serfdom is overpowering !?!

Obviously it won't happen to them and theirs ...

But for the rest of us -- well a career in low asset / low mobility tenant farming is our destiny.

Not good.

#20 Posted by Lovely on 15 Nov 2024 at 13:50 PM

I love the argument that we should accept something overbearing, unpleasant and unnecessary because it’s better than nothing.

Didn't it occur to people that if we had a proper economic, taxation and city planning system that prominent sites like this could have been developed long ago with high quality and appropriate buildings and uses.

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