Hundreds more homes fuel the residential transition of Anderston's quayside
January 31 2025
Indicative plans for a major mixed development at Elliot Street, Glasgow, have been shared by Stallan-Brand as part of the ongoing transition of the Anderston quayside from light industrial to residential use.
The TT Group has commissioned an application for planning permission in principle for a recently demolished data centre at 145 Elliot Street, envisaging two towers housing a combination of 84 build-to-rent or private sale homes and a complementary block housing either co-living accommodation or 391 student flats.
Hitting the street with double-height amenity and set back from the street edge to permit additional planting the development neighbours the consented Lancefield Quay and has been built with scope for a future pedestrian route between both towers to Lancefield Street.
In a design statement, the architects wrote: "The proposed elevations will bring a level of architectural richness whilst retaining a coherent sense of identity across the site as whole. Variations in horizontal and vertical expression, roof line and materiality will create a nuanced and characterful street scene."
A landscaped rear courtyard will provide secluded outdoor space for residents in tandem with a roof terrace.
New paving and planting will bring Elliot Street to life
Rapid development is transforming the waterfront at Anderston into a new neighbourhood
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6 Comments
But here's a story, quite a while back, I do remember walking around all of the Red Road flats and thought THIS IS A FACTORY FOR LIVING IN. No more, no less. Horrendous. Then fast forward 50 years, and what am i looking at? The exact same thing, that's what. Except with smartphones. Horrendous.
This is the new normal, same as it ever was. Wake up and smell the algorithms, peeps, ffs.
I do somehow think it is worse than the past as it does not even have any experimental positivity attached and replicates many mistakes already made in those times.
Those poor little windswept trees will be dead within a year or two.
And for the people it will be like living in the CBD of a boring Midwest mid rent North American city (at best).
And in that ilk it is perhaps the byproduct of inflated land values and lack of urban planning.
Do we want this in our city?
I'm sorry but I cannot see 'architectural richness' or a 'coherent sense of identity' or indeed a 'nuanced and characterful street scene'. What I think most folk will see -if you follow these pages- is a cut and paste job from their generic High Street Goods Yard scheme (https://www.urbanrealm.com/news/9659/Stallan-Brand_return_with_%27refreshed%27_High_Street_Goodsyard_plan.html) or one the mooted blocks from their Osborne Street masterplan (https://www.urbanrealm.com/news/11186/Enlarged_public_square_to_command_St_Enoch_East_masterplan_.html). You'll have to open the Design and Access Statement online to see the similarities. That white block has -by accident or by design - all of the iconography and charm of a tower-in-the-park point block circa 1965.
S/B have got some really nice stuff in their portfolio, but their recent efforts at dense housing for the city both in masterplanning and in individual plot design have been lacking. For a firm that professes a love of all things urban, I cannot reconcile this love with stuff like this : https://www.google.com/maps/@55.8539905,-4.2605903,3a,75y,339.7h,92.32t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sKL7wHEyn0PwLyHYCSEj-WQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-2.3239381922152376%26panoid%3DKL7wHEyn0PwLyHYCSEj-WQ%26yaw%3D339.69873262959806!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
It seems that some architects are just not urbanists.
On a wider note, I would urge everyone to go and have a look at what has emerged/is emerging at Anderston Quay/ Warrock Street- it really is lowest common denominator stuff compared to the best that Europe has to offer in terms of the creation of new neighbourhoods. The city, yet again,has failed to follow up the good work done with the DRFs with proper coded masterplans (or any kind of regulating plan) for this district. What we we get is laissez-faire planning and the risible Emperor's New Clothes descriptions such as above that somehow pass as quality streetscapes and architecture. It sort of reminds me a bit of that Adam Curtis documentary - Hypernormalisation - where you shouldn't believe the evidence of your own eyes.
Of course having said alll this, I expect it will fly through planning. :)