"Utopia" - an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.

Utopia certainly isn't what it used to be......

Don't blame the messenger though. That's a design driven by land pice, build cost and the local market rather than worthy design intentions.

Lovely, more car parking louvers to walk past. It is such a pity that the area around this important Southside junction have lacked any aspiration and this will not contribute to improving things. In my view this kind of budget mediocrity shouldn't be getting past the councils planners, never mins into the marketplace ...but I guess they're selling.

40% single aspect flats in Glasgow!!!???
Hilda won't be amused. Quality man.

Amusing to see Granny and the kids in red features in both these images and the Corunna Bowling Club at St Vincent Crescent in Finnieston.

I very rarely see a positive comment ever here!!

This area's suffered a litany of awful architecture. The planners that rubber stamp this should be banished from the city. They're basically sealing the fate of this area. The place is desolate because of a failure to care about urban design basics.

The problem being is that when we are positive about a development it is either scaled down or not built st all...Elphinstone Tower, The mini Manhattan proposal etc. It just seems that bland is the way forward. Is Tradeston being built? Candleriggs is taking forever . And what’s happening with the Bhs site and the proposed hotels at St Enoch?

Utterly rank.

Between this, its near neighbours on Pollokshaws Road and the Plaza across the street represent the very worst cluster of domestic architecture built anywhere in Scotland in the 21st century?

#7 - A bit harsh always blaming the planners. Planners just assess (and tbh its normally the politicians that decide) and yes they seem to be letting some rubbish through but seem to be thought of as the only dam against a deluge of crap. Can the architects and developers not be expected to offer up some bearable proposals or is that art dead forever?

Hernrick - I agree with you to an extent, however speculative development in a flat market is invariably a race to the bottom and the only system that can put the brakes on that race is planning.

There's a huge difference in design quality when there is money available - generally driven by strong house price inflation. Look at London where design quality doesn't need to be driven by planners as its already driven by the developers. In Scotland however, once you've subtracted land cost from the selling price, there's not much left for build cost and salaries.

This is where planning has the power to change things. A strong planning design brief that focusses on quality, would only have an impact on the land price. Lets face it, that's where it should be as the landowner makes the most money and contributes least to the process.

Sales price stays the same. Developer's profits stay the same (they have shareholders and pension funds). Build cost increases due to strong design brief enforced by planners. Land price goes down.

#12 kinda agree but as in most of these developments they are bought off plan and the owners sadly don't care about external design. Flat layout is the name of the game for them to let out...

Land Price goes down, Land owner decides time is not right to sell. gap site remains

Land Value Tax motivates recalcitrant land bankers, problem solved.

Land Value Tax .... developers less likly to invest in Scotland .... Problem Solved Indeed.

With problems solving skills like that have you though of becoming a Scottish Govenment Advisor ?

I bow to your superior knowledge of the Land Value Tax, which you have obviously researched extensively and can provide citations of instances where just such an outcome as you outline has occurred, as you no doubt don't simply have a banal, default cognitive bias and have just plucked a scenario from the air between the cheeks of your bahookie.

Reality..If the land value goes down due to legislation then that is the new value of the site. Its very different to waiting for a market to improve to drive the land value back up again.

The majority of land transactions generate windfall profits for the vendor. Imagine that you have argricultural land valued at £5k per acre - get that zoned in the LDP and its suddenly £800k per acre. Apply some robust design standards to that (abnormal chip off the price) and you're looking at £500k per acre - which is still a decent profit.

Urban sites are still valued in the same manner. Value of what you can squeeze on to the site - minus (build cost+ overheads + profit + abnormals) = residual land value.

It may be of interest that the original consent granted to the five plots as a whole in 2002 was also commenced on the vacant fifth plot even though never built (I suspect the crash in 2007 played a part). Because of this the consent never timed out and it seems unlikely that the planner had much ammunition to stop this carbuncle...