at least that was a quick read as manifestos go. Thanks for the tutorial. (I'd lose the corporate font for prose text, by the way. It's excruciating). Not sure as to the purpose of all those discombobulated images? Dig the quantum corner 'detail' drawing C[28] 003! Which is it to be? What's with the Deco chevron motif? Are we to know? And re internal accessibility, I just wondered if you have heard of the DDA Act 2010? Best of luck. Other than that, can't complain.

This looks promising. Visually it could handle another couple of floors but presumably the existing structure can't accommodate it.

#1 I agree with your point re the discombobulated images. Supplying an image of every single corner building up St Vincent and Renfield Streets really doesn’t tell us an awful lot about why the architects arrived at their proposed solution. Rather it is just noise. A few case studies of attic storey extensions in Glasgow might have been more informative as there are very few successful ones worth emulating.

As for the quantum corner 'detail' on drawing C[28] 003, perhaps I’m reading too much into it but my hunch is that this is a reference to the complex corner junction on the upper storey of Charles Wilson’s Sansovino-esque Royal Faculty of Procurators just one block over to the east and up to the north at the entrance of Nelson Mandela Place. The problem is that the architects version on St Vincent Street is similar but shorn of the detail which gives the Royal Faculty of Procurators its joy. They were doing ok with the firmness and commodity part of the triumvirate but they seem to have forgotten the delight…

And that is the nub of this for what they have produced isn’t a piece of architecture rather it is a diagram which badly needs some flesh put on the bones. An under detailed two storey plank of pre-cast concrete serving as a pilaster is going to look really dull in contrast to James Thomson’s delicately ornamented four storeys directly below with their giant order of Corinthian pilasters. Meanwhile, the proportions of the subsidiary pilastrade look too chunky while the cornice is far too thin to convincingly terminate the extension against the sky.

Therefore, once more, with feeling please!

If it helps give any clues, it may be worth having a look at how others have handled a contemporary take on classicism in a sensitive setting. For instance, off the top of my head, Machado Silvetti ’s sensitive Scarpa-esque interventions around the Getty Villa in Los Angeles.

#3 - Agreed. My point re the symptomatic corner detail was a good deal more straightforward without reading anything into it other than what is before my eyes. - The plan drawn does not marry the 3D illustration above it and these two are on the same drawing! I mean its a corner FFS - one of the very things that architects are supposed to seriously consider! This kinda punctures M B B M's balloon of a DS a bit don't it? As you suggest, with such a simple architectural approach, maybe a bit more sculptural finesse would have been more fruitful and convincing? Furthermore, given the architects best of intentions, if I was a contractor, I could easily butcher this proposal and an opportunity for real delight would be wasted. So, as you suggest, it would be in their interests to get some flesh on dem bones soon as, otherwise it could end up looking like one of those lumpen 80's jobs in the city of which there are plenty. I wish them well.

#4 - Thanks for the heads up. Just scrolled down the drawing (I could only see the Iso on my screen) and you are right. Plan and Isometric don’t tally. For a firm who appear to pride themselves on their ability to simply and economically convey an idea that is a bit of a glaring error...

Having taken a gander at their website, I appreciate that the elegant understated approach they deploy for interiors may work well, but scaling that up and translating it to an exterior is going to be tough.

While what they are proposing may look reasonable in a small scale sketch, in full scale reality it is going to look seriously malnourished against such a rich St Vincent Street backdrop particularly opposite Miller’s stupendous Bank of Scotland. Good luck to them though…