Developer Nixon Blue has rolled a curveball in its efforts to build a new flatted development at 35A St Vincent Crescent, Glasgow, after reprising its apartments plan at the hands of a new architect.

 

Corunna Bowling Club had been subject to plans for 39 flats in a nine-storey apartment block but this was thrown out by planners amid fears of an erosion of character to the A-listed St Vincent Crescent and a loss of open aspects towards Queens Dock.

 

Now Page\Park Architects have been signed up to try a second time with an £8m scheme to build 36 apartments on the same site, this time taking greater cognisance of the crescent next door.

 

Incorporating a Victorian-style 'pleasure garden' to the front led by landscape architects HarrisonStevens the project will also include a residents amenity courtyard extending to a railway line to the rear. This area will provide 23 parking spaces accessible from a pend connecting to St Vincent Crescent. In form, the new development echoes the curves of its neighbour by going back to the original 1849 masterplan to establish a residential neighbourhood.

 

Lead architect Chris Simmonds said: “Finnieston has changed dramatically in recent years and will continue to evolve. Through our extensive research and investigation, we discovered Alexander Kirkland’s Masterplan of 1849, which included the current St. Vincent Crescent and also a further residential terrace immediately to the south that was never built. Our design seeks to reflect, in part,  the original proposal for the site while responding to other more recent developments in the immediate surroundings including mainstream and student housing developments.”

 

“Our design of the new public open space garden is inspired by studies of community garden spaces in and around Glasgow’s West End and opens up a private area to general public use and the swept form of the new proposals tie in with geometry and architecture of the existing listed terrace.”

 

Viewed from the south the scheme takes on a different character, conceived as a series of towers of linked towers adding skyline interest.

 

Accompanying these design changes are a reduction in scale to seven storeys, achieved through removal of undercroft parking and reducing the number of duplexes.