August 10 2020

A dilapidated parade of shops on Glasgow's Gallowgate is set for dramatic change with the submission of plans to create 42 apartments above two new retail units.

Designed by High Street Architects to augment the Graham Square development the inner city build will be arranged around an inner courtyard with pend access from the street and undercroft parking. Inspired by the tenements which once stood in the area the development seeks to follow traditional massing, albeit with a change in materials.

Explaining this move in an associated design statement, the practice wrote: "For tenements, sandstone was utilised; for the new development it will be a good render. The render will give a robust and contemporary quality feel to the development, with feature walls highlighted by warm timber panelling.

"We have tried to use a minimal palette of materials as we feel that render and timber finishes will complement the area."

Windows and doors will be set into the facade behind a single brick deep reveal, introducing depth to the facade and emphasising vertical elements.

27 Comments

#1 Posted by monkey9000 on 10 Aug 2020 at 11:28 AM

A "dilapidated" parade... the proposal looks more dilapidated that the existing. Pure and simple an atrocious proposal.

#2 Posted by HWD on 10 Aug 2020 at 11:49 AM

Atrocious. The references to a design statement must be tongue in cheek? Another slab sided block which has been built to the spreadsheet and will no doubt weather terribly. There are some interesting and considered projects neighbouring this site, this is certainly neither.

#3 Posted by Randall Sloan on 10 Aug 2020 at 11:57 AM

It will be more than retail therapy they will need after looking at this finely crafted proposal...

#4 Posted by Mick on 10 Aug 2020 at 12:46 PM

That's really, really bad.

#5 Posted by James Hepburn on 10 Aug 2020 at 12:59 PM

Why are Scotland's architects so poor. This development looks dreadful.

#6 Posted by Mick on 10 Aug 2020 at 13:13 PM

That is really piss poor. Banal, boring and uninspiring in every regard.

#7 Posted by Jaded on 10 Aug 2020 at 13:55 PM

Absolutely appalling.

#8 Posted by Phil Stirling on 10 Aug 2020 at 14:05 PM

looks like a prison, why do they insist on such tiny windows

#9 Posted by IndyNoo on 10 Aug 2020 at 14:11 PM

Absolutely shocking. Why on earth are Glasgow's architects so poor? They really need to look to Edinburgh for some decent examples of contemporary infill designs in an urban environment.

#10 Posted by JFK on 10 Aug 2020 at 14:15 PM

Jaw dropping, for all the wrong reasons.

#11 Posted by monkey9000 on 10 Aug 2020 at 15:35 PM

Simon Ian Richard Ash, is your company called Ash Architectural, Clyde Offices or High Street Architects? I smell something fishy...

#12 Posted by Ivan on 10 Aug 2020 at 15:50 PM

Terrible. Simply terrible.
I think this is the worst scheme I've ever seen on Urban Realm. Surely this has absolutely no chance of getting a planning approval?
I would say what is there at the moment is actually better than this proposal.
Awful- 0/10

#13 Posted by Graeme McCormick on 10 Aug 2020 at 18:39 PM

Truly aweful! Can we put a ban on render? everyone seems to discolour with big black streaks after a year or so!

#14 Posted by Neil McAllister on 10 Aug 2020 at 19:11 PM

This is the application: https://publicaccess.glasgow.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=QDIC47EXL6V00&activeTab=summary

#15 Posted by G Man on 10 Aug 2020 at 21:49 PM

I was drawing better looking buildings than that with a ruler and a pencil when I was at school, one picture of the design of a building survives from 1992. A nod to the former tenement designs but more up to date which I had imagined to sit at the corner of Gorbals Street and Cleland Street to hide the bland side of the now demolished entrance to the Citizen's Theatre, it actually used to be a curved building at that corner until it was demolished around 1976/77. Anyway, this design is poor and tehj comment above regarding the gap sites in Edinburgh, look at Leith Walk, from Calton Hill, new stuff morphs in with the old stuff and for my sins nearly 30 years down the line I work in Administration allowing my brain to turn to mush.

#16 Posted by Jane Harper on 10 Aug 2020 at 22:18 PM

I literally had a panic attack when I saw these drawings, had to run outside my house to vomit and calm myself down.

It seems like with post-modernism standards have been done away with, any rubbish goes, everyone is a winner.

#17 Posted by Paul North on 11 Aug 2020 at 00:36 AM

Unfortunately there is probably a profanity filter on this comment board that prevents me from letting my true feeling known, I am not even educated in architecture and even I can tell this is utter keich

#18 Posted by Stylecouncil on 11 Aug 2020 at 06:52 AM

@5 change the record Hepburn.
This dross, and Urban Realm in general, is not an accurate representation of all Scotland Architects ffs...
Urban Realm- ever thought about using some editorial judgement rather than scraping the barrel with this rubbish/ CALA show home news?

#19 Posted by John Glenday on 11 Aug 2020 at 08:28 AM

@18 - There is no barrier to relevant news, purposefully so. Precisely in order to be as representative as possible. Curated content can be found in our in-depth features and building archive, where we emphasise quality.

#20 Posted by Bill S on 11 Aug 2020 at 09:24 AM

It is really hard to find something positive with this - I am reminded of misbehaving as a bairn and my parents forgoing the usual punishments and just saying "I'm disappointed". That's about it. I really hope the Local Authority puts their foot down and looks at the bigger picture here. The plan layout is woeful at best and the central "courtyard" is anything but welcoming.

Despite the comments above, there are some excellent local Glaswegian practices that could do some brilliant work here. It would be a shame if the current designer is being forced down this hashed route by the Developer / Client, so hopefully if the LA can exercise their power, the designer can have another go.

#21 Posted by The Heart of Saturday Night on 11 Aug 2020 at 09:52 AM

I'm not sure #20...I think this is beyond redemption. Can you bar folk from submitting applications in future?

#22 Posted by Green New Deal on 11 Aug 2020 at 10:04 AM

They should demolish it and plant some trees there. There should be a law that every building demolished in Scotland has to be replaced with a garden, to save the planet from carbon emissions.

#23 Posted by Chris on 11 Aug 2020 at 12:35 PM

#22 It's not as if Glasgow isn't short of gapsites to plant trees on. Increasing the population of inner city areas and discouraging the Barratt estates being built miles away from town is a more effective green strategy than whatever you're suggesting.

#24 Posted by TheFakeArchitect on 11 Aug 2020 at 15:26 PM

Wow..! Obviously everything gets panned on this forum but this one rightly so. Its an overall poor proposal, as is the quite awful documentation submitted as part of the application. Seems to be put together as cheaply as possible (of which I have a degree of sympathy for) and boy does it show.

#25 Posted by Jane Mackintosh on 11 Aug 2020 at 17:50 PM

I knew someone who lived near there in the Gallowgate, it was cheap and really handy for the city center, but they used to regularly get woken at night up by junkies shouting in the street. A lot of drug addicts seem to loiter in that area.

#26 Posted by Mick on 12 Aug 2020 at 19:56 PM

Anyone up for some kind of protest. The people of the east end deserve better than this

#27 Posted by Randall Sloan on 13 Aug 2020 at 16:55 PM

#26 Mick I'm free for protesting, just not Thursday nights I have my life drawing class, provided I haven't destroyed my eyeballs from all the pins I've put in them to avoid looking at most of the insipid drivel that constitutes "architecture" in Scotland these days

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