Okay guy's we are all great at giving comment on the various buildings in Glasgow that are proposed in the near future, by looking at a couple of Computer generated images.

I gave the view in other threads that we should not really judge a building until it comes together on site.

However, let's not forget that there are quite a few buildings in Glasgow nearing completion, that are being unwrapped of scaffold and debris netting to be viewed by the adoring Glasgow public.

With this in mind, i suggest we have a leave the scaffold up award. Yes, you have guessed it, which masterpiece in Glasgow do you dislike that much that you would have preferred to look at the debris netting.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a302/GLASGOWMAN/mmm.jpg

The Roo..meter gives this a big fat 1.5/10. The above image actually does it justice. The real thing is worse much worse.

It would look better...slightly, in another location, but on the Clydeside..... :bash:

C'mon guys don't be shy, what get's your leave the scaffold up vote.

:laugh: Good one soceroo ha ha ...dont worry wont be long before its hidden by another future carbuncle by the looks of it. :)

Ha ha! The Roo meter! Classic!

You know what I'd do?

Carpet bomb it with Virgina creeper.

Lots of it....

Then maybe we'd just not notice the f**ker :cheers:

Carpet bomb it.

I can see the light hearted fun in this to a certain extent but is it not just a little bit negative.
I'm sure most of us would like to see new buildings come about in the city centre especially, both residential and commercial.
Indeed some of us will make our livings from these projects. (I am not connected with the Metropole pictured above by the way.)
Why go out of our way to appear over critical, judgemental and mean spirited. We could end up discouraging the very people that the forum should be attracting i.e. the professionals that come together to make these buildings happen.

But.....seeing as you raised the subject........the Unite student accommodation on High Street at the end of Ingram Street is no Raddison Hotel.
I'm glad it is there though as the impact it is having on the famous old street is already discernable in terms of the street level activity. Jut a pity it is somewhat bland.

Seriously though what would get my vote are a whole series of spec residential developments heading out into the southside.

First up the one on the corner of Albert Drive and Pollokshaws road opposite St Ninians and along from the Tramway. Oh dear! Not only is the experience entirely forgettable, the way it turns the corner is so ham fisted. To add insult to injury its located right next door to, and so detracts from, Cooper Cromar's good reworking of the former Ordinance survey building. What's worse is that this is just the precursor of things to come in this area as Eglinton toll is scheduled to get roughly 1500 flats plonked on it over the next few years. No masterplan in place so all developments doing their own thing... Cacophony beckons. This doesn't bode well.

Next up the new block between McDonalds and the Hidden Gardens on Pollokshaws road. Had potential, but I understand that cost cutting included cutting the architects from the job before the design was complete and a detail package in place. Surprise surprise the results are there for everyone to see. Feel very sorry for the people who bought off plan here.

Ha ha! The Roo meter! Classic!

You know what I'd do?

Carpet bomb it with Virgina creeper.

Lots of it....

Then maybe we'd just not notice the f**ker :cheers:

"The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines" - Frank Lloyd Wright

I can see the light hearted fun in this to a certain extent but is it not just a little bit negative.
I'm sure most of us would like to see new buildings come about in the city centre especially, both residential and commercial.
Indeed some of us will make our livings from these projects. (I am not connected with the Metropole pictured above by the way.)
Why go out of our way to appear over critical, judgemental and mean spirited. We could end up discouraging the very people that the forum should be attracting i.e. the professionals that come together to make these buildings happen.

It is to an extent a bit of light hearted relief to what can be a heavy suject at times. But i want Glasgow to be a successful city with a vibrant economy.

The Built Environment is the heartbeat of a cities economy. We all have a duty to get it right. If some developer wants to come to and build in Glasgow, then great we should do everthing to encourage it.

But hey guys let's not let the guard down and let some of the stuff that is ongoing happen again. We are trying to rebuild a city, do we want our present generation of kids to be fleeing the nest as far as possible as has happened in the past, or be asking the same question as many of us have asked of the previous generation. That is why the hell did we build that?

Gweilo.

"cost cutting includes cutting the architects from the job"

It must be design and build with the architects resisting the value engineering that the contractors are insisting on.

It is a system that has some very basic flaws that do not lend themselves to good finishing.

Having read murdomac's post I am sensitive to what you say. I'm quite sure everyone started out here with the best of intentions. Just seems that anything worthwhile got so diluted along the way that it makes any value of these buildings contribute to their environment and the city questionable. The irony being that someone probably put a lot of effort into stripping this stuff out to keep a lid on costs. If only all that effort had been directed towards a more conducive end goal. Maybe then, we should call this award the curse of value engineering?

Sorry that last post from me was in response to your previous post murdomac.

With regards to your last one:

Gweilo.

"cost cutting includes cutting the architects from the job"

It must be design and build with the architects resisting the value engineering that the contractors are insisting on.

It is a system that has some very basic flaws that do not lend themselves to good finishing.

No I'm serious! After he'd got his planning the developer dumped the architects from the job and decided to detail it himself to save money.

............ Maybe then, we should call this award the curse of value engineering?

Nah, let's not get too serious let's keep it as "Leave the scaffold up".

Value Engineering is a bit of a curse, but you need to know how to deal with it or leave it well alone, or you will end up with false economies - every time.

In too many projects recently that i have been invoved in, i have witnessed both members of the Construction Team and eager to please Design Team go down the wrong path.

Value Engineering should not really, if applied properly, have a detrimental impact on the performance or intended aesthetic of an Architect's Design.

Granted it has went over the top now in some instances with buildings being pared back to the bone.

However, let's us not blame Value Engineering for buildings such as Metropole, that looks as if it has been designed in the mid eighties, been dusted down off the shelf and had a couple of clay tiles slapped on it.

Maybe that is a bit mean. :) But i don't like chocolate covered raisins and i don't like Metropole.

maybe metropole was put there by undercover rumjummers in order to make their CHQ dev look half-decent. ;)

murdomac: just can't get my head around your comments. Metropole is a disaster in terms of urban design, aesthetics and build quality.

so . . .

we should want developers to come here and see the hostile reaction such utter rubbish receives from people who care genuinely about their city’s environment and future development.

Often i look back at many of the awful developments that were thrown up in the '70s and '80s and wonder, 'how the hell did that get through?'

as one new pile of shit is planted on our city grid after another, i find myself wondering in the same way.

I spy a tangent, i'm going for a walk along it....

y'know - GCC gets lots of lolly for dumping decrepit fairground rides upon every wide enough ped precinct in the city - should we applaud this because it stuffs the council's biscuit tin with cash that can be used for improving the city;s environment or services?

Should we simply smile and cheer at every sign of commercial activity in the city?

socceroo: interesting post there about value engineering. I interviewed Chris Stewart architects recently - on its Wedge building - and architect Jude Barber explained that because the QS was keyed into the design process and because choice of materials is something CSA take very seriously, the Wedge ably survived the cost-cutting - or value engineering - exercise. Although, perhaps most importantly to the whole process, was the presence of an independent Clerk of Works who valiantly fought tooth and nail on behalf of the architects and their design intentions.

anyway . . .

leave the scaff up on . . . i dunno actually!

what gets me is... why the cascading phenomenon?

Glasgow harbour...QE3...and that one at the start of the thread.

cascading went out with the Pharos...whats next ? helter skelter slide on the P&P behive ? :laugh:

Haha love the idea of this thread - I agree with Spacey - why shouldn't we be allowed to berate some of the steaming piles of shit that have been thrown up in our city over the last couple of years?


Metropole is awful, but Victoria Halls and its taller cousin sitting on the edge of the M8 are without doubt THE worst development we've had in the city for quite some time. Such a prominent positon. Such a fucking embarrasment. Grrrrr.




And I know I'm gona get slated for this, but that bloody Icon on Clyde Street still does absolutely nothing for me. 'Twas a big mistake I tell you. A very big mistake.


Aurora looked much better in the renders :(

And I know I'm gona get slated for this, but that bloody Icon on Clyde Street still does absolutely nothing for me. 'Twas a big mistake I tell you. A very big mistake.

Well let me the first. I love it. In my own design work this semester, the cladding on my building wasn't entirely dissimilar to the icon.

It will look less out of place once the unicorn is up (in terms of height...)

Well let me the first. I love it. In my own design work this semester, the cladding on my building wasn't entirely dissimilar to the icon.

It will look less out of place once the unicorn is up (in terms of height...)

THE ICON
I quite like it, it's a decent wee building. The Architecture is sound. It is a good example of a building that could have went wrong through Value Engineering but apparently did not. The detailing is good and the quality of workmanship is very good.

As maccoinnich says, once the Clyde Street is balanced out with other quality modern buildings such as the Unicorn it will sit better. When compared to Jury's Hotel and Metropole it does it for me.

The Icon must have cost a few bob mind you, i thought they were keeping the Tower Crane up as a feature.

http://www.park-lane.biz/userfiles/image/page_devs_lq.jpg

:tongue3: I only hope these also serve as nuclear bunkers...

C'mon Vlad, the thread is supposed to be "Leave the scaffold up award". These buildings have not even started yet.

I like the scale of them, although i hope the white bits are not Powerwall Render. And is that timber cladding...a bit of cedar i see on the balconies...mmm......some glass blocks and we have got the full set.

Homes for the future has still got a lot to answer for :bash:

All in all it is not the worst i've seen.

They could just get as far as the scaffolding and then give up :runaway:

where did it start then , the cascading phenomenon, Cooper Cromers Lancefield Quay?

I think it's a hang up from trying to plug in to an existing context , then build up. Just got abit out of hand.

White render I'm sure was an original idea at one time, around the 2nd Century AD................. like the communal shit stick. Unlike the stick though, white render has hung around a lot longer.

I wouldn't have thought Metropole deserving of this level of oppobrium. I wouldn't exactly hang a photograph of it on my wall, but it isn't offensive to the same degree as, say, Jury's, Q Park or CHQ and it works alongside Carrick Quay.

I wouldn't have thought Metropole deserving of this level of oppobrium. I wouldn't exactly hang a photograph of it on my wall, but it isn't offensive to the same degree as, say, Jury's, Q Park or CHQ and it works alongside Carrick Quay.

I think it is as much about where it is, as to what it is. Yes, Jury's is horrific and Q Park, although it is a Car Park could have been better, but no doubt the Architect was following the Q Park corporate formula.

The Council should have certainly been on guard more with that one.

It's a wonder Matalan have not got planning permission for a store on Clyde Street.

There are actually very few developments that have gone up in Glasgow in the past few years that I like at all...
I'm a fan of The Radisson, Sentinel, 200 Broomielaw and the Science centre but that is about it. The only others I like are refurbishments of old buildings.
The single most embarrasing project to have been unveiled recently is that block of flats next to the Sky Park building and it's right on top of a fucking hill! It is absoloutly unbelieveable that the recent city of architecture and design can grant something like that planning permission...
I really think Glasgow is selling itself short these days in the name of economic development. I also think most of us with any sense of aesthetics are going to look back on a lot of these current developments in a few years and wonder what the fuck happened...
As soon as I get my new camera on the go i'm planning an intensive photographic project on this current crop of shit that's being built. This city deserves better.

I would love to be able to disagree.

Leave the Scaffold up award

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a302/GLASGOWMAN/03rdNov2005020.jpg

Today's pin up is a wee beauty on Greenhead Street facing Glasgow Green.

Whatever you might think of it, there is decent workmanship evident in the brickwork. Pity about the design though....i don't know maybe it's got something, apart from being built more than halfway across the footpath.

Is that a wee bit of Resoplan board i spy on the gables?

Is it luxury flats? or a Halls of Residence?

The Roo....meter gives this a generous 3/10

you seem unsure of your own criticism there 'roo.

where did it start then , the cascading phenomenon, Cooper Cromers Lancefield Quay?

Aye they seem to have started it all Alan.. i mean why loose all that valuable airspace, and please... no pyramids at cheapside we have enough on them otherside of the clyde with a right angled triangle to top it off. :|

Buildings are meant to be lateral and vertical not lopsided.

My wee rant for the day. :)

you seem unsure of your own criticism there 'roo.

It is not the most offensive building i have ever seen, i'll give it that, the workmanship is good. But it is just pure bland.

It's Normandy beach Pill Box architecture. What it has got in common with the Metropole from yesterday, is that it is the wrong building in the wrong location.

Would you build the Pill Box or Metropole in George Square these days. Probably not. Then don't let them get built on Clyde Street or Glasgow Green either. :bash:

It is mediocre building which is acceptable because there is so much other crap getting built. Some benchmark that!

agreed.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a302/GLASGOWMAN/08thDecember2005002.jpg

The Miller Development at Lancefield Quay. East facing elevation.

The Roo....Meter gives this 2/10.

I've driven past this every day for the last year or so....it's definiteley not growing on me. Buildings with swathes of White Powerwall Render should be banned.

If you look at the photo, you will see the new middle block with the scaffold dropped is almost brilliant white. Look at the older block to the right and you will see that it is almost Magnolia with the dirt and grime.

Is that what the West of Scotland weather and Glasgow pollution do to Powerwall Render? What's the development going to look like in 15 years?

Is the Development Factor going to clean and maintain it on a regular basis? I doubt it.

Not a case of wrong building in wrong location. More like wrong building in wrong country?

http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/jpgs/308clyde_View1_03.jpg
This is the one that does it for me.

Every morning I look at this and despair about how uneasily it sits in it's location.

A real missed opportunity IMO.

[IMG]
Every morning I look at this and despair about how uneasily it sits in it's location.

A real missed opportunity IMO.


I know this is not like me, but have to disagree with you Bloo_toon_red i like that building, i like what the Architects have done with it. The quality of build is very good and it's got a certain solidness about it. It should weather well and i don't think it will become too dated.

It also blocks out in part Jury's Terracotta Tile Tower as you walk up Clyde Street.

Given that the airspace above the Custom House is unlikely to be built over - unless there is a fire - they could have perhaps done some wrap around glazing / windows facing East up the Clyde. But who am i to say, they might have tried and the Planners might have done their usual.

I quite like the details in Jewitt Arschavir & Wilkie's stuff in general.

In fact the Roo....Meter gives it a whopping 5.5/10.

Anyone else got any thoughts on it?

chunky.

like a kids' toy version of the real thing.

so, not great, not even 'icon-average', but not total shite like jurys.

I think that it already looks dated, there are a couple of nice-looking junctions, but I think the palette of materials don't rest well (especially the copper, I actually like the dark-grey cladding) together and the overall form looks uneasy - sitting between the high and low buildings, it kind of looks apologetic - like it's trying to break up a playground fight.

The Roo-meter might give it 5.5, but it only gets a 4.5 on the Bloo-Band.

I agree with Bloo_toon_red - i think it's pretty rubbish. It's location is top class, but it's just so bland, small and underwhelming.

Even looking at that render, my eye instantly wanders straight to that fuckin' Euro Hostel before it tracks back to that ghastly "podium" of which this building sits on.


Whilst certainly not the worst of Clyde street's collection of drivel, it's just so underwhelming and diminuative that I can't really take it seriously at all.


Since we are all rating things on this thread, it gets a Captain-Birdseye-Fresh-Fish rating of 4.5

Only nice thing about it are the glazed bricks (it does have glazed bricks doesn't it?). I have one word for it and it begins with "bollocks" and ends in "!".

Bintometer rating: better than Greenhead St! 2/10


I rrrreeeaaAALllly hate this fucker...
http://www.glasgowhotels.org/common/imagegallery/HotelImage.aspx?hid=16107

someone deserves to be shot in the ankles, pinned to a rack by thier ears, terrapins attached to thier fingers and toes, eloctrodes to thier balls, every folicle of hair waxed from thier body then tarred, feathered, flogged and ridiculed.

Bintometer rating.... not even a flinch! 0/10

:)

HaHaHa, :laugh: I have got a theory that the Campanile aka Shitpile Hotel was built without Planning Permission. :sly:

When you see all the Clydeside Masterplan's that Mori and Gleegieboy etc have posted on other threads you wonder how the fuck this ever got permission.

I reckon the cleaners in GCC Planning lifted it out the bin, stamped it and put it in the out tray.

Yep i'll agree with you there it's the worse one yet ......a flatline 0/10

hehehe Yerp... no doubt about it, someone in planning was definitely wired to a Mars bar that day! I hope Campamile go bust. Truly I do :yes:

Top marks Crusty - we're gona have to pull out all the stops to beat that. Quite frankly I'd rather stare at a three legged camel on viagra for hours on end rather than at that slab of mediocrity.

Grrrrr - Captain Birdseye refuses to rate this one - even his tasty range of fresh fish products are grimacing in dismay...

I rrrreeeaaAALllly hate this fucker...

:laugh: campanile... gawwwwd... aye the feeling is mutual crusty.

Why on earth did the cooncil ever let that design past the border..must have been an under the counter job. :)

This is fun! hehehe I've got worse to come now, I'll get a pic of the ones at Albert Drive and Pollokshaws Rd Gweilo described. You will all die when you see them, I do almost every day!

The one opposite MacDonald's is the worst one Crusty, that's the one where the developer got shot of the Architects and then the subbies downed tools.

The developer was trying to play at Main Contractor also as nobody would touch it.

The developer then ended up paying cash to tradesmen to finish it piece meal. I know that Building Control were ripping their hair out their heads at the end up.

The treatment of the downpipes outside the building is almost artistic.

Maybe we were too hasty with Campanile or should we introduce a minus score?

Mizu - Elliot Street, Glasgow. Been mentioned in a couple of threads already, but i thought it should be put in it's appropriate thread, so it was either this one or the demolition thread.

Right who done it? Who is responsible?

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a302/GLASGOWMAN/Mizu1.jpg

Is that another one i see lurking behind the one in the foreground? Don't tell me there is two of them!
(Photo pinched from Gleegieboy)

Did an Architect actually design this building or was it maybe a Blue Peter Primary School competition "be an Architect for a day".

Great eh, the GHA starts to knock down tower blocks like this and we start building them again.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a302/GLASGOWMAN/Mizu.jpg

The Roo....Meter gives this 1/10

The smilie below has more design input that the Mizu mess.

:badnews:

I spotted this one from the Kingston Bridge last week and they seriously should have left the scaffold up because it was the first time I had noticed it.

It is truly dreadful. I can only think it's been designed by a year-out student or someone with extremely limited design capabilities. There are very few complicated looking junctions or features which shows it has been done very much on the cheap.

I find it very difficult to disagree with you Roo, it has come straight out of the Glasgow Corporation Housing for the Masses Handbook - 1960 Edition.

Absolutely - it's a crime.

I have had a birds eye view of its construction from the Gla Uni library, and was eager to see the scaffolding come down after watching it grow.

But good grief, I too wish they had left it up.

UUUGGHHHHHH.

Everything the council has tried to rid Glasgow of has been thrown into this mess, and that new building near the Skypark will just make things worse.


Captain Birdseye says "1/10 - not in my food/city"

Mizu also totaly obliterates the view of the SECC and Clyde from HG HQ! Do Local Authorities have a statutory obligation to answer any request to explain how they reach thier decisions on planning applications? Anyone know?

Mizu also totaly obliterates the view of the SECC and Clyde from HG HQ! Do Local Authorities have a statutory obligation to answer any request to explain how they reach thier decisions on planning applications? Anyone know?

The Council are good at giving you reasons on the Planning Notice if a Planning Application is rejected.

Other than the various minutes of meetings which are available on the Council website including approved Planning Notices which have been approved with all the conditions attached, i do not know how much other information they are obliged to issue. (Freedom of Information Act?)

The Planning Meetings are quite entertaining. I was at a meeting in the City Chambers a year or so ago to witness a meeting at which i was having a Planning Application heard.

We got Planning Permission granted no problem. However, i witnessed Councillors having their genuine and valid concerns about another Project being promptly put down by the Council Planners.

I recall that the minutes of the meeting when they came out were not a true reflection on the meeting that i attended.

I have an idea! I reckon that ghastly new tower they have built beside High street train station would look realy cool if the grew ivy all over it!
I think I might submit this proposal to the council. It couldn't look much worse than it does now anyway...
As for buildings that should keep the scaffold up... Glasgow cross is starting to unveil what could be something quite hiddeous. I'll hold off and post a final verdict as it nears completion!

Nice idea, would cost tuppence as well!

Here's one of the ones from Pollokshaws Rd I mentioned:

Tramway Heights
http://media.rightmove.co.uk/1k/495/495_SHA050382_IMG_01.jpg

Surprised the render's able to stick to the wall theres that much of it! The detailing is lousy as well, not a down-pipe in site but three stonking big shit chutes stick out at ground floor!

Bintometer rating: More shit than chute 1.2/10

Doesn't matter what shite they fling up these days, as long as the title is something "heights" or "gate" or "way" it is guaranteed success.
The above building is just a mess. I laughed the other day when I saw the sign on the side of it with something like "Unique, stylish development" written on it! It totally ruins the whole look of the street.

You forgot to mention 'quay' as well... always a sure fire way to sales success. 'Wharf' is another good one.

I can't believe this thread was pushed back to page 3 considering the amount of shite that continues to reveal itself at such an alarming rate!

3 contenders this spring so far


1. The Merchant building

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Skyescraper/DSC00798.jpg

I thought the artists impression looked great. Sadly, piss poor detailing and use of materials has turned this into a real eyesore...

2. The Metro

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Skyescraper/IMGP0975.jpg

I am amazed at how a building of such modest proportions can completely obliterate the view of Garnethill from the M8. These uniform square windows and shiny white panels look completely out of place next to all the red sandstone tenements.

3. Jamaica street car park

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Skyescraper/DSC01004.jpg

Well, I thought the drawings were poor but things seem a lot worse in real life. This is more of an eyesore than the wasteland car park it replaces. Surely a future nominee for the carbuncle awards?

That's my 2 pence worth. Any other buildings that you guys think deserve to join the ranks along with the Clyde street tower, Mizu, Etap etc.???

Skyescraper

Good photos Skyescraper.

The Merchant Building is disappointing. I do not doubt that a lot of money has went into it, you just need to look at all those square metres of sandstone. But i really don't get it at the top.

I jokingly said the top of it looked like Govan Underground Station on the render images and that would be not a bad comparison.

It is a prime site and i hear that it is now selling quite well. So it should be good for an injection of more city dwellers and nighttime activity in the Merchant City etc. Which can only be a good thing.

The Metro building for me is actually not too bad. Again there is undoubtedly fairly expensive materials used in the envelope. Probably a case of wrong building in wrong place for some people. But for others perhaps it brightens up a dark corner.

Now the Car Park in Jamaica Street. As Car Parks go i like the side cladding details. Big Car Parks are in a all big cities. That Car Park says we are big city. What do you do with a Car Park...disguise it...bury it..move it somewhere else...? My all time least favourite Car Park is the one that has appeared next to the Royal Infirmary.

I agree (surprisingly). What is that mock blockwork corner detail on the RI car park all about?

I wonder what the lifespan would be of these new builds.. will they last the decades that their predecesors did or is it a throw up and lets see what happens kinda attitude.

keeps me awake at times wondering sometimes.

When i was buying my semi in the early 90s i told the sales agent that my house i was in at the time was built nearly 200 years ago.... her reply was "oh these new ones wont last as long as that" i looked at her speechless and then she said red faced "sorry i shouldnt have said that" obviously i knew the quality was not the same as previous era but the guilt on this sales womans face as she was trying to conclude the property deal was immense.

I wonder if the architects and and builders have this guilt concious whilst they are bulding and designing new properties.

Commodity, firmness, and delight.

NOT!

The place of functionalism in building can be traced back to the Vitruvian triad, where 'utilitas' (variously translated as 'commodity', 'convenience', or 'utility') stands alongside 'venustas' (beauty) and 'firmitas' (firmness) as one of three classic goals of architecture.

In my humble opinion, very few if any, recent modern buildings will live up to these noble ideals.

I concur

That piece of shit down on Springfield Quay is awful. The Merchant building is so dissapointing for me because it just makes me think what that area was originally like and look at it now.

Ah, that's better.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/gcross.jpg

Ah, that's better.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/gcross.jpg

Not too sure about this either.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/bbc_scot.jpg

That looks like its going to be a cracking space. Simple yet theatrical. I like it.

Compared to the original? I do hope the apparently solid balustrading to the atrium and stairs is a temporary measure for protection only. Simple glazing would be much better - similar to Foster's ITN building.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/bbc1.jpg

The same spatial qualities are there. What has changed has been primarily the approach to materials it seems. I have to say i think i prefer the slightly more robust approach that the built version has. The render is just a bit vapid. The slightly industrial feel of it sits nicely within the very simple but clean glazed box

Reminds me of the inside of a prison to be honest(not that I've ever been in one!). :)

Cost ratio's seem roughly equivalent.

The Metro cost £5.4 million for 46 flats £117,000 per flat
McIntyre and Hogg cost £10.5 million for 84 flats £125,000 per flat

Of course if Metro had been clad in red sandstone costs would likely double, sending it off the bell curve.

I don't actively dislike any of those mentioned, save to say that white to my eye does not belong in Glasgow (be that render, glazed panels or ceramic but in that order) and I really don't mind the Jamaica Street car park, then again perhaps my expectations have been numbed by experience.

So, a Richard Meier building in the town would be a definite no-no?

Damn that Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his white Glasgow building....

So, a Richard Meier building in the town would be a definite no-no?

Meier buildings should generally be a no-no anywhere....

A google of his name suggests predominantly white works in predominantly warm climates, for those who don't know (me).

It's a matter of taste, but to my mind Glasgow is a city of warm reds and blondes to contrast the cold climate. From high vantage points white structures are highly visible and their architecture doesn't generally deserve the flattery.

Meier buildings should generally be a no-no anywhere....
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/thumbsdown.gif

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/thumbsdown.gif

They tend to look quite interesting when published but in my experience in the flesh they are soulless and placeless objects parachuted in from planet (pastiche) modernism. He is an architect that hasnt developed his language at all through a lengthy career and thats a pity as he is a decent enough form-maker.

On the other hand, his handling and articulation of the built form to balance light and space is absolutely superb.

Lets not forget he was the youngest ever recipient of the Pritzker Prize, at age 49. No mean feat.

Even a gritty and grainy city such as Barcelona, enjoys the benefit of a Meier building, in the most unexpected of locations. The nearest we have ever gotten is a poorly executed masterplan at Edinburgh Park that perhaps only two or three buildings, the BT and John Menzies buildings by Bennetts Associates among them, come close to being worthy of.

Anyway, we digress.

The Barecelona museum...slightly suprised that you think thats a positive. It sits very uncomfortably there. A cold and sterile object in a dirty and complex context. It doesnt speak of the city its in and it doesnt speak of its context. its interesting that it appears in adverts masquerading as an office block as its a very blank and almost generic thing from the outside. It could be in any superior business park anywhere in the world. Inside it has one great set piece space (as his buildings tend to) but its a space that is again fairly meaningless and disconnected from the programme. The ramp through the atrium doesnt function as effective enough ciruclation from gallery to gallery and the treatment of the facade tends to insulate it from the grubby but intersting square the building fronts which is a pity, it could almost have been a Pompidou type experience.

Barcelona has a few buildings by trophy architects and some of them work but the best things in that city engage with it as a place, they take something of the life of the place. Meier seems to suck the life out of it. He is a skillfull guy but he needed a looser language and a less hackneyed formal vocabulary.

Hmmm, okay we'll aree to disagree.

Anyway, back on topic, I did another option for the top floors of the Glasgow Cross scheme, in an "Alsop-ian" fashion, which would bring back a well-kent face to Glasgae...

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/gcross2.jpg

You should have a row of them like Farrell egg cups :)

And a vast improvement that is Jet Acrimony... :)

Or maybe if he was just peeking over the parapet, like Mr Stay Puft from Ghostbusters?

The unwrapped merchant building hurts my eyes.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/gcross.jpg

The winner of the 'keep the scaffold up' award by a mile.

That's my 'doctored' version. The original has the white extrusions above the exposed stonework. :)

I'd have Mr. Stay Puft peeking over the top, and 'Puffy Was Here' scrawled in four-story high lettering across the south face (a la the 'Kilroy Was Here' cartoons). There's plenty of artists in the Merchant City who'd oblige.

In fact, let's have a Ghostbusters-themed light show permanently on display on the building's roof, with melted marshmallow/terracotta randomly dropping on lucky winners below.

I had high hopes for this building.

Totally dashed now of course the scaffolding is coming down.

I walked past this building this afternoon

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f324/jet_acrimony/gcross.jpghttp://www.pukeplanet.com/images/vomit.jpg

Accch that building is terrible indeed - what a disappointment.

Such a prominent location, and they've gone and messed up pretty bad... :(

Still, not all the scaffolding has been taken off yet - we should rejoice for now, cos' it won't be like this for ever....

It is such a wasted opportunity... it's not just the roof that bugs me, it's all that nice blonde sandstone that has been used with such little imagination. Just flat, featureless sides that may as well have been finished in white render (gasp!).

Even some half-decent windows could have made it look at least passable.

Tramway Heights (again... more pics tho!)
http://media.rightmove.co.uk/1k/495/495_SHA050382_IMG_01.jpg

Is this not just one of the worst things you've ever seen... where to start...

Sewage pipe on the left: now thats a nice greeting eh? Also check the dodgy blockwork just to te left of that.
The buzzer (or intercom for all you estate agents out there) is on the wrong side. The wrong fukking side!! Imagine being laden with bags, fumbling for ur keys before resigning to pressing the buzzer with your nose to cry for help only to have to sprint to the close door in the hope whoevers on the other end likes pressing buttons! Deserve what you get tho if you bought one of these, unless you're blind then it wouldn't really be your fault.
Cheapo light outside... House of Sher by the looks.
Lastly, check the bits hanging off the top close window... this building is a matter of months old...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/crusty_bint/Glasgow%20fotos/tramwayheights.jpg

I despair.

Phwaar Crusty that's a belter!

Absolute shite!

Nice find :happy:

I had been meaning to post this for months, but only ever really drive past it so never got the chance to grab some photies.

Absolutly love that, the intercom on the wrong side! Pure Dead Brilliant! :D

Must have been a d+b job.....or is it just me being cynical about all skills being lost from the construction industry?

I was archiving some project info recently and compared levels of drawn information from 10 and 5 years ago to now. Despite huge increases in the info we provide, contractors are always wanting more, given I think, that essential skills, experience and often just plain common sense are being lost from the coal face, and that's just sad.

Absolutly love that, the intercom on the wrong side! Pure Dead Brilliant! :D


TY for that TT ...i think i just Peed myself laffin.

:rofl:

Must have been a d+b job.....or is it just me being cynical about all skills being lost from the construction industry?

I was archiving some project info recently and compared levels of drawn information from 10 and 5 years ago to now. Despite huge increases in the info we provide, contractors are always wanting more, given I think, that essential skills, experience and often just plain common sense are being lost from the coal face, and that's just sad.

And what about Architects skills? Or is it just the Technicians that have those. That's it....Technicians do the CAD Stuff, Part 3's do the Arty Farty Renders and and the Architects well they.......... :)

Over the last 5 - 10 years the number of variations on traditional JCT 98 or similar Projects that i have been involved in have went up dramatically, usually down to poor design co-ordination between the various members of the Design Team.

I don't think it's a lack of skills, the strength of graduates coming into the Building Management side of things is much better of late, due to the courses being more relevant.

What is prevalent just now is a lack of numbers due to the Building Industry being at it's busiest since the 1960's.

The lack of numbers isn't just due to the boom, sadly. Salaries in the industry suck pretty much across the board, at least at entry/graduate level.

I could have started a job in IT with £5k more in basic salary, £6k more in starting bonus and 8 days more annual leave, plus a whole host of other benefits, than the package I'm getting from one of the construction industry's top consulting firms, including the 'London weighting'. I just hope the 'job satisfaction' factor makes up for it all!

Sorry for going off topic; I just saw an opening and had to seize it. :)

Tramway Heights (again... more pics tho!)
http://media.rightmove.co.uk/1k/495/495_SHA050382_IMG_01.jpg

Is this not just one of the worst things you've ever seen... where to start...

Sewage pipe on the left: now thats a nice greeting eh? Also check the dodgy blockwork just to te left of that.
The buzzer (or intercom for all you estate agents out there) is on the wrong side. The wrong fukking side!! Imagine being laden with bags, fumbling for ur keys before resigning to pressing the buzzer with your nose to cry for help only to have to sprint to the close door in the hope whoevers on the other end likes pressing buttons! Deserve what you get tho if you bought one of these, unless you're blind then it wouldn't really be your fault.
Cheapo light outside... House of Sher by the looks.
Lastly, check the bits hanging off the top close window... this building is a matter of months old...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/crusty_bint/Glasgow%20fotos/tramwayheights.jpg

I despair.

Yea that building is a total disaster. Because it’s a flat roof all the top floor flats are suffering from leaking roofs and now cracks are appearing in the walls. Some apartments in that building have never been lived in and probably never will be because of this.

And what about Architects skills? Or is it just the Technicians that have those. That's it....Technicians do the CAD Stuff, Part 3's do the Arty Farty Renders and and the Architects well they...............have bigger erections!!!!

My my, what a huge chip you have....... :)

I hear stories all the time about a lack of labour from site management level to grunt. The simple fact of the matter is that very many people -throughout the industry on all sides (because we don't have and us and them mentality do we?) - are being promoted well beyond their ability and skill level because it is an employees market and too many employers are chasing too few staff.

I know a couple of site guys who should have retired years ago but are still working and making lots of money due to the demand for experienced staff....

Tramway Heights is a disaster. At least they've have the decency to remove the banner that was fixed to its east wall saying 'Southplace Homes: With Style and Originality'. I would have taken a picture of that, but the irony would have caused my camera's photodetector array to explode.

I desperately hope Govanhill Pool is retained, otherwise we'll end up with demolition for shite like this to be built in its place (by the aptly named Cruden Homes).

the amount of weep-holes in the curved render wall on that job is frightening!

next up.... the site of NTL (or thereabouts on Maxwell rd), just a stones throw from the Heights...

http://www.malcolmfraser.co.uk/im/res_mrg1.jpg

Altho I think this one should be nominated for the "Don't Even Bother thinking About Erecting Scaffolding Award"!

Oh. Dear. God.

How do these people sleep at night?!

I would have taken a picture of that, but the irony would have caused my camera's photodetector array to explode.

:lol:

===============

NTL looks terrible. That big grey wall, all full of windows and shit, makes me weep.

================

How do these people sleep at night?!
Probably by taking the same Elephant sedative they used when designing this mess..

next up.... the site of NTL (or thereabouts on Maxwell rd), just a stones throw from the Heights...

http://www.malcolmfraser.co.uk/im/res_mrg1.jpg

Altho I think this one should be nominated for the "Don't Even Bother thinking About Erecting Scaffolding Award"!

I'd give Malcolm Fraser the benefit of the doubt - his buildings tend to come out better than his drawings.

The devil's in the detail, as they say.

But that render is hardly encouraging.

I don't think that's all that bad actually. Not the worst building I've seen built in this town by a long way.

I really want to live in this new development. :|

How the hell can they justify this design on a corner tenemental site, i pity the people that buy these flats i really do. :rant:

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/6463/lornestxj9.jpg

Has anyone walked by that Metro development opposite Cowcaddens Subway recently?
I can put up with the ground floor addressing the street being as awful as it is - that I don't blame on the developers, just the market reality of the location... however, it really is worth a visit to see the state of the tarmaced pavement laid by the developers.. I've never in my life seen a worse handled, more irregular piece of nonsense. It's as though they've made it deliberately badly.

Mmmmmmm.........:tiasd: Which page Murdomac...?

:lol:

I think that the Merchant building down at the Trongate is actually not as bad as first thought. It's bloody huge and quite imposing, but the area needs massing like this to bring more people into the area.

I would almost go so far as to say that it should maybe be struck off from this list :)

Is that what you call a "back-handed compliment"?

I think that the Merchant building down at the Trongate is actually not as bad as first thought. It's bloody huge and quite imposing, but the area needs massing like this to bring more people into the area.

I would almost go so far as to say that it should maybe be struck off from this list :)

You still full of the New Year spirits David.:lol:

Every time I look at that bloody building, it angers me more. There is such wonderful architecture around that junction... and then this square, emotionless, loveless lump comes and parks itself next to them and calls itself 'the merchant building'. No real merchants would ever have settled for living in such a bland, ugly building.

Never, ever, has the phrase 'wasted opportunity' been more apt.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/Scotland/P1000633.jpg

Nooooooooooooooooo please leave the scaffold up:ohno:

Wit is that a church/chapel/cathedral glasgow council haven't flattened yet

I was heading down Victoria Road the other day, and almost vomited when I saw that development opposite the hideous Plaza, over on Pollockshaws Road.

Anyone else seen it? They've been building the various blocks for a while, but seem to have saved the very ugliest building for the main street boundary. It's about 50% clad in some shitty grey plastic.

I never got a pic, but will see about getting one next time. Dear oh dear. Maybe someone took pity on the morons that bought a flat in that damned affront to the senses that is the Plaza , and decided that misery would love company.


While I'm moaning, mods: Is there any reason the search function on this site is totally unreliable? I tried searching for this thread by putting in the word "Leave", and searching in thread titles. I then tried "scaffold".
Did it work? Did it buggery.

Dunno, but there's always the forum index (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=370193) made by TBD, or a google search in the format "site:http://www.skyscrapercity.com/ leave the scaffold up" also works considerably better than the built in search.

That, Milton, is Utopia. No irony intended. To quote the spiel 'Your Village in the City'. So someone had a sense of humour.

You can read all about it here:

http://www.westpointhomes.net/news/news_detail.asp?news=36

And the brochure is available here.

http://www.westpointhomes.net/developments/utopia/Utopia%20Brochure.pdf

I've been passing it most mornings for the last few months and have been mentally pleading that they would be putting in shop units to address Eglinton Toll which after all is one of Glasgow's Crosses and the sort of node where one would traditionally expect shops. But no car parking grills it is. On one of the main throughfares into the city. Oh joy…

And ironically again they actually use Shawlands and Pollokshields shopfronts in the brochure, to advertise what a funky metrosexual lifestyle you too could lead if you just bought one of the flats, without bothering to contribute towards these desirable urban qualities themselves.

There's other guff in there too such as 'Strolling around the gardens'. Eh where would that be then? On the crappy piece of amenity space stuck off Borland Street? Or the pointless piece of grass stuck at the apex of the Toll? Oh they mean the Hidden Gardens… That you can only access via the Tramway during opening hours and which are by their nature hidden from sight. And again are another urban amenity someone else supplied.

Modern living perfected indeed.

What depresses me is that a whole swath of the area between the Toll and Tramway was under the control of one developer so the city could have insisted on them looking at issues such as the street section and how that could have contributed to amenity. The Victorians thought about these things when setting out the neighbouring Tenemental suburb of East Pollokshields so that everyone has a small front garden to both soften the urbanism and give privacy. Why can't we? Especially when we know these things have health benefits and add to the long term vitality of an area. The other thing that puzzles me is the car parking. There's a train station within a 5 minute walk and fast bus corridor on your doorstep. Why all the parking then? Why not go car free or offer a car club? If Glasgow does want to attract people back into the inner suburbs we have to do better than this.

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/content/ebiz/wilkinsonplus/invt/0243258/0243258_l.jpg
deserves a >:puke:
http://www.westpointhomes.net/images/developments/hires/utopia_main.jpg

almost burst out laughing when i passed this^^ (Utopia haha) yesterday. they (the mysterious they) have stuck the old decorative lamp brackets from the garage they demolished (without permission) on to the newest block. looks ridic, spose its something though.