Buchanan Galleries Expansion | 392,000 sq ft | £400m | Prop

[milton]

I might be alone here, but I actually don't mind the bus station as it is... sure it takes up a bit of space, but bus stations with a building above them are universally rank. Exhaust fumes and piss.. no thanks.

[Bingo Bango]

yeah the bus station the now is a great bit of the town!

Vlad - what is the fascination with with getting the bus station on the railtrack site? ever seen a multi storey bus station before?

[Vladimir V L]

Hahaha, just because something has never been seen doesnt mean it is impossible. I just think having it at the railway station would improve efficiency (as well as mean people dont have to trudge their way between stations in the rain).

Glasgow has a serious problem with its transport system being totally unconnected, probably because its owned by a bunch of different companies...

[Bingo Bango]

i didnt say it was impossible. There are often very good reasons for sites lying vacant. one of those is usually legalities such as who owns the site, what has it got permission for etc...

another is that some sites can be incompatible with modern needs. I know there have been a fair number of proposals for this site over the years, with all dying a death due to the numbers just not adding up or ownership being disputed/muddy etc.

Sticking a car park there is totally possible of course. multi storey of course is possible, but as i keep saying there just isnt the space for the bus station to move without losing much of its capacity. practicalities such as site engineering as well will play a big part. crash protection to a car park is one thing, crash protection to stop buses is quite another and would seriously eat into useable space....

also, multi storey bus stations, of course not impossible would need friggin huge ramps to get up and down, car parks are tight enough to make them viable, would hate to see one for those big double flexible bus things!

[maccoinnich]

I'm not necessarily saying it could work here, but given the topography of the site, surely different level could entered from different streets, thus negating the need for large ramps? Long distance could be one level/more local on another? There's certainly a compelling logic to bringing the bus and train stations closer together (despite their proximity, they're a bugger to get between at the moment).

[legslikeaspider]

The Herald has reasonable coverage of this proposal here: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/75212.html

I think this will be too big a moneyspinner for the council to ignore: they will trot out exaggerated figures about the jobs and income that it will create but fail to take account of the knock on effect for Argyll Street and Sauchiehall Street. Also; the article states that the Galleries are currently home to one fifth of city centre retail space, surely it can't be a great idea to have one property holdings company controlling all that land? Furthermore, if the city is losing ground to other cities as being the number one retail spot outside of London (as the article states) then

a) so what? Glasgow still has an incredibly diverse array of shops - maybe tis better to manage what we have better than to expand at all costs?
b) surely it's better to foster the development of small, niche retailers than to encourage the opening of more bland mega-chain stores? I mean, will the city really benefit from more branches of New Look, Nike Town or the Disney Store?

I feel a little bit helpless in the face of the needs of big business.

[M_Riaz]

ET story as well.

Its amzing to see developers further investing in the city, this development along with Queen st & St Enoch Expansion will surely make the city centre a massive shopping haven.

BUCHANAN Galleries could almost double in size under multi-million pound plans to turn the Glasgow complex into one of the largest city centre indoor shopping malls in Britain.

Retail bosses want to build two extensions, resulting in its total floor space soaring by 400,000sq ft to around 1million sq ft.

The main extension would be to the east of the shopping centre.

It would mean the 2000 space car park on the corner of Killermont Street and North Hanover Street would be flattened. The air space on Cathedral Street above the rail lines heading north from Queen Street Station would be built over to become part of the new Galleries.

The scheme would also see a 2500 space car park being built over Buchanan Bus Station, although it has not yet been finalised as to whether this would mean the entire bus station being undercover or just part of it.

GALLERIES bosses want to build two extensions, creating 1 million sq ft of floorspace and building a car park over Buchanan Bus Station

[Leeds No.1]

From an outside opinion; the Buchanan Galleries is a very very good shopping centre. There are few that can compare for the quality of the shopping, the style, the names, location. Expansion isn't a bad idea here I don't think, but the shopping centres like Braehead, Glasgow Fort etc are bad. Developers realised that its about revitalising city centres, not building out of town shopping centres. So surely it would be better to expand this and not build the out of town shopping centres. Even though, spose thats not really an option now.

As for expansion, well. It depends what names will fill it. Selfridges had a site in Glasgow I heard- where abouts is this? Could be this site? To cover the bus station. Bad idea; create a dark, dingy place- it would be a very bad idea. It will hardly make public transport more attractive. If they are to do this, another major bus station needs building elsewhere, or this part of the expansion should not go ahead. What they could do is to make the bus station part of the shopping centre. ie the bus station concourse is actually the ground floor of the shopping centre; this is the case in Elgin. Even so, I don't really think its that practical for such a large and busy bus station.

[crusty_bint]

Do they actually intend to cover the whole bus station or just rebuild the GCC operated car park that already exists there and expand it over the station building/terminal as opposed to the actual bus stances? Could the bus station still operate if they were going to build over the stances?

[M_Riaz]

Minutes Of the BG's Proposal Item 10

Proposals for the extension to Buchanan Galleries shopping centre have been the
subject of extensive discussions between the Buchanan Galleries Partnership and
representatives of the Council. It is envisaged that these will eventually form the basis of
an outline planning application likely to be submitted in early 2007 subject to full
Environmental Assessment. In order to provide a context for the proposal and to assist
with discussion surrounding the likely issues which will require to be resolved, the
Development Framework (October 2006) has been submitted following advice from the
Council.

The application site includes the existing Buchanan Galleries shopping centre with
adjacent car park and the Buchanan Bus Station to the north of it. Although the whole
site is not under the control of the Galleries, discussion with the relevant site owners are
understood to be well advanced. The site is bounded to the west by the Glasgow Royal
Concert Hall and further north crossing over Killermont Street by Langs hotel and a
Council multi-storey car park. The northern boundary of the site follows Cowcaddens
Road opposite from Glasgow Caledonian University. To the east the boundary runs
south along North Hanover Street, passing the bus station and existing Buchanan
Galleries car park, where it eventually meets Cathedral Street. The southern boundary
of the site follows Cathedral Street over the listed bridge behind Queen Street Station
then down Dundas Street, passing by Buchanan Underground Station and finally through
onto Buchanan Street. The site and proposals include adjacent areas of public realm.

The main elements of the proposal are:
• An extension to the south of the existing centre on Buchanan Street;
• The part infilling of the north railway cutting;
• The demolition of the existing 2,000 space car park and its replacement with an
extension to the east of the existing centre.
• The construction of a new 2,500 space short-stay car park incorporating the existing
Buchanan Bus Station as ‘a modern, 21st Century transportation hub’ with the
potential for a high level pedestrian link bridge between the new car parking and the
shopping centre extension;
• Residential development fronting onto Cowcaddens Road;
• Revisions to existing traffic circulation, access and servicing arrangements;
• Environmental and public realm improvements to Killermont Street, Dundas Street,
Buchanan Street and the undercroft over Cathedral Street/Bath Street..

[gleegie]

They'll have to phase the car park first. can't see them wanting to demolish all parking.

Not sure how the housing on Cowcaddens rd at the back of the bus station will relate to the car park.

[gleegie]

link




Doesn't show much, but I presume the colour codes correspond to usage, blue = retail, green = public realm, yellow = parking/bus depot and red = residential.

Interesting because I don't think I've ever seen a car park and bus depot sandwiched by residential before.

Presumably Land Securities/Henderson are monitoring St Enoch's and are (I would hope) aiming to better them.

[Kentigern]

Given how much of the intervening space is being developed, surely there is scope to create some kind of connection between the bus station and Queen Street Station? A covered moving walkway, perhaps?

How much would such a thing add to the cost of the project? I'm sure the council could contribute some and have Land Securities/Henderson put up the rest in return for planning permission?

[M_Riaz]

BBC

Shopping centre to double in size

A shopping centre in the heart of Glasgow could double in size under plans that could "herald a new era" for the city's retail industry.
The Buchanan Galleries car park would be demolised under the proposal to make way for a new shopping area.

A new car park would be built above Buchanan Bus Station, which would also be redeveloped.

A planning application will be submitted in the spring. If approved, construction could start in 2008.

Buchanan Galleries currently comprises about 600,000 sq ft of retail space and has more than 80 stores.

[Boards]

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news...213843.0.0.php

I dont see Glasgow holding on to its second city of retail for much longer. Retail spend in the city centre has fallen by 300million pounds per year from three years ago. The city is now third behind Birmingham on retail turnover. Where Glasgow's turnover is falling Birmingham's has grown by hundreds of millions over the last few years. Glasgow has obviously suffered from competition from Braehead and the Fort. The exact opposite is happening in Birmingham with the new Bullring pulling the shoppers in. Glasgow will suffer further when Silverburn opens and god knows how much sales will drop by if the huge new mall at Ravenscraig opens. I can actually forsee it losing third place to Manchester city centre in the future. It is still second placed in terms of quality of retail space ( Experian ranking ) but unless Selfridges and Harvey Nicholls open I imagine this will be lost to Birmingham soon ( retail turnover ranking obviously affects retailers decision where to open, so if Birmingham is ranked higher then logically retailers will chose to open there before Glasgow - thus Glasgow may lose its second placed experian ranking too ). If things remained the same as they are now then Glasgow city centre could turn it around but no chance with Silverburn and possibly Ravenscraig happening.

[M_Riaz]

Thought i'd put this development here as its across the rd from BG.

This block has been in dispute since the mid 90's between GCC and owners preventing CPO by stealth and has now reached the european courts.

This corner however has progressed by a seperate consortium and is going ahead from the rest of the block right down to the Antheneum building which also is being developed in to a retail dept store.

221 Buchanan Street/ 3 - 7 Bath Street Item 2C.

PROPOSAL
Erection of retail store following demolition of existing building - deletion of condition 13 and amendment of conditions 10, 17 and 22 of consent 01/01496/DC.

SITE AND DESCRIPTION
The application site is located at the south west corner of the junction between Buchanan Street and Bath Street. The
site previously included two 3/4-storey sandstone buildings which were not listed but were located within the Central
(Outstanding) Conservation Area. The adjoining buildings to the south are of a similar scale and simple style but the
adjacent red sandstone building (Albert Chambers, Bath Street) to the west, is 6-storey with attic and much grander in
scale and decorative in style. Planning permission was granted in October 2000 for the erection of a 3/4-storey retail
development with basement, comprising 1200 square metres of floorspace (reference 00/00689/DC). A parallel
conservation area consent for the demolition of non-listed buildings was approved at the same time and subsequently
cleared by Historic Scotland on 6th December 2000 (reference 00/00687/DC). The planning consent was amended by
a new planning permission (reference 01/01496/DC) granted in October 2001. There was no amendment to the
conservation area consent at this time.

Some previous proposals that were mooted for this corner,right is the corner of West Nile/Bath St

[Boards]

Originally Posted by Vladimir V L

Im still not seeing how that site is any worse for the bus station. Put it on a platform above stretching south from Bath Street right across to the back of the hotel, its actually a huge site. Think how handy it would be, being part of the station complex!

Have the main access from Bath Street and North Hanover Street. Have the car parking underneath and downwards, has nobody ever heard of an underground carpark?

It was actually suggested that Queen Street main station be closed and turned into Glasgow's main bus station. The link below is to a map from 1951. Also shows the suggested Glasgow North Station. Its a good size.

http://hipkiss.org/data/maps/british...6_2481_300.jpg

[flange]

Buchanan Galleries planning application goes in

Henderson Global Investors and Land Securities have submitted an outline planning application to Glasgow City Council for a 700,000-sq ft extension to the city's Buchanan Galleries shopping centre. If accepted, the scheme will double the centre's size to 1.3m sq ft, making it one of the largest shopping centres in the UK.

The additional retail floor space will be complemented by a new restaurant destination encouraging longer dwell time. Residential apartments are fronting Cowcaddens Road are also planned. The proposals also involve the refurbishment of the Buchanan Bus Station, one of the key gateways to the city centre from the north.

A new atrium entrance is proposed at the junction of Sauchiehall Street and Buchanan Street, creating better access to both the shopping centre and the Royal Concert Hall. And a new multi-storey car park will be built above the existing bus station, bringing the centre's provision up to 2,900 spaces.

Land Securities development director Nick Davis said: “The proposed extension will create larger, more flexible retail accommodation which is currently not available in the city centre. The extension will take Buchanan Galleries to 1.3m sq ft, which will give the scheme the critical mass required to attract new retailers to the city and make the centre one of the premier retail destinations in the UK.”

[Boards]

Apartments fronting Cowcaddens Road - probably wont recognise Buchanan bus station in a few years, being a regular user of the bus station I really didn't want the station built over. I hope they somehow manage to keep plenty of natural light in the station.

[zipper]

do you know who the Architect is ?

i think it was Jenkins & Marr that did the origional project