Revised flats proposal drawn up for Glasgow bowling club site
New plans have been lodged with Glasgow City Council for a residential development and a new public garden in the city’s Finnieston area.
Owner Nixon Blue has proposed to build 36 new two and three-bedroom apartments and duplexes, designed with a contemporary stone curved façade to complement the A-listed terrace of St Vincent Crescent. Included in the proposal is a high-quality public garden which will be fully accessible to the public.
Developers will invest an estimated £8 million into the semi-derelict former Corunna Bowling Club, create more than 100 jobs within the building and construction sector, and aim to attract families and professionals alike.
Nixon Blue appointed Page\Park Architects to create a proposal which maximises public open space for the community as a landscaped garden. The firm said it has also has looked closely on the detailed design with landscape architects HarrisonStevens to create the public garden proposal.
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.”
He added: “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.”
A previous application by Nixon Blue for 39 flats in a nine-storey block at the site was refused in March last year.
The new proposals would open a previously private “members only” bowling club to make way for a publicly accessible open space for general community-use, which will be paid for by the developers at no cost to the city council or local residents.
Nixon Blue foresees a demand for quality new build homes in the area with the company already building 27 apartments at its Picture House development in Dennistoun and is due to begin work on a new residential development in the heart of Paisley, opposite the Abbey, comprising of 36 units with a restaurant space at the ground floor level.
Nixon Blue director and architect Colin McIntyre said: “We believe that by investing significantly into this exciting project, we can transform a semi-derelict piece of land into a high-quality public open space for the whole community as well as providing quality new homes in the city.
“Our approach is to maximise the open space available for public use and to incorporate the cost of building the new garden into our overall development proposals. Our architects and landscape designers have created a leading-edge urban design proposal which should set a benchmark for how similar sites could be developed in the future.”