Crown Street, Glasgow : Information + Images

Initial phase - three main architects 2A Page & Park 3A Elder & Cannon 5&6 Hypostyle Housing by Page & Park Architects not yet featured Housing by Elder & Cannon Architects: Keith Hunter Housing by Hypostyle Architects (Press Release further down this page): new gorbals: image from hypostyle architects Friary Court - image © Keith Hunter from Page/Park Aug 2006 Crown Street housing Latest images from Oct 2005 - scroll down page to 'CZWG Housing' + Latest Housing Completions, 2005 Glasgow housing - image © adrian welch This is a regeneration project south of the Clyde using some of Glasgow's most highly-rated contemporary architects: 2A Page & Park: won a Saltire Award in 2001 with John Dickie Construction Ltd 3A Elder & Cannon: won a Saltire Award in 2001 with John Dickie Construction Ltd 5&6 Hypostyle Architects 1850 homes have been built in New Gorbals: Crown Street - 900 Gorbals East - 350 Queen Elizabeth Square - 600 CZWG - Edinburgh Building for reference CZWG PR at the base of this page Hypostyle Architects - New Gorbals :PR Crown Street Phases 5 & 6 are the final phases of the critically acclaimed New Gorbals redevelopment in conjunction with Redrow Homes. Comprising a total of 203 town houses, flats and duplex apartments, this completion of the New Gorbals masterplan follows on from the success of Hypostyle's earlier Phase 2B development. This development has a balanced contemporary feel in form, materials and scale. At the South West junction of Caledonia Road and Cathcart Road, two arterial roads into Glasgow City Centre, the massing rises up each side of twin stone towers to a larger scale befitting a major city gateway. This gateway status is further enhanced wit the incorporation of one of the city's largest new civic artworks 'the Gatekeeper' by artist group Heisenberg. New Gorbals Phases 5 & 6 PR: 2003 Hypostyle Architects Queen Elizabeth Square Housing CZWG Housing Glasgow housing - image © adrian welch Crown Street - CZWG Architects crown street: image from czwg architects 2005 PR: CROWN STREET CORNER - GORBALS, GLASGOW DESIGN DESCRIPTION The Crown Street project is a 18 ha predominantly residential mixed-use scheme in Gorbals. After more than ten years of construction on site, it is nearing completion. There are mainly four-storey urban blocks of mixed tenure housing around shared communal gardens. Wide boulevards link neighbouring communities east to west across the scheme and bring them to the narrower Crown Street, the principal shopping street of the area, which runs from north to south. Crown Street is contiguous with the Albert Bridge leading to the High Street across the Clyde. But a 70’s urban dual carriageway: Laurieston Road cuts across this alignment from the southwest (following the footprint of a never constructed motorway flyover). The Masterplan, which was designed by CZWG after a competition, envisaged a substantially higher building at the north end of Crown Street which was to act as a landmark for the regenerated area. In townscape terms it placed an urban buffer that rationalised the swing of Laurieston Road to the east and also announced the change in status of the road south from multi lane dual carriageway to two way shopping street. The final piece of the masterplan jigsaw is the triangular block defined by Laurieston Road, Crown Street and Errol Gardens to the south. There are three sites to be developed, one at the northern corner for a church designed by ADF Architects, the south east corner has a mixed use of public library, shops and commercial offices above, also designed by ADF Architects. Through our clients Cruden Estates we are responsible for a residential scheme on the northeast corner at the junction of Laurieston Road and Crown Street. The three sites time share some of the car parking in the central courtyard of the block. The ancient line of Old Rutherglen Road follows its curving route from the far southeast of the site. It sets up another potential major landscape vista at the end of its wide boulevard where it meets Crown Street. The proposed building is part gushet building, part tower. The gushet element splits the curving Laurieston Road from Crown Street at about 45?. The elevation to the latter is four stories with a set back fifth in line with the other buildings in the street. To the former, a height of six stories reflects the increased scale of the dual carriageway and holds the forceful curve of that highway. The tower is placed axially and orthogonally at the end of Old Rutherglen Road, making a dramatic termination to this long boulevard. Its orientation is thus twisted 8? from that of Crown Street. The width of the tower at 11m is equivalent to the elevational height of the eaves/parapets of neighbouring buildings (approximately 12m). Its top three floors are twisted back to the alignment of Crown Street. These floors are 12.5m on each face canting out over the lower part on three sides. These lower eleven stories have a depth circa 20m. The widening of the top element of the tower is an abstracted development of the Castle Tower form of Scottish baronial architecture. Out east of the site is the example of the Old Town Hall of Rutherglen itself. No doubt, it in turn was based on the example of the Toolbooth Steeple of the High Street due north of this site. The tower is set some 2m forward of the Crown Street elevation. This projection (facilitated by the lack of car parking on the road junction turntable) allows the position of the tower to be read in the street from the long vista up Crown Street from the south as well as from the north and beyond to the bridge and across the river. The brick elevations have window openings that emphasise the orientation of the building element. The tower has double height openings in vertical echelon. The gushet block has similar proportioned horizontal windows in the same pattern. There are pitched roofs to the Laurieston Road part of the building and the tower has four sequential mono pitched gable roofs to each façade. Elsewhere flat roofs make terraces for the flats. Balconies, principally on the tower, are stepped across the facades (rather than one above the next). The building is entered at the base of the tower on Crown Street. The residential entrance hall is flanked by display windows for changing art installations. The remainder of the ground floor is for service rooms, bin store and a car park to partially provide for residents of the building. There are two flats per floor in the lower floors of the tower, and 1 flat per floor in the upper part. These are served by a lift and a staircase, which also give access to the flats of the gushet building in which there is an additional escape stair. The top two floors behind Laurieston Road elevation are arranged as four maisonettes with large south facing roof terraces at their upper levels. This tower and gushet building acts as a landmark and celebration of the completion of the successful Crown Street project. Unlike the overscaled blocks of multis remaining in the vicinity, its scale and proportions are concomitant to the tenemental buildings of the masterplan. It identifies the heart of the busy public uses of the area - the shops and the library- balancing the quieter open space of the public park at the south end of Crown Street.