Home

Councillors have rejected the plans for redesigning the George Square complex in Glasgow. The building, at present, hosts the offices of Ernst & Young.

The building is not one of the most attractive in the locality, and it was felt that the new plans would worsen it aesthetically. Had the plans been approved, a convention house and a restaurant would have been created at the site. About 27,000 square metres of office space would also have been built here. The Edinburgh firm Reiach and Hall had recommended the new design for the complex.

The design was disapproved by town planning authorities by a margin of 8 to 6. This rejection came after planning officers had given the green signal to the plans. The grounds of rejection were that the new design would fail to fit into the existing landscape of historically significant and aesthetically pleasing structures. The proposed design was not in harmony with those of the surrounding buildings, councillors stated.

Councillor Paul Coleshill remarked that the site is a conservation area and thus when a new office design for a building comes up, it needs to bring with it something that will help preserve or enhance the area’s existing ethos. The George Square redesign was found to be failing on both counts. The design was neither modern nor ethnic – factors that would have helped in approving the plan.

Reiach and Hall sources expressed their regret and disappointment at the rejection and said that they would try to identify whether all the council members were against the redesign or if the disapproval has come from selected members only.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Business Success, House Of Real Estate, Promoting Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.