24/01680/FUL | Erection of purpose-built student accommodation with ground floor food hall. The Planning Committee meet on the 17 June.

You may have seen in the press that the student accommodation plan for the ABC site on Sauchiehall Street is recommended for approval. This is despite objections from Historic Environment Scotland; Glasgow School of Art; Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society: councillors Christy Mearns and Philip Braat; the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland; Glasgow City Heritage Trust and over one hundred and thirty fellow Glaswegians. They all reject this planning application.

Our view is that this is an over development of the site, which will result in the loss of important views up to the south façade of the Mackintosh Building, reducing daylight into the studios and Museum corridor and will drastically affect views out from the Hen Run and west stairwell. The issue of daylight was an important part in the original design by Mackintosh and this proposed development will have adverse impact on the urban context.

The previous application in 2017, which was a much smaller development was eventually turned down.

The proposed building is eight stories high, five higher than the Thomson-designed CCA directly to the west and three higher than the MacLellan Galleries to the east. The juxtaposition with the Art School is jarring. Its mass, scale, box design and materials will undermine the setting of the Art School within the Conservation Area.

The proposal is clearly contrary to development plan policy and supplementary guidance. In its current form it cannot be justified except as a departure from said established policy and guidance. I cannot understand how this proposed redevelopment meets any of the criteria.

The Mackintosh Building and the Central Conservation Area deserves better. This will have a detrimental effect on the “Mack” and if approved will set a dangerous precedent for our built heritage.

GCC is missing a trick here, they have a once in a lifetime opportunity to create something truly special on this site, but they cannot see the wood from the trees. Look at the M&S development having secured planning permission the developer then puts it on the market. We could see the same happen here.

The student housing sector needs to have a more robust public oversight. Rather than relying on speculative delivery and developer-led policy formation, it may be time to reassert a civic-led approach that places the needs of communities, students, and heritage on equal footing.

We have no objections to the development of the site if done sympathetically and welcome the attempts by GCC to regenerate Sauchiehall Street.

We would appeal to Glasgow City Council to refuse this planning application and request the applicant re-submits a design that has empathy with an A-listed building of such world importance.

Stuart Robertson, Director