Glasgow does not need another Student Accommodation and this design in front of the Mack does nothing to improve the previous attempt that was eventually refused. Hopefully this will be rejected as well.

Vita Group has revealed its early concept proposals for a combined food hall and student accommodation at Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.

Embodying the purpose-built student accommodation provider’s House of Social brand the development emphasises food, drink and music with a streetside performance space, connected to the Mackintosh building behind by a public courtyard. 371 student bed spaces will be provided above in a new build that treats the Sauchiehall Street frontage before the School of Art as one unified block.

Outlining the need to demolish a C-listed former cinema to make this happen Vita wrote: “With extensive fire damage to the ABC, retaining the building or its façade is not considered to be feasible due to the design, material condition, and strength validation challenges uncovered through a series of surveys and structural reports undertaken across the intervening period.

“The site demolition of both ABC and Jumpin Jaks does however offer the opportunity to develop a cohesive response for the site that interacts with both Sauchiehall Street and Glasgow School of Art as one unified city block.”

Positioned as a key driver to help revitalise Glasgow’s retail core the emerging design takes the form of a U-plan courtyard block intended to open up new perspectives of the south face of The Mack, accessed by a new lane. A sequence of stepped terraces rise from here, in response to both gables of the Mackintosh Building.

A planning application is expected to follow in April.

https://www.urbanrealm.com/news/10863/Sauchiehall_Street_food_hall_to_embrace_the_Mack.html