Partnering with Porter Planning and a design team led by Hawkins\Brown Architects, Atelier Ten and Quattro Consult, Artisan Real Estate has secured approval for a 250-key hotel on St Vincent Street in Glasgow. Work is expected to start on the new 16-storey property – which will be operated by the Vienna House brand – this autumn, with the 124,000ft² project’s opening anticipated for 2023.

The consented design for the site on the corner of St Vincent Street and Pitt St reinforces the look of two distinct character areas in the city: the Georgian and Victorian grain of the Glasgow Central Conservation Area directly to the east; and the much-changed late-20th century cityscape immediately to the west.

“This site, in the heart of Glasgow’s central business district, provides a significant opportunity to redefine the character of this western part of the city centre with a new landmark building. We were looking to add vibrancy to the area, which was predominantly offices but clearly transforming into a thriving mixed-use quarter,” says Charlotte Swanson, Regional Development Manager at Artisan Real Estate. “As part of Artisan’s commitment to sustainability, we worked hard with Atelier Ten to ensure that the building achieves Glasgow City Council’s required Gold Standard for carbon reduction. We are delighted that despite these challenging times of Covid-19, the City Council have worked seamlessly to achieve consent ahead of our planning timescales. Our next focus in Glasgow will be city centre residential. 

“The building also achieves Glasgow City Council’s required Gold Standard for carbon reduction, with air source heat pumps providing low carbon space heating and heat generation for domestic hot water. The proposal achieves a 38% improvement on the CO2 emission requirements of the Scottish Technical Standards and a 20% reduction in annual CO2 emissions via Low and Zero Carbon Generating Technologies.”

The public entrance to the hotel is contained within a two-storey plinth at lower- and upper-ground level, incorporating a restaurant, bar and conferencing facilities. The building respects the city’s grid pattern of urban blocks, with its structural mass stepped back from the street in order to respect the views to the neighbouring Category B-listed St Columba’s Church of Scotland. The form of the building also works in partnership with a new landscaping scheme to establish an enhanced area of public realm on St Vincent St, activating the streetscape and helping redefine pedestrian links around the site. 

Glazed terracotta rainscreen cladding in three shades of green, set within an articulated limestone frame of double-height bays, will make reference to the historic use of ceramics in Glasgow. The moulded terracotta panels work with the articulated limestone grid to create a play of light and shadow across the façade.

Peter McLaughlin, Head of Studio Scotland at Hawkins\Brown, comments: “To reference the traditional use of ceramics in Glasgow and some of the tones that characterise this tradition, there will be a varied palette of double-height green, teal and turquoise profiled terracotta cladding, set within an articulated limestone frame to give this new building a bold and distinctive character, but one rooted in the context of Glasgow.”

292 St Vincent Street bolsters Artisan Real Estate’s portfolio of regeneration projects in Glasgow, becoming its third hotel under development in the city after being acquired in the summer of 2019.