Elphinstone Tower Architects, Strathclyde Skyscraper Images, Developer, Architect News

St Vincent Street Tower, Glasgow

Elphinstone Place, St Vincent St, Glasgow, Scotland

post updated 16 July 2023

Elphinstone Tower developers: Elphinstone + City Lofts Group Joint Venture

2007-

Design: Conran & Partners / Cooper Cromar Architects

Elphinstone Place: picture from the architects

Elphinstone Tower

First Letter re Elphinstone Place

13.04.04
Dear Sir

As someone who loves Glasgow and it’s Architecture I find it a shame that the Elphinstone Group have rushed out this design (this is not actually the case, in development since 1999, ed.). It seems like it’s been put together from a mix of the dull Trinity Project and the sexier Beetham Towers which are popping up in every major UK city.

Why not try to use the space to create something unique to Glasgow which could inspire rather than conform to what seems to the architectural equivalent of beige. Glass is being used in order to disguise any lack of imagination in this design. Cooper Chromar (sic) have proved with The Radisson on Argyle Street (actually by gm+ad, ed.) that they are capable of innovative design so why this apology of blinding light.

Regards
Jamie Jackson, 28 years old living in Manchester

Elphinstone Place: image from Cooper Cromar Architects Dec 04

Second Letter re Elphinstone Place

14.04.04
Dear Sir

With regards to the recent letter from Jamie Jackson I would suggest that Mr Jackson should do his homework before writing letters in future.

Firstly Cooper Cromar (with no H) were not responsible for the Radisson on Argyle Street I was GM+AD and Secondly did Mr Jackson consider for a second that there might be other constraints on the design…perhaps like the clients budget?

A 39 story building will be seriously expensive to build and people like Mr Jackson have to realise that there are other constraints on building design other than an Architects imagination.

I personally think that Elphinstone tower will be a great landmark building for Glasgow.
Best Regards, Kyle Irvine

Elphinstone Place: tower image from Cooper Cromar Architects

Third Letter re Elphinstone Place

21.04.04

I do not in anyway consider myself an architectural specialist, just someone who lives and works in Glasgow. As such, plans for the St Vincent Street skyscraper depress me because they appear a symptom of a trend I see across all the post industrial cities of the UK.

All vie against each other to promote their difference, and fleetingly get their day in the London broadsheets as this year’s coolest city, but in the process they become less distinct from each other as their so called “icons” emerge from limited imaginations. The current trend to build tall seems as shallow as ever, I believe Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh have already built or are planning to build their tallest buildings, so Glasgow coming up fourth in the race just smacks of bandwagoning.

If architects and planners had real ambition for this space they would realise that its location on the busiest stretch of road in Scotland, one which links Glasgow and Prestwick airports to the rest of Scotland affords the opportunity to build something which can become emblemic of Scotland and Glasgow in the minds of locals and visitors alike. Given this opportunity it should be a special building, unique to Glasgow, and not just Glasgow’s version of that new one in Edinburgh/ Leeds/ Manchester/ Liverpool/ Birmingham (delete as apppropriate).

Pete Seaman

Elphinstone Place: tower image from Cooper Cromar Architects