24
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Sauchiehall Street Avenue Project
Bold and colourful plans to reinvigorate famed thoroughfare’s swagger Words by: Kenny Kemp
S
auchiehall Street is one of the world’s iconic thoroughfares. It’s a famed street name that reverberates around the world
as a shorthand for Glaswegians having a great time. From the city centre, where the street overtures at the Royal Concert Hall, along the pedestrian precinct with its shopping, busking and banter, through to its restaurants, bars and nightclubs, even a military museum, and then with its intermezzo at Charing Cross, where it meets the cacophony of the M8, before the adagio of leafy crescents with their offices and apartments, it reaches its visual crescendo beside the wonderful green vistas of Kelvingrove Park. It’s a street with more than 1,000 addresses and hundreds of thousands of memories. As people who live in Glasgow, we are immensely proud of the street’s vibrancy and character and its intrinsic part in Glasgow life. But we have all recognised that it has lost its signature tune. Here I declare a vested interest in
my love for Sauchiehall Street. My early adult life was spent in the Art-Deco Baird Halls of Residence and I trudged much of its length every weekday, past the Dental Hospital, the CCA, and the steep streets leading to the Glasgow College of Art, to lectures in George Street. The multitude of premises, its watering holes and eating places have been the starting point for countless nights of excess, curry, occasional scuffles, brilliant music, riotous dancing and even some famous Glaswegian doorstep romance.
up, and online shopping and out-of- town competition took its toll, business in Sauchiehall Street was fading. With the street’s vacancy rates of 18 per cent against 11.5 per cent for the wider city, a radical rethink was vital. There was also a realisation that, unlike other infrastructure investments, there was an almost total market failure in public realm intervention which demanded public sector investment. The great news is that the renaissance
However, there has been a strategic
imperative to improve this dynamic part of the city. Since the economic crisis of 2008, there has been a disproportionate impact on city centres with a dramatic drop in retail and office uptake as consumer spending has dwindled. The credit crunch heralded business
Plans to revitalise the street
will bring back much-needed life and vibrancy and create a positive environment”
insolvencies and job losses, while public sector budgets have been frozen causing a deterioration in essential maintenance and investment. As European funding for city centres dried
of this venerable street has just begun. The consultations and appraisals are over, and a plan and strategy have been approved. As part of the Glasgow City Region City Deal funding, Glasgow City Council is investing £115 million within the city centre to deliver on the Enabling Infrastructure – Integrated Public Realm (EIIPR) programme. It is bold and much needed to improve Glasgow and enhance the opportunity for businesses in central Glasgow. EIIPR’s Avenues programme will introduce dramatic streetscape improvements to the city’s public realm with the first visible signs during the European Championships in 2018 when the international cycling event takes competitors – and the media – along an upgraded western stretch of Sauchiehall Street. The establishment of Avenues has been conceived to form an integrated network of continuous pedestrian and cycle priority routes. Pilot improvements will be undertaken on Sauchiehall Street between Charing Cross and Rose Street and will act as a proof of concept or demonstrator for the overall plan. The programme takes in adjoining streets too such as Elmbank Street and Crescent. According to the design gurus: “The Avenues will be used as a binding mechanism to integrate public realm
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
