St Vincent Plaza provides much-needed pedestrian link
LDA Design was landscape architect for the new public realm part of the St Vincent Plaza development in Glasgow city centre.
The prestigious scheme is the practice’s first constructed public realm project in Scotland, and it will be formally opened to the public when practical completion of the building is fully completed in September.
Developed by Abstract (Glasgow), St Vincent Plaza will provide 15,979 square metres of Grade A office space over a lower ground, ground and 10 upper floors. The Caithness stone and granite aggregate paving of the public realm is designed to complement the building’s granite and glazed façade.
Significantly, says LDA Design, this part of the scheme, providing a much-needed pedestrian link from St Vincent Street to William Street and the Hilton Hotel, is one of Glasgow’s only newly created streetscapes in recent years.
Within the space, raised planters create a dramatic terrace featuring mixed ornamental tree and shrub planting. This gives seasonal interest to the space, says LDA Design, ‘and creates an appealing setting to the building which helps define St Vincent Plaza as Glasgow’s premier business address’.
The terraced plaza space also uses lighting ‘to bring valuable dynamism to the public realm, changing the character of the space from day to night, in the way that the planting does from season to season’.
With a focus on making the new link a safe and well-lit, LDA Design worked closely with lighting designer Lightfolio and Castle Building Services to create a bespoke lighting scheme that will encourage activity and footfall to benefit both safe use and enhancement of the city’s evening economy. Up-lighting to the M8 underpass and new feature signage forms part of the gateway to the space, bringing further vibrancy to the Glasgow International Financial Services District.
The scheme has been designed to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and EPC ‘B’ ratings; within the public realm, it focuses on the use of sustainable and high quality materials.