This time it's built to last

As he drives past the Tulip Inn, David Hogg gets all animated. "They would never have built that with stone. And never on a curve."

The Tulip Inn is perhaps not the most exciting bit of architecture you will ever see. But as Hogg, associate director with Turner & Townsend, points out, it is a darn sight more attractive than most budget hotels. What is most remarkable about this hotel, though, is that it is there at all, in Glasgow's Gorbals. Its presence, on the edge of an urban regeneration project known as Crown Street, demonstrates the success of a process which has taken 13 years.

Most people would associate the Gorbals with deprivation and crime. The site of this project is also the scene of a construction crime committed in the 1960s. The Hutchesontown E prefabricated blocks, or 'Dampies' as they were locally known, were designed for use in North Africa and as a result their thermal performance was poor. Damp, mould and unpleasant living conditions resulted and the council demolished them in 1987, leaving a 40 acre hole.

In 1990 when the project began, those involved realised that they had to do better. It certainly looks like they have. The high quality of design and materials is obvious just from looking. The mix of residents, and the presence of shops and offices alongside the housing should ensure that a community rather than just a dormitory, develops.

The approach taken for Crown Street, where Turner & Townsend is cost consultant and project manager for client Scottish Enterprise (with the Glasgow Development Agency and Glasgow City Council), was pioneering back then. Here's how the approach used in the Gorbals became a blueprint for urban regeneration.

Make a masterplan

The first innovative move was to use a masterplan. Now commonplace for urban regeneration projects, masterplans were new in the early '90s. The idea came to Glasgow from a redevelopment in Berlin called IBA. Piers Gough of CZWG produced the masterplan having won a national competition.

A masterplan goes much further than the 'zoning' approach to planning which designates the use for different areas (e.g. commercial, retail, residential). It is much more prescriptive, setting the strategic aims for the project and laying down the law on design principles.

When a developer buys a plot of land it also takes on board the design outline and conditions attached to it, so that Scottish Enterprise retains control over what is built. This prevents a situation where the land goes to the highest bidder who produces the development which allows the greatest profit. "It used to be all about capital receipts," says Hogg. "They just sold the land, but that was causing mistakes. Now people are seeing there are benefits in setting design guides and the masterplan."

Set It in stone

So how did the client ensure that the Tulip Hotel was stone-clad? It's all part of the tight legal agreements the developers had to sign up to.

The contract quashed temptations (such as swapping stone for precast concrete) by stipulating that if lesser-priced materials than those agreed were used, the client would get the difference. One housebuilder did try it on, but Turner & Townsend's beady-eyed clerk of works, full-time on the project, spotted it.

Get better builders

Once the masterplan was in place, the challenge was to ensure that the end product was up to scratch. The design did not allow for bog-standard housing blocks. "Crown Street is a construction project not a house building one," says Hogg. By this he means that the buildings do not feature exclusively straight walls. This did cause problems in the early days: "The first housebuilders had brickie foremen [to run the jobs] and it did not work. They are used to boxes," he says. "Now we ask for the management structure at the bid stage and we ask for their management policy."

For each phase of development Turner & Townsend selected a developer/architect team on a combination of quality and cost, with the former dominating early stages and the latter taking precedence later.

Mix it up

The tight terms of the contracts also sought to prescribe a mixture of homes so that families could live in the Gorbals too. "It's almost social engineering," says Hogg. "Left to its own devices, the private sector might end up with with 90% two-bedroom flats and you would end up with a yuppie ghetto."

There is a mix of private and social housing, developed by the New Gorbals Housing Association. The project missed the target of 25% social housing, achieving around 20% due to funding problems. But this should rise to almost 24% when the next phase, Queen Elizabeth Square is complete. A measure of Crown Street's success in creating a community where people want to live is that 25% of the homes in Queen Elizabeth Square have been bought by residents from the initial Crown Street regeneration area, says Hogg. "People want to remain there. It gives you a warm fuzzy glow."

Hold out for a hotel

One of the objectives of the redevelopment was improving economic activity, which meant building more than just houses. And this proved the most difficult bit.

So there is Kwik Save, small shops, a little office development and a learning centre. Archways, owned by Spacia, have been done up for industrial tenants. But the jewel in the crown was to be the hotel. That, says Hogg, would change the image of the Gorbals and act as a 'hook'; something which brings outsiders in.

But no hotel operator was interested, so the challenge was to find a developer who would bring in one. For years this proved impossible, until a well-connected project director sealed the deal. It involved developer Dawn Group building accommodation for students as well as a 114-bed hotel, now open for business.
"It would have been too easy to say 'stuff the hotel, let's just build houses'," says Hogg.

Art is a part

There is another hook in Crown Street; the artwork. The pièce de resistance is a 1.5 tonne brass sculpture, suspended in front of a huge photograph printed on glass. The angel-like figure is called The Gatekeeper (pictured). Its attendants grace the entrances to the dwellings either side.

Art was always in the masterplan, but housebuilders didn't take it on board at first, says Hogg. They would finish job and, when challenged, would say: "Were you serious?" Whatever they came up with was – and looked - tacked on.

Not so The Gatekeeper, designed by artists Heisenberg in conjunction with architect Hypostyle for developer Redrow. "That's what happens when artists and architects start working together from day one," says Hogg proudly. People drive down just to see The Gatekeeper, he adds.
In Queen Elizabeth Square, they are going further. Developers put 1% of development costs into an art pot, with 55% of their contribution guaranteed to go on their development. The remainder goes for community art projects and to pay an art masterplanner.

Long time coming

The plan was that the Crown Street would take 11 or 12 years. It'll be more like 14, and funding is the culprit. "If you have different funding streams and one of them slips, it can hold everything back," says Hogg. "The speed of development has to match the rate at which funding is coming through."

Some £30m of public sector funding has come in. Building costs were £85m, so that makes £55m of private investment.

Since the value of the land at the time was less that the cost of development, the client offered a grant – to cover the difference and give the housebuilder a profit. "We set the land values at £0 and then the housebuilders bid for how much grant they wanted," explains Hogg. Should the homes sell for more than anticipated – and this happens all the time - developer and client split the extra 50/50. "Five years ago we were debating if we could sell a place for £100k," says Hogg. "We sold one recently for £200k."

The hard old slog of Crown Street; securing funding, persuading developers to take the risk and getting through the planning has smoothed the way for more redevelopment. Queen Elizabeth Square, which will see 650 new homes built over four to five years, requires much less subsidy. Why? Land values in the Gorbals have risen.