Detail of concrete access steps from first level.

Description Detail of concrete access steps from first level.

Date 15/4/1993

Catalogue Number C 5085

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 724619

Scope and Content Concrete access steps from first level, Heron House, No 255 St Vincent Street, Glasgow Heron House, built 1967-71 by architects Derek Stephenson & Partners, is a complex of offices, car park and shops occupying a sloping site enclosing St Vincent Street Lane. This megastructure, which includes a 13-storeyed tower block, is built around the famous St Vincent Street Free Church which was built 1857-9 to designs by architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Concrete steps with metal handrails lead to the 19th-century church with its temple façade and tall tower. The walls of the Modern-style Heron House complex are easily identifiable by their 'Creetown' granite aggregate cladding, angular walls and strips of windows in aluminium frames. This ambitious development uses its elevated site to dramatic effect, layering offices and shops on terraces, and building vertically to balance the church tower in its midst. The variety of structures gives a sculptural effect to the site which has led to it being compared with the famous Torre Velasca building (built 1956-8) in Milan. This complex has been selected as one of Scotland's key 20th-century Modern architectural monuments. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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