Architect firm replaced as new plans for phased redevelopment of Buchanan Galleries to be presented

Site owner Landsec had previously dropped plans to demolish the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre in Glasgow city centre. An area around Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street was to be completely rebuilt as part of an £825m project to boost the day and night-time economies in the city.

The original plans, which had been through the planning process, were to create a mixture of places to eat, socialise, live and work and accommodate world-class shopping.

With previous plans scrapped, Threesixty Architecture will now take the lead, alongside Glasgow design studio Graven, on an updated vision for the 26-year-old shopping centre on Buchanan Street, originally designed by Jenkins & Marr Architects.

Architects Journal reports that a phased approach will be adopted with more reuse of the existing structure.

The practice's managing director Alan Anthony said: “Plans to work with the existing shopping centre and adapt it to be more generous and engaging to the street will more quickly achieve the transformation of the “top of the town” and with far less disruption to our city centre.

“By creating relevance and greater resilience, this could well offer a blueprint on how we might reinvent similar structures that dominate many instances of our urban centres.”

Landsec reported annual pre-tax losses of £341 million for the year ending March 2024, leading up to the announcement that Fosters were to be replaced on the project.

Landsec have said they are looking for a new masterplan for “rejuvenating Glasgow's prime retail destination”.

The company's head of retail development, Nick Davis, said: "Given the way cities have changed, and retail’s strong post pandemic recovery, we’re exploring a masterplan that can be delivered in incremental phases.

“In conversations with brands, and through engagement with the public, we know that there is both consumer and commercial appetite for this to be delivered and delivered quickly."

The change in direction may mean a reprieve for the steps at the Royal Concert Hall that were to be removed as part of Fosters’ designs.

A timeline for consultation on the plans has yet to be announced.