Planning

SECC Masterplan

Brief

Keppie Planning and Development was appointed as planning consultant to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre to prepare an expansive site masterplan that would provide the design framework guidelines for future development on this high profile site.  Our role was to analyse the existing context and infrastructure and propose a viable mix of uses that would reinforce the growing cultural quarter west of the city.

Response

Through Keppie's previous projects on the edge of the river (The City Inn Hotel and the new BBC Scotland Headquarters at Pacific Quay), we had an appreciation of the various issues affecting the successful development of the masterplan.  Of these, the transportation movement and the severance caused by the expressway were the most significant. Connections to the south side of the Clyde became part of the masterplan's justification.  The resultant mix of development includes a new twelve thousand five hundred seat performance arena, a new public square and a multi-storey car park.  The new masterplan also features a new hotel complex and a sustainable residential village.  The development of these masterplanning proposals has seen Keppie Planning and Development lead a project team that includes Foster and Partners, Arup Scotland, the Elphinstone Group, Turner and Townsend and Kerzner International.

Outcome

An outline planning application was submitted for the mixed use development to Glasgow City Council, accompanied by a Supporting Planning Statement, Design Brief, Environmental Impact Assessment and Transportation Assessment. Following very positive and constructive consultation, Outline Planning Consent was granted in April 2008.  Keppie Planning and Development continues to have a role in the discharging of various conditions attached to this consent and has been subsequently appointed by SECC Ltd to discharge the planning conditions attached to the detailed planning consent obtained by Foster and Partners for the performance arena.

Team