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Ellis Brown Architects
The site is located on the corner of Bridge Road and Lake Road. The frontage to Bridge Road faces the harbour and marina. At present the site contains three properties, Bridge House and its outbuildings, a warehouse on Lake Road and Douglas Corporation flats on the Lake Road corner. Whilst the site lies within the Conservation Area none of the buildings are Registered.
Both the warehouse building and Bridge House are in poor structural condition and reports from the structural engineer advise that neither is capable of retention and conversion. The Douglas Corporation flats are newer but it is understood that these too have structural concerns. Further the flats have no architectural merit and do not contribute positively to the Conservation Area.
The site has been assembled from these three properties and all will be demolished to create a site for redevelopment.
To the south of the site is the recent development by Dandara, the first phase of Quay West, an apartment development with retail space on the ground floor frontage to Bridge Road. To the north of the site is the Railway public house with the public house on the ground floor and offices above. This building immediately abuts the site on the Bridge Road frontage and runs alongside the site, fronting to Banks Circus, on the northern boundary. To the West of the site is a property in the ownership of the applicant comprising commercial development on the ground floor with an apartment above occupied by one of the directors of the applicant company. Adjoining this is a garage which fronts to Banks Circus.
Whilst Lake Road is a relatively narrow lane the Quay West development has been approved and constructed with windows on to this lane, these windows are generally to habitable rooms. The offices over the Railway public house have windows to the Banks Circus elevation but also to a courtyard adjoining the site of the proposed development. There is a service lane on the Western edge of the site which gives a pedestrian right of access to the Railway public house service area. On to this service lane there are windows in the residential element of the apartment/commercial building but no windows in the garage. All of these place constraints on the way in which development of the site will be designed and implemented.
The site lies within and on the edge of the Douglas North Quay Conservation Area. Within this Conservation Area there is no consistent architectural style, external materials finish or colour. The mix of styles and finishes, which include render, stone, facing brick and half timbering contribute to the interest of the area.
Adjacent to the site is the Quay West development which introduces more modern materials, glass and timber, together with a mix of finishes of stone, render and slate hanging.
South Quay consists mainly of poor quality industrial structures which are slowly being redeveloped.
2.00 Response to Context and Constraints on Development of Site
2.00 Response to Context and Constraints on Development of Site BUILD DEVELOPMENT BY STEPPING FROM FRONTAGE TO HEIGHT OF QUAY WEST. CREATE VIEWS TO HARBOUR FROM ALL LOUNGE/LIVING ROOMS OF APACTMENTS. STEP BACK ELEVATION FROM FACE ON BRIDGE ROAD RETAIL ON GROUND FLOOR.
BUILD FRONTAGE OF DEVELOPMENT TO RECOGNIZE TRANSITION IN BUILDING HEIGHTS TO QUAY WEST AND REFLECT FEATURES OF BUILDINGS ON BRIDGE ROAD AND NORTH QUAY.
THE ELEVATION ON BRIDGE ROAD TO RAILWAY PUBLIC HOUSE
PROFILE OF FACADE OF RAILWAY PUBLIC HOUSE ON BRIDGE ROAD.
LAKE ROAD.
2.00 Response to Context and Constraints on Development of Site
Ellis Brown Architects
The design is influenced by and based upon the response to context and constraints on development of the site as illustrated in section 2.00 .
The site is an urban setting and redevelopment of the site requires to respect this setting.
The recent development of Quay West is now a significant feature of the view along the harbour to Bridge Road and the development site immediately adjoins the lane, Lake Road, running alongside Quay West. To retain the urban grain the replacement buildings reflect the building lines of the existing buildings along Lake Road. Since Quay West has been constructed with windows to habitable rooms along its Lake Road frontage no clear glazed windows to habitable rooms can be located in the Lake Road elevations of the proposed development. Therefore kitchens and utility rooms are located to this elevation. However these limited windows would produce elevations which would be generally blank and not sit comfortably in the streetscape. To address this windows are designed into the walls to break up the mass of wall, these windows are to be etched/obscure glazed thus allowing light into rooms and breaking up the façade without loss of privacy to either building occupier. As Quay West has a balcony at fifth floor level windows are not included at this position at this level in the proposed building, as this is the top level rooflights will be incorporated.
The frontage of the site to Bridge Road lies between the existing buildings of the Railway public house and Quay West. The proposed building has been designed to tie to the Railway public house eaves line and to step up towards Quay West reflecting the transition in height from the lower Railway public house to the higher Quay West. The harbour/quayside setting is a key feature of the site and balconies are positioned on this frontage to take advantage of views down the marina and inner harbour. These balconies step back from the frontage to give modelling and contribute to the transition between the existing buildings.
The site is a deep site from the harbourside frontage and the design acknowledges this in the disposition of apartments. However the design is executed to give all apartments a harbour view from their main living room. Those apartments where the bedrooms are facing away from the harbour are designed such that bedrooms have a sunny aspect, facing west with views over the lower existing buildings on that elevation. The potential for overlooking of these bedroom windows from outwith the site from the offices over the Railway public house and from the Lake Road elevation of Quay West has been addressed and overcome by setting the bedrooms in a recessed open courtyard from first floor level on this western elevation. The potential for overlooking from apartments within this area has been resolved by the positioning of the windows on diagonally opposite corners of the open courtyard.
Massing has been designed to provide the transition along the Bridge Road frontage from the Railway public house to Quay West and to build back from the frontage by stepping to reflect the height of Quay West at the south western corner of the site along Lake Road.
It would have been possible to design the ground floor to be purely parking to service the apartments above. This was considered to be inappropriate as this would not produce an acceptable frontage to the harbourside on Bridge Road. Parking has therefore been restricted to the area to the west alongside the existing service lane within the site, this lane being retained to continue as a service point to the Railway public house and retain the break between the existing buildings in the streetscape. Ground floor retail use has been included along the Bridge Road frontage and corner to Lake Road, providing interest and "life" and reflecting the adjacent retail and public uses. The apartments are then set above public footpath level and gain privacy.
The elevational treatment has been developed to respond to the buildings setting and location. Whilst picking up references in materials and form from North Quay, such as the gable of the Clinch's Tower, the site is in close proximity to Quay West which, due to its mass and scale, is a prominent building. This has to be acknowledged and reflected in the proposals without replicating Quay West.
The elevation to Bridge Road, the harbourside, is constructed around a gable feature finished in facing brick, to respond to the material scale of the facing brick in the location, and of an engineering blue colour, to respond to the slate cladding and grey render tones on Quay West. The balconies facing the harbour marina will be protected by glass and stainless balustrades, referencing to those on Quay West, but stepped and modelled in elevation to a greater extent than those on Quay west. The other parts of the elevation are in render, referencing to the Railway public house and other buildings on North Quay. The facing brick is continued along the flank walls of the part of the building with the gable to the harbourside, reading as a structure around which the render finished other parts of the development have been constructed.
The development builds to the south west corner of the site to reflect the height of Quay West at that point and pitched roofs are incorporated on these areas above balcony levels. These roofs are finished in slate to reference back to the Railway public house and other buildings on North quay.
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