A GLASGOW architecture practice has outlined plans to double revenue after moving to a new studio space in the Merchant City.
360 Architecture, founded in 2008 by Alan Anthony, is set to relocate to The Garment Factory on Ingram St, which is the midst of been upgraded under the ownership of CastleForge Partners.
The practice is taking a 8,300 sq ft loft space in the building, almost three times its current office size.
“It’s bigger than we needed but I’ve never seen a space like that so we just set our mind on it,” said Mr Anthony. “It should be quite a dramatic effect.”
Having established studios in Inverness and Perth, the shift of its Glasgow base will allow the practice to attract more staff and more contracts, said Mr Anthony, who added that the move should go ahead before the end of the year.
“I would hope that the new studio will be a powerful business development tool for bringing clients in,” he said. “It should also make us work better, attract and keep the right talent.”
Mr Anthony is the process of buying out his business partner, who is no longer involved with the practice, and his succession plan is to bring through young directors.
The company is projecting revenue of £3 million this year, and Mr Anthony said the ambition was to reach £6m by 2021.
This, he said, would be achieved by rigidly sticking the practice’s principals of finding the right balance of technical, commercial and design elements.
“I don’t think anyone has ever got that balance right and I’m not conceited enough to think we will, but we’ll strive for it,” he said.
With much of its worked carried out in the retail sector, Mr Anthony is chairman of Revo Scotland, the trade body for the UK’s shopping centre industry.
The company is behind the upgrade to Princes Square in Glasgow, and The Gyle Centre in Edinburgh, and is currently working on upgrading The Savoy Centre on Renfrew Street in the north of the city centre.
Mr Anthony said he had ambitions for the centre to become a major part of Renfrew Street’s reimagining as the ‘avenue of the arts’.
“[Renfrew Street] is a service road for Sauchiehall Street, so there is the need for a reinvention. The Conservatoire is expanding, there is the Glasgow Film Theatre, Theatre Royal, the Art School.
“The first floor of the Savoy Centre will be a reinvention of a Scandinavian market, but there are no windows, so we have to make it like [Finnieston’s] Hidden Lane – make it something people will know about and seek out.”
It has also begun working with Port of Leith Distillery on its whisky distillery, which will be located close to the Royal Yacht Britannia.
“[Whisky] is a sector normally dominated by engineers, who will go to a one-man architect to put it through planning to save costs,” said Mr Anthony. “It’s like doing a museum in many ways, showcasing the stills and great Scottish produce.”
He said that distilleries have always been designed as distilleries but the concept for Port of Leith is to have a head office incorporated into the two floors above the distillery space. There will also be a restaurant and visitor centre.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here