Ibroxholm Oval Demolition

[Mori]

ET

Trio of towers to be demolished brick by brick



8 Aug 2011

Three multi-storey blocks of flats in Glasgow will be demolished brick by brick by the UK’s tallest demolition machine.
Contractors have moved on site in Ibrox and have begun preparing the first block for demolition, which will start later this year.
The blocks at 9 Ibrox Terrace and 8 and 15 Ibroxholm Oval will be the latest tower blocks to come down in an area which has seen a dramatic change in it’s skyline.
It comes after high rises in Broomloan Court were demolished in the same way.
The 220ft demolition machine, which weighs more than 150 tonnes, will be brought on site by one of the largest low loaders in the UK to start work at the Glasgow Housing Association flats.
At full extension, the long-reach excavator stands seven metres taller than the famous Finnieston Crane on the banks of the River Clyde.
A team of specialist workers will travel with the machinery to the Ibrox flats where the machine will be manoeuvred on to the site and assembled.
Work is scheduled to start soon after.
The 22-storey blocks were earmarked for demolition following extensive consultation with the local community.
Almost 300 flats are scheduled to be demolished with work expected to take nine months.
Around 95% of the rubble from the buildings will be recycled.
The decision to demolish the flats was taken after they became less popular with tenants and due to high running costs.
Hazel Young, GHA’s south area director, said: “The demolition of the multi-storey blocks marks another step forward in the regeneration of the East Govan and Ibrox areas.
“We’ve helped all the residents from the Ibrox flats settle into new homes – either in one of our modernised and upgraded properties, a new-build home or in a home with another social landlord.”
The ultra-long reach machine demolition method was chosen as it would cause the least disruption to neighbouring properties, local businesses and commuters.
All the residents were rehomed in upgraded GHA properties, new-build homes or houses belonging to other Registered Social Landlords, many of them in the local area.
GHA is looking at future options for the site.
The East Govan and Ibrox area is one of eight Transformational Regeneration Areas (TRAs) in Glasgow – areas which have been earmarked for major regeneration involving a number of partners, including Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, GHA and other housing associations.
GHA has two new-build developments in the area; Holmfauldhead Drive, which is comprises 80 homes, is close to being completed and work has started on 47 homes in Summertown Road.

[Josef]

In what way does knocking chunks of concrete off and carting them away in big trucks for months on end cause 'less disruption to neighbouring properties, local businesses and commuters'?

I assume 'extensive local consultation' means asking a couple of guys who were staggering past with a carry-out at the time.

[Doorstop]

Who better to ask about something falling down than a bloke who's probably done himself it half a dozen times since lunchtime.

[banjo]

he says he hasnt dropped a touch today.

[Mori]

ET

Looks like this one got away

Tower block saved from demolition in £7m revamp





16 Sep 2011

A Glasgow tower block that had been due to be demolished is to be saved and transformed into new-look homes in a £7million revamp.
The 22-storey block in Ibrox will be refurbished in a programme aimed at young professionals and key workers, such as nurses and staff at the nearby Southern General Hospital.
Glasgow Housing Association has been allocated £1.1m towards the Ibrox project by Infrastructure Minister Alex Neil as part of a £55m Innovation And Investment Fund from the Scottish Government.
It was looking to invest in new ideas to create a wide and varied housing stock.
The block at 15 Ibroxholm Oval, which was built in the 1960s, will be spared demolition, while two other neighbouring blocks will be brought down to create land for other regeneration work in the future.
GHA, which will fund the other £5.9m, will offer the flats at “mid-market rent” aimed at young professional people who are not ready to buy a home.
There will be 98 one and two-bedroom homes in the building.
Announcing the cash for councils and housing associations across Scotland, Mr Neil said: “The public purse is under huge financial strain, so we need innovative approaches to increase housing supply at maximum value for taxpayers’ money.
“We called for fresh ideas and councils, housing associations and private developers have risen to the challenge magnificently.
“Housing associations have embraced the new financial reality by proposing developments delivered at subsidy levels that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.”
GHA said it hoped the development would help widen homes opportunities and offer more choice for more people.
Alex McGuire, GHA’s executive director of development and regeneration said: “Not everyone can buy in the current market and our research shows there is strong demand for homes with mid-market rents.
“That’s particularly true in Greater Govan, where regeneration is bringing a lot of people into the area to work.
“The flats we develop at 15 Ibroxholm Oval will be good quality, spacious homes with rents young professionals and key workers like nursing and medical staff will be able to afford.”
Long-term tenants will later be offered the chance to buy their home.
Preparation work to demolish the other two blocks is already under way and it is hoped work will start renovating the remaining one early next year.
The tallest demolition machine in the UK will be used to bring down the blocks chunk by chunk, similar to an operation carried out at nearby flats at Broomloan Road.
The work will add to the new build housing in Govan. GHA has two such developments with 80 homes almost complete at Holmfauldhead Drive, and work under way on 47 homes in Summertown Road.
In total Glasgow got more than £2.2m from the £10m Innovation Fund as part of the overall £55m Investment and Innovation Fund.
Cash of £360,000 was also given to GHA to take over 24 homes to offer for rent in Lambhill, in the north of the city, and another £840,000 went to developer CCG Homes for 24 homes in Tantallon Road, Shawlands.
Mr Neil said he expected the fund to create 2700 homes across Scotland and save the taxpayer around £13m in subsidies and create 3000 jobs.

[Josef]

The 22-storey blocks were earmarked for demolition following extensive consultation with the local community.

Yeah? Stop me if I've said this before, but the first most folk in the topple-over area of the flats heard about their demolition was on here.

The decision to demolish the flats was taken after they became less popular with tenants and due to high running costs.

Yeah? I'm not aware of a dimunition of popularity. If they had high running costs then, what's suddenly new, pussycat?
There has always been a high demand for high-rises, constrained only by the risk of assault by existing tenants.

They are as popular as the shiny, soon-to-be-decrepit new-builds a few hundred metres away.

GHA said it hoped the development would help widen homes opportunities and offer more choice for more people.
Alex McGuire, GHA’s executive director of development and regeneration said: “Not everyone can buy in the current market and our research shows there is strong demand for homes with mid-market rents.

Yeah? So why are they taking down two blocks and leaving only one?

[The Egg Man]

An article in the Herald the other day (I can't find it) suggested what were previously obvious candidates for demolition were being reconsidered for refurbishment in the light of a Scottish Government decision to drastically reduce (I don't recall the numbers but it was something like £70,000 down to £40,000 per home) the amount of financial support given to newly built homes.

[viceroy]

Must say I was pretty much astonished last year when I found out that the Ibroxholm flats were to be demolished. The blocks were built in the 1960's to a pretty high standard on the site of what had originally been a prestigious villa development in the kind of central location many people would regard as highly desirable. I remember the scheme back in the late 1980's / early 1990's when it had a high percentage of older residents and generally felt like a settled and well looked after sort of place. Of course if, as eventually happened, you're start using the blocks as a dumping ground for people with chronic drug and alcohol issues and/or active socially disruptive tendencies then you shouldn't be surprised if the existing tenants do all they can to get moved out, leaving the fabric of the place, both social and material, to be ripped apart.

In the late 1970's I lived in a high rise in the Gorbals for a number of years. At first I was quite content there, I liked the flat and the location was convenient. Then things started to deteriorate. Graffiti appeared on the landings, floor tiles got ripped up, the lifts stank of piss, general rowdiness and vandalism became the order of the day. Result: the minority causing these problems left the majority of decent tenants utterly demoralised so that they too lost all interest in their communal surroundings. For me the final straw came one afternoon when I opened my front door to find a couple of druggies shooting up on my doorstep. I felt no personal animosity towards the druggies since they were doing what their addiction compelled them to do, but I hadn't asked for my life to become intertwined with theirs and I didn't see why it should. I bought a flat and moved out a couple of months later. Most of my fellow tenants were left stuck there, whether they liked it or not.

As Josef says, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with high rises, indeed they are a perfectly acceptable and convenient form of housing for many. But for this kind of high density living to succeed it is imperative that there is a system of strictly enforceable rules governing acceptable communal behaviour, backed up by real sanctions when transgressions take place. Do you see this happening? No, I don't either.

[RapidAssistant]

Problem with multis and a lot of other Brutalist buildings is that we paint the structures themselves as the villains rather than the planning and social errors that made them undesirable in the process. Our generation is on the brink of making the same mistakes as those who reacted to the Bruce Report by adopting a policy of slash and burn to existing buildings that are still perfectly serviceable. I am not saying all multis should be saved...but skilful renovation can give them a new lease of life.

[maximusmop]

its started the first block is starting to be nibbeled!!!

[Mori]

[bod68]

Passed this last week prior to the start of the nibbler. Went on a short break to Ireland to return and find the demolition had started.
My brother stayed in block 15 - the block that's to be renovated.

Personally, I thought they were God forsaken awful flats - duplex style but each to their own I suppose!

[Lucky Poet]

Munch munch munch:

[RapidAssistant]

The 22-storey blocks were earmarked for demolition following extensive consultation with the local community.

Yeah? Stop me if I've said this before, but the first most folk in the topple-over area of the flats heard about their demolition was on here.

The decision to demolish the flats was taken after they became less popular with tenants and due to high running costs.

Yeah? I'm not aware of a dimunition of popularity. If they had high running costs then, what's suddenly new, pussycat?
There has always been a high demand for high-rises, constrained only by the risk of assault by existing tenants.

They are as popular as the shiny, soon-to-be-decrepit new-builds a few hundred metres away.

GHA said it hoped the development would help widen homes opportunities and offer more choice for more people.
Alex McGuire, GHA’s executive director of development and regeneration said: “Not everyone can buy in the current market and our research shows there is strong demand for homes with mid-market rents.

Yeah? So why are they taking down two blocks and leaving only one?

Read between the lines of what the GHA are saying, and it is basically dressed up gentrification - knock two down, clear the surviving block out, do it up to a decent standard, then set the rent high enough to keep the riff-raff out, but low enough to attract the so-called 'aspiring professionals'.