By Andrew Argo

ABERTAY UNIVERSITY has submitted a new application for a £20 million development of student flats on Parker Street—and hopes a glass and terracotta tenement-style building with a stepped roofline will be more acceptable to the city council.

The local authority’s rejection of a grey curved design led the university to carry out a strategic review of whether it should stay in Dundee or move to Perth or Fife but, after deliberating for more than a year, it has voted for staying and sticking with Parker Street, overlooking the Dudhope roundabout on the inner ring road, for its 500-bed development of student flats.

Abertay is trying to get a different design past the planning authority from the £18 million “grey mass with no character” block rejected at the end of 2004.

Planning consent is being sought for a complex of almost 500 en-suite bedrooms in self-contained flats on a site formerly occupied by Victorian tenements that were demolished in the 1970s.

The university said its review of long-term development options following the rejection of the first Parker Street proposal concluded that a compact city-centre campus remained the best option for its future.

Furthermore, Parker Street, just five minutes’ walk from the main Bell Street campus, remained the best location.

Since then, Abertay has developed a new proposal to directly address the issues of design and visual impact raised by the development quality committee.

“The university believes that its new design answers those criticisms by dramatically altering the external appearance of the building,” said a spokesman.

“The most notable change has been to remove the long sweeping curve of the original design’s roofline, which has been replaced by a stepped roofline, echoing many of the existing tenements nearby.”

The main facades of the building have been redesigned to incorporate glass-fronted sections, helping to break up the facade and providing more visual interest.

The design also replaces the original grey with copper cladding and more terracotta tiles, aiming to give the building a look more in keeping with Abertay’s library and student centre in Bell Street, firmly identifying it as part of the campus.

Abertay vice-principal Professor Nicholas Terry said, “These significant design changes help to break up the mass of the building and avoid it looking too ‘monolithic’, as the earlier proposal had been described.

“The highest point of the new building will now be no higher than the highest point of the neighbouring tenements in Parker Street.

“Also, we have reduced the building’s amenity block, the part nearest to the Parker Street tenements, from three storeys to two, again seeking to minimise the impact on the neighbours.

“Only staff accommodation and storage are affected by this change. There will be no loss of facilities for our students.”

The plans also allow for slightly more parking, answering another criticism of the earlier proposals, but will incorporate considerable landscaping to help the building blend in with its surroundings.

Many native trees, including rowan, Scots pine and birch, will be planted around the site and a sculptured embankment along the front of the site will be planted with gorse.

A belt of mature shrubs and trees along the back of the site, under the retaining wall below the former Dundee Royal Infirmary, will remain untouched.

Professor Terry added, “When the building is complete, we will be able to offer, especially to first-year and overseas students, greatly improved accommodation that will make the university and city even more attractive to prospective students.”

The site is owned by the city council and Abertay would buy it if planning permission were granted. Work would begin in the early summer, with completion due by June, 2008.