The future of Glasgow city centre depends on a different approach to buildings like this one, says Mark Smith

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like. One of the advantages would be that you'd be living on one of the busiest streets in Glasgow and one of the disadvantages would be that you'd be living on one of the busiest streets in Glasgow. I can think of a whole host of other reasons why it might be brilliant and why it might be horrendous. It's not an easy question to answer – would you live in a place like this? – but the future of Glasgow might depend on it.

Let me give you the background. The building is 114 Union Street and although it's right opposite the side entrance to Central Station, you might not have noticed it until now because its next-door neighbour gets all the attention: Greek Thomson's Egyptian Halls. But as Glasgow's buildings go, 114 is rather neat and elegant: red sandstone, pillared balconies, sculptural swoops and swirls, and two small busts on the facade, of a man and a woman, doomed to stare at Central Station for all eternity.

The reason 114 is in the news now is because Glasgow City Council has finally seen sense over it. Basically, what happened is a developer came forward with plans to convert the building into 13 flats, but the council's planning officials weren't happy about it. They said the flats would be overlooked by buildings on Union Place and would have an "oppressive" aspect. They also expressed concern about bedroom windows facing an internal light well, as well as the intention to replace the old windows which they said would unacceptably detract from the building's appearance. The upshot was that the plan for the flats was rejected

But that was April and........

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