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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Kris Gourlay

Edinburgh Old Town site hit with third student accommodation proposal after U-turn

After two withdrawn bids to create a block of student accommodation in Edinburgh's Old Town, developers have ditched revised office plans to launch a third attempt.

The site at 179 Canongate has been the subject of two previous attempts to convert the site into student accommodation, but developers recently proposed a new office scheme instead, which has now been withdrawn.

Joint venture partners S. Harrison and Summix have retained 3DReid Architects for the redesign of the Old Town building, which will be the fourth iteration for the complex site.

READ MORE: Edinburgh's worst roads for potholes in 2022 as workers called out 7,000 times

Both parties are now hoping to finally get the proposals over the line following a string of bad luck with the site, with bids coming in 2018 and 2019, both of which were eventually knocked back.

In January 2019, the second student accommodation bid was launched, with 91 rooms consisting of clusters and studios planned for the area just off the Royal Mile.

The latest plans roughly outline the consented office proposal, retaining various parts of the perimeter walls and a surviving workshop from the site's historic gasworks role.

Urban Realm report that In a planning statement, the architects wrote: "Maintaining consistency with the previously consented office scheme, for the proposed new-build elements, we have investigated a palette comprising brickwork and pigmented pre-cast concrete.

"The pre-cast is a contemporary and durable reading of the render/harling versus the brickwork’s more pronounced textural qualities."

Establishing a tight urban grain in the area in concert with New Waverley the reduced floor to ceiling heights will enable the creation of a fifth floor of accommodation.

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