The Pinnacle (Heron House) (Glasgow)

 apartment building  Add category

Built in 1971 as Heron House, a typical concrete high rise office block of the period. Notable in its early days as housing the first branch of Habitat outside of London – Terence Conran chose to eschew the city centre and set up shop here in Anderston, a part of the city which was undergoing massive renewal at the time. By the time Brutalist buildings symbolised everything that was wrong with 1960s urban planning, the largest tenant – British Telecom - had moved out and the building was facing demolition. Almost symbolically, Habitat too had had enough and also moved out in favour of the Buchanan Galleries in 1999.

In 2001, the decision was made to convert the building into private apartments, and was given a new name and an ultra-modern new glass and steel skin to disguise its past. Habitat gave up on its foray into the centre of town and returned in 2005. The reclad has generally been well received – by its residents if not the architectural critics who think it sits even more unhappily next to Alexander “Greek” Thomson’s church next door.

Habitat has not had as good a renaissance, and the company went into receivership in 2011, the historic Glasgow store will undoubtedly be a victim.