Luma Tower

I have been wanting to photograph this building for ages. Built to coincide with the 1938 Empire exhibition, and originally known as the Luma Lightbulb Factory, the building is an example of art deco, and sited to the west of the city centre, south of the River Clyde. Designed by architect Cornelius Armour, the steel framed building with precast concrete floors is dominated by its glazed 84 foot high tower which splits the south elevation and is a dramatic curved feature dominating the local skyline. Following its use as a lightbulb factory the building latterly was used by Caravanland and then entered a period of dereliction. In1990 the building was in a poor state of repair, leaking, with shattered windows and repeatedly broken into.

The building was extensively remodelled when converted to 43 flats following a period of dereliction from the 1980s to the mid 1990s. The building footprint is fundamentally the same and the remodelling is sympathetic and in keeping with the original design, maintaining its art deco style. Included in the remodelling was the addition of porthole windows on the west elevation, four floors of windows on the east of the front elevation, new larger windows on the west portion of the front elevation and a remodelled entrance at the foot of the tower. The east elevation was extended out to form a rectangle rather than stepping down as in the original factory design. The rear of the building was extended out so the form overrall was a large rectangular block, and there was the addition of a variety of forms to the west end of the building at the rear with a void within these. Finally three separate small housing blocks were added running along the rear separated from the building as a whole by an access road (Nithbank Avenue).