3 Blackness Avenue, Dundee

5 Blackness Avenue in Dundee is a group of three four-storey tenements designed by James MacLaren between 1868 and 1869. The buildings are constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar details and are stepped to follow the slope of the ground.

Nos 1 and 3 feature a three-bay design with the outer bays canted through three floors. They have interlaced carving at the aprons of the first floor and bipartite balcony fronts at the third floor. The centre bay projects slightly and is pilastered, with a central stair door flanked by windows, a decorative frieze, and a consoled cast-iron balcony, although the balcony at No 1 is missing. The bipartite windows above are finely detailed on the first floor, situated between pilaster strips and consoles, while the detailing becomes simpler on the second and third floors. A central vertically channelled wallhead stack is present.

The elevation facing Hawkhill has a four-bay layout with a central consoled doorway beneath a shield inscribed "Gowrie Place 1868." It features single and bipartite windows, with scroll decoration at the ground floor, bracketted cills and cornices at the first floor, aprons at the second, and a cill course at the third floor.

No 5 is a five-bay tenement designed in a similar style but with less intricate detailing than Nos 1 and 3. It has canted end bays and a central bipartite window above the entrance. Cill-level band courses are present, along with a double wallhead stack featuring a central bipartite window.

All three buildings have slate roofs with ridge stacks. Pilaster strips mark the party walls between the tenements and at the corners, terminating in urns. The property is enclosed by low boundary walls and square gatepiers.