Riverside Museum, Glasgow | £74m | Zaha Hadid | Completed

[ad at home]

did anyone else read in today's architects journal that allies and morrison have been brought in to deliver hadid's architecture foundation building.?

hadid will have a design role of sorts but a+m will be taking over the commission, which is now over budget and programme according to the aj.

goodness what does that say about her ability to deliver the transport museum, I wonder? the architecture foundation building is small beer in comparison at 2.5 million

[M_Riaz]

There was story in the ET a couple of days ago about cost increase.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5048188.html

Costs of new transport museum spiral by £10m

[ad at home]

.................guess that's ok then. who will the council draft in if it gets out of hand , keppies maybe?

[Socceroo]

I see from the Newspaper article that they are already looking for 8 million pounds to come from public donations.

Personally i thought the Gareth Hoskins proposals were superb.

Maybe a case of the Council saying we better be seen to be trendy and get a Zaha Hadid building.

The costs will spiral upwards, the Construction Industry is getting busier all the time, Contractors and Sub Contractors can pick and choose and prices are going up.

If it is not fully detailed as it could be when it goes out to tender as appears to the case on a few Hadid job's then it could become a bigger financial problem for the City.

[M_Riaz]

Gareth Hoskins entry would have been a better and more interesting build i feel as well, maybe i am jumping the gun but it seems a lot more Riveresque than the Zaha entry.. maybe once the build starts to happen i may change my mind but from the renders seen up till now it seems far too radical for the river front as are her other museums around the world.

Anybody any renders of the Fosters entry ? i dont think they were ever published.

[tonytowers]

I attended the lecture Zaha held in the Raddison for Block architecture week and when it came to the Transport Museum she didn't really seem to care about it much. With the resposibility of it handed to someone else in the office, she also didn't seem to have much knowlege of it compared to her trendier London builds.

When it came to looking at the drawings, none of them contained any context of the buildings contents (i.e. transport or people) except one fleeting plan with exhibits in place which looked like there was no space left for people.

Hoskins' proposal would have been a much more viable option with the building designed around the exhibits. Rather than Zaha's, with exhibits designed round a silly squiggly line!

[M_Riaz]

Originally Posted by ad at home

.................guess that's ok then. who will the council draft in if it gets out of hand , keppies maybe?

Has Keppies got any major projects going on in the city Alan you seem to bring their name up quite often ... or is it a personal thing ?

They dont seem to have a website either... hmm i wonder.

[aland]

unfortunatley it's not about architecture, and sadly big name architects are a valuable pr currency for a city which has ambition to exchange.

Last year, as part of a business delegation that visited Chicago, I listened to the Lord Provost describing the regeneration of Glasgow to a group of about one hundred Chicago Business men and women. They oooooed and aaaaaaaaed, when she told them that the city was soon to have projects by Foster, Rogers and Hadid.

Gave the city instant credibility, without anyone knowing or really caring what the design was like.... unlike a museum by Garteth Hoskins would or a bridge by gm+ad could

[Socceroo]

I suppose Hadid's building will look good if you are a seagull. Or in a helicopter or up the Science Centre Tower....when it's working.

[ad at home]

any major projects? yes, unfortunately.

[gweilo]

They oooooed and aaaaaaaaed, when she told them that the city was soon to have projects by Foster, Rogers and Hadid.

Arrrgh!!!!! But sadly entirely predictable...

Very very depressing reading this thread especially tony towers post (much appreciated BTW even if it is bad tidings).

Imagine being given the opportunity to build one of a city's major buildings and then apparently not giving a toss about it. Why, say, does Cincinatti deserve better treatment than us? This is going a long way towards realising my worst fears about the outcome of this. Obviously despite her la la la isn't Glasgow great for clubbing speil Ms Hadid doesn't feel she has anything to prove here. Hopefully the embrassment of the architecture foundation debacle will convince her that she still has her reputation to consider and so will shift up a gear. Pigs might fly though....

[gleegie]

Keppie Design.

They're doing 145 St Vincent Street and Park Lane's Lancefield Quay.

They've done 200 Broomielaw and Central Exchange.

----------------

I loved the rich colour and texture of Gareth Hoskins afforded by the bronze, but much prefer Zaha's design even if its curves are stretching the budget.

[ad at home]

oh my goodness, who's that lurking at the back , on the right,with the pink shirt and grey tie........can't be can it?

no not mackintosh surprisingly but non the less amazing!

[The Boy David]

To be fair, that portofolio on Keppie's website ain't too bad at all.

I didn't know they did the Overgate in Dundee - not a bad city shopping centre - far more interesting (although much smaller) than our Buchanan Galleries...

So why the grumblings, Alan?

[Socceroo]

It's all subjective, matter of taste and all that at the end of the day, is it not? That is which buildings you think are Architecturally pleasing and which are not so.

I've built a few things out for Keppie's over the years with different Contractors, i think they are big on the function of the buildings they do for clients and i recall they were good at getting the details right first time.

Although most of their stuff is built with a quality spec (apart from schools) it can seem a wee bit bland. I like bits of (front elevation) of 200 Broomielaw.

If you did not know beforehand that Keppie was the Architect on a particular building would you be able to identify their style or more to the point be interested enough in finding out?

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by Socceroo

or more to the point be interested enough in finding out?

No.

[M_Riaz]

Hadids Maggie Centre.

http://www.edinburgharchitecture.co....d_kircaldy.htm

[Chief]

True, but could you also come up with the requisite BS to back it up?

[The Boy David]

Originally Posted by Chief

True, but could you also come up with the requisite BS to back it up?

Hahaha

Alas nay - only architects can do that - I am but a man, afterall

[space_invader]

Here's summat I wrote in Project Scotland last November for those dat missed de lecture:

Starchitect mixes metaphors by the Clyde

OSTENSIBLY in the country for the Stirling Prize Award, Zaha Hadid used her Scottish visit to endear herself to the architectural community at a Lighthouse-sponsored lecture in Glasgow on the eve of the televised ceremony in Edinburgh.
Wowing an appreciative audience with crisp photography of her completed portfolio and lush graphics of projects still to come – including the controversial Transport Museum she is designing for Glasgow City Council - she spoke extensively about her other key project, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, described as “the embodiment of Zaha’s sinuous, sensuous architecture”. But there was only one scheme the audience was here to see, the aforementioned Transport Museum, soon to rise up where the rivers Kelvin and Clyde converge.
The contract was awarded to the Iraqi-born Londoner’s firm last year after a competitive process that saw her triumph in a ‘play-off’ with Gareth Hoskins Architects. Many commentators felt her ‘starchitect’ status swung the jury.
The status is, however, well deserved. She is the only woman architect to have won the Pritzker Prize - considered the world’s top architectural honour – and has established a successful career despite the risqué nature of her designs. Most importantly, her completed buildings exude the same dynamic potential with which she charges her pre-construction visualisations; there’s no sense of ‘sell-out’ in her work.
So there was some surprise when the Transport Museum visualisations were unveiled, revealing images that were underwhelming in comparison to what had gone before. The graphics were muted, there was a lack of detail, and the design seemed closer to the wilful shapes thrown by Frank Gehry than the kinetics expected of Hadid.
As she reeled through the images, she spoke of the ideas underpinning the design: “It’s a simple idea. The building is connecting two waterways so it is a liquid, fluid design - a third metallic river.” The basic form of the building is of a metal extrusion, with its two ends left transparent while the roof was described as a “hide stretched over the exhibits”.
She continued: “The continuity provided by the roof takes the visitor from one end to another. Internally, we’re experimenting with tarmac and would like to embed some of the exhibits within it. The exterior is to be clad in metal. Originally, it was to be one colour only but we have decided upon a gradation, a rouge.” The elevation is to be clad in large-scale shingles, and Hadid stressed that the glazing will use the same system; an expression of her desire, once again, for the surface continuity.
“It’s a public building that has it’s own skyline,” she concluded when the slides finally dried up, cancelling out her earlier, smarter ‘third river’ metaphor. Regardless, she exited to rapturous applause, having charmed her audience. However the next day was not to be hers, losing out on the Stirling Prize to another woman and another ‘sensous’ building, Benedetta Tagliabue and her Scottish Parliament. It was another, most welcome, first in the normally blokeish world of architecture.

Zaha Hadid’s lecture was part of BLOCK, a week-long architectural festival organised by The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Architecture, Design and the City.