London - Full Summary of Projects 21

[ill tonkso]

Indeed, this development is far more damaging than the Shard or any other tall building. EH have lost sight of what their Inner London priorities should really be.

[Officer Dibble]

Personally I think EH should have no role in planning, other than in representing the interests of historic buildings which it owns (and which it looks after in an exemplary fashion). Time and again it has shown itself to be clueless about planning, attempting to block excellent buildings simply because they're tall, and waving through dreadful mistakes (e.g. Unilever House extension) because they're not tall.

The Leicester Sq building is a case - not unusual, I think - where a decent old building can be given a new lease of life but only by sacrificing quite a lot of its aesthetic integrity. I'm sure that new roof, for example, is far more functional than the old one and contains far better space, and I can easily believe the old one is falling apart. But the old one suits the building, and the new one clearly doesn't.

Better to spoil the building's looks (to some extent, over which we'd all have differing opinions) to prolong its life, or better to knock it down and start again? I certainly can't answer that objectively.

[El_Greco]

If only things like aesthetics still mattered to todays architecture...

[The Champ]

Admiralty Arch to become hotel?

http://news.sky.com/story/1002168/mi...admiralty-arch

[pagey17]

Good idea its awful on the inside it looks like a civil service hellhole. Just as long as it keeps with the aesthetics of the area.

[gothicform]

well the government expects to get only £60 million from the sale of admiralty arch which is pretty pathetic actually. that's a lease worth only £600,000 a year for what is effectively two blocks on the mall. a single flat at one hyde park costs more - http://www.primelocation.com/for-sal...5e0f0a946dc972

average commercial rents in the area for an unfitted building are over £100 per square foot now.

[Core Rising]

£600000*70 years = £42 million.

Not too far off the mark.

The flats in One Hyde Park are freehold and don't require massive internal renovation, so not really a great direct comparison.

[the spliff fairy]

seriously there has got to be some graft going on here between EH and the developers.

I don't get how this kind of thing can happen. The building is completely bland now.

[the spliff fairy]

Originally Posted by RMB2007

Before:



After:

The windows in the old roof also echo the turrets of the buildings on the street - it gives a complexity and ornateness to the built environment.Also
note the eastern facade is stripped of its architectural features and more resembles a pomo office block with ubiquitous plate glass windows. What
we have instead is a watered down version - the remaining old buildings becoming increasingly islanded (bear in mind the squat glass box of the W
hotel is opposite), as with just about everywhere in London.

[delores]

Originally Posted by pagey17

Good idea its awful on the inside it looks like a civil service hellhole. Just as long as it keeps with the aesthetics of the area.

nice idea, just one problem Buckingham palace, it could be a huge security risk having a hotel there.

[mouldss@hotmail.co.u]

It gets worse these fine bronze shop fronts are going as well, I am sorry there are no excuses.

Leicester Sq building

[delores]

So basically Make architects are now going to butcher a much loved building in London because they think with EH that details are not pure to the original intent of the architecture and not important. So they add a god awful roof remove the detailing that makes this building special and dumb it down. EH again showing their utter stupidity and arrogance in what they think is right. Make architects seems intent in designing out the history of Leicester square with this and the cinema next door I'm really still trying to understand why they get so much work?

[Pennypacker]

EH is useless and may as well not exist.

[pakboy]

LS is full of ugly buildings, YET they want to destroy the most beautiful building there.

[SparksTO]

In my opinion, it is an improvement. All the area makes me wish so badly for a ban on gums in London, this area is discounting whit all those gums on the sidewalk and the pavement.

[jamiefearon]

Originally Posted by SparksTO

In my opinion, it is an improvement. All the area makes me wish so badly for a ban on guns in London, this area is discounting whit all those guns on the sidewalk and the pavement.

Guns? What you talking about?

[Pants1254]

Hello all im new to skyscrapercity but iv been looking at this website every days for the last few years and only just decided to join in, add to the conversations and my opinions and looking forward to it.

Iam a graduate of Architectural Technology and am in the process of producing my own 3d image of London on sketchup and will add building to it upon their completion will try to share images if anyone is intrested, buildings are only in basic white 3d form but shows their shape size and how they interact with surrounding buildings.

Happy to be hear.

[jamiefearon]

Welcome Pants1254. It's interesting your making 3d buildings of Londons buildings. I'm currently making an HTML 5 Isometric graphics engine and hope in the future to make an online 3d isometric map of London, maybe our paths will cross in the future, as I'm not very good at graphic art.

[Pants1254]

Thank you jamiefearon, yours sound very intresting too im only using sketchup very basic but im hoping it will be enought just to show people a 3d model of London. See im not very technicaly minded but Im ok with the graphic art side, maybe our paths will cross with this maybe able to help out each other in the future will look forward to seeing your work sounds very intresting

[jamiefearon]

Thanks Pants1254, will let you know when I have a beta up-and-running.