Past contentious proposals for London

[Varenukha]

Originally Posted by jimbo

I think I'm going to be sick.

Somebody tell me that this is a spoof. The lyrics along the side of the bridge, the gently undulating lawn, the flowers, the old dear, hunched over and making her way into the foreground..... it's got to have come from the imagination of Sylvie Krin in Private Eye.

[Zenith]

i think that old lady is being sick

[rickster2k]

I'll probably be slated for this, but I actually quite like the Credit Suisse First Boston tower planned for the docklands in the late 80's.

At 250m, it would have probably been scaled back anyway, but it had that balsy, late 80's style about it, pretty daring and radical. I loved the neo-gothic 'cathedral' style of it with the spires on the roof, it really did look like a 'cathedral of commerce'. It harped back to old US skyscrapers, but with a modern twist. Neo-Gothic works, just look at the ANZ HQ in Melbourne, or that castle-type tower in Pittsburg (can't remember the name).

Someone posted, a while back in a thread of a similar vain, a detailed plan of from a book, showing all the detail.

We ended up getting 1CS, Citigroup, HSBC and a much smaller set of Cabot Sq buildings, but I just imagine what would have been there if we hadn't had a recession.

[Tubeman]

Originally Posted by zenith

i think that old lady is being sick

Sick with grief.

She had been struggling to cope with the immense void left in her life by Lady Di princess of hearts' (pbuh) departure when she decided to use the bridge following a signal failure on the Bakerloo Line. She saw the moving floral tributes and read the sincere reproduction of Sir Elton's songcraft along the side of the bridge, and felt an upwelling of nausea on account of the sheer emptiness and sorrow she was experiencing.

God knows every time I saw a Mercedes or hear the word 'Paris' I felt the same for many years after that fateful day

[Tubeman]

Originally Posted by rickster2k

I'll probably be slated for this, but I actually quite like the Credit Suisse First Boston tower planned for the docklands in the late 80's.

At 250m, it would have probably been scaled back anyway, but it had that balsy, late 80's style about it, pretty daring and radical. I loved the neo-gothic 'cathedral' style of it with the spires on the roof, it really did look like a 'cathedral of commerce'. It harped back to old US skyscrapers, but with a modern twist. Neo-Gothic works, just look at the ANZ HQ in Melbourne, or that castle-type tower in Pittsburg (can't remember the name).

Someone posted, a while back in a thread of a similar vain, a detailed plan of from a book, showing all the detail.

We ended up getting 1CS, Citigroup, HSBC and a much smaller set of Cabot Sq buildings, but I just imagine what would have been there if we hadn't had a recession.

The rendering / drawing I've seen of it looked fantastic... Like a Palace of Westminster on steroids: straight out of 'Metropolis' and the sort of thing that might have been built in New York in the 1920's. However, the fact remains it would have most likely ended up a hideous pastichey joke like a 250m tall Minster Court, so I'm glad we got what we got. That being said, I remember the original rendering of the CW estate from the 'Chronicle of the 20th Century' (I won it in a history prize at school for an essay on Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War), and the original designs for what are now HSBC and Citigroup were excellent: proper Cesar Pelli designs giving a very harmonious overall impression of the estate, they complimented 1CS whereas I feel HSBC and Citigroup do not.

[rickster2k]

Do you mean like these, with the curved roofs Tubeman?

[JGG]

Originally Posted by Tubeman

Sick with grief.

She had been struggling to cope with the immense void left in her life by Lady Di princess of hearts' (pbuh) departure when she decided to use the bridge following a signal failure on the Bakerloo Line. She saw the moving floral tributes and read the sincere reproduction of Sir Elton's songcraft along the side of the bridge, and felt an upwelling of nausea on account of the sheer emptiness and sorrow she was experiencing.

[Bowater]

Originally Posted by rickster2k

Interesting alternate layout, which do we prefer most? What we have now seems to create more of a community is my take. But the curved roof buildings are infinitely preferable to the HSBC building and maybe better than the CitiBank one.

[randolph]

Can't say I like these much . I actually like the HSBC tower at CW - for me it is the best tower there!!

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by potto

1 Poultry is the only decent Post Modern building in London (+ UK?). If you stand in the middle of bank it works marvelously well, in a holistic way that the tower proposal would not have managed in a thousand years. You could also argue that it fits in better than the fussy Victorian building it replaced...

Personally I prefer Portcullis House. This building fits into it's surroundings amazingly well, considering that it's a world heritage site and if you get up close, you can see that this is a building of real quality.

I know that this building isn't exactly popular with most of the people on this forum so I'm outta here before the flak starts flying!

[wjfox]

You're not alone. I think Portcullis House rocks.

[hellolazyness]

I agree. Portcullis House is one of the few examples of well integrated, but interesting bit of modern architechture in a sensitive enviroment.

[potto]

yes I think it is a good building too, I think the main points that make Pultry and Portcullis house stand out is the level of quality applied to the development and materials, from the frieze along the side of Poultry and her roof garden to the solid victorian-esque chimney stacks and exciting roof of portcullis house. The rest of the post modern world seem to exist on budget where the design 'decorations' merely become cheap thrills or stuck-on after thoughts.

[DarJoLe]

Portcullis House had better be good, it went horrendously overbudget.

[JDRS]

Portcullis House is a fantastic building, that works so well.

Who's the architect and what other buildings/designs have they worked on?

[DarJoLe]

Micheal Hopkins & Partners

[rickster2k]

I remember seing the RIBA awards a few years back and they showed the lobby, it looked stunning.

As for the building, I don't know why so many people hate it, those iron chimney pot look-a-likes are cool. And I like the dark, meanacing cladding, i could easily be the headquarters for an evil corporation.

[DarJoLe]

I guess because it cost a hideous amount of money, is the home of politicians and has stupid fake chimneys on the top that aren't even chimneys.

[JDRS]

Thanks. I just looked on their website and they've done some interesting projects including that children's hospital which was shortlisted for an architecture prize wasnt it?

[rickster2k]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

I guess because it cost a hideous amount of money, is the home of politicians and has stupid fake chimneys on the top that aren't even chimneys.

Well its rather fitting for a government building then!