Demolish Forth Bridge, says MSP

[Paul Clerkin]

Demolish Forth Bridge, says MSP

The Forth Bridge, one of Scotland's architectural marvels, may need to be demolished in the face of soaring maintenance costs and years of neglect, an MSP claimed today.

Labour's Helen Eadie said the annual cost of the rail bridge's maintenance had increased from £40million to around £120m.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5013316.html

[RSJ]

Problem with the Forth Bridge is that it is a titanic structure taking relatively few, relatively local trains. So it's hard to justify keeping it on operational grounds alone.

It was hugely over-engineered (in response to the earlier Tay Bridge disaster) which makes a lot of steel to paint. Then again, it's not going to fall down in a hurry, even if it's totally neglected.

[Paul Clerkin]

True, but its almost a symbol of Scotland.

[RSJ]

Oh sure. I'm not saying knock it down. But if a new rail/road crossing were made, the old Forth Bridge would make a magnificent ruin.

[alan d]

Talking about magnificent ruins, that's whats on the cards for Gillespie Kidd and Coia's Cardross Seminary. Which was the building that won Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein the RIBA Gold Medal. So there is a precedent.

[Paul Clerkin]

St. Peter’s College, Seminary, Kilmahew, Cardross, Scotland

The college was designed by I. Metzstein, J. Cowell and McMillan of Gillespie, Kidd and Coia in 1966. The Seminary buildings within it have become at risk as the need for which the college was built - to train priests for the Catholic Church in a remote setting - has all but disappeared. The Seminary, a modular concrete structure, is a very good example of collegiate buildings from the 1960s. It is now unused and in a ruinous state. So far no purchaser has been found, nor has a scheme been put forward that could give it a new use. One suggestion is that it should perhaps become the first stabilised and protected 20th-century ruin.

Its in poor condition okay
http://members.lycos.co.uk/maevedixon/maeve/photo4.html

[Hugh]

Didn't Basil Spence tend to rhetorically ask of emerging designs: "would it look good as a ruin?"

- and didn't Sir John Soane like to see paintings of his buildings done as ruins, for much the same reason?

[alan d]

Are you getting confused with Sir John Outram?

[alan d]

........interesting about Basil Spence, I guess there is a fine line between asking oneself will this look good as a ruin or will this eventually be demolished.

Ah Basil Spence, now there's a great uncompromising Scottish architect

[Paul Clerkin]

July 6 2004: Church aims to revitalise derelict seminary ‘masterpiece’
The Herald

One of Scotland's finest examples of post-modern architecture, which is lying derelict, will be transformed by proposals unveiled yesterday. The archdiocese of Glasgow aims to revitalise the A-listed St Peter's seminary building in Cardross, near Helensburgh, which has been called a "masterpiece of modernism". In recent years, the site has become increasingly rundown since its closure in 1980, but the Catholic Church wants to reopen the building and its surrounding estate to recreational use. Under the scheme, the building, regarded as one of the finest works of Gillespie Kidd and Coia, the Glasgow architects, would be safeguarded, restored, and the surrounding Kilmahew estate opened up for the amenity of the local community.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/19462.html

[shadow]

Even if the demolish the Forth Bridge it will live on in Ian Banks's The Bridge.

[aland]

Jings Paul, well done. I missed the Seminary story yesterday. Glad you're paying attention

Demolish the bridge, eh?............aye that'll be right