Re: Re: “Iconic” building proposal by VHI, Abbey Street

@ctesiphon wrote:

Here’s an idea, VHI- knock down that monstrosity you call a head office and build something else on that site instead.

It would be inclined to agree with ctesiphon on this, and maybe go a bit further. Is there anything on this entire block that’s worth a damn? How does a miserable suburban church like this get ‘Protected’ status when really important structures, that desperately need protecting, are ignored?

I think the proposed ‘iconic’ office block, and particularly the incapsulation of the hall into the new structure elevates these structures to a status that they don’t particularly deserve.

Normally I’m in favour of retaining and integrating existing stock into redevelopment. Usually it’s important to try to do this to retain the urban layers, but sometimes it might be better, and a bit braver, to wipe that particular corner of the slate clean and start again, particularly if the alternative could be a full blown headquarters building, with presumably, a bit of civic scale.

This scheme looks too bitty to me, and too compromised in it’s intentions, and the quality of the retained bits too mediocre, for it to stand the test of time. If this scheme were to get built, I think a future generation would look back and conclude that there was an awful lot of muddled thinking going on in planning and architectural circles at this time.