Re: Re: The Opera Centre

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

And it suffers from the usual lots of glass, which will be covered up by the retailers

Views of the existing Streetscape.

Whatever about the individual quality of the 1990s in-fill, and not knowing the condition of the buildings/sites they replaced, at least they left the ‘Georgian’ streetscape repaired and largely intact.

The ‘Opera Centre’ scheme goes for maximum impact by way of maximum contrast. The problem with this approach is that it robs the existing streetscape of it’s recently mended coherence, it dates very quickly, the vast areas of glass never look as impressive in reality as they do in the developers’ brochure, it invites misuse by retailers (as Paul said), and the glitzy new corners, instead of patinating into maturity, inevitably start the slow slide into shabbyness from the first day the scaffolding comes down.

Unfortunately, when the sky is that blue, the glass is that shimmering, and the virtual people look like they just strolled off the plane from Milan, it’s hard not to be captivated by the images!