RSJ
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Should be collected into a book. One of my favourites over here is “London as it might have been” which is full of just such never-made-it schemes from the 18th century onwards.
If you’ve got a stainless steel fridge in your kitchen, you know that it quickly darkens, even if you keep it cleaned. Only way to restore the original brilliance is to treat it with something mildly abrasive. Which is easy with your fridge, not so easy with a 400 foot spike.
All architects must learn: stainless steel is never stainless for long.
Yes, I know he wrote that piece. My question is – who is he? Is he considered some kind of authoritative cultural commentator, or is he just another opinionated hack?
All the Irish in New York, y’see. Still waiting for the coverage in England…but Ritchie being a Brit will help.
Have read the Michael Ross piece. Cleverly worded crap. Every successful society has “decadent emblems”. All politics is to do with show, and always has been. The man is making mouth noises.
If nothing was ever done just for the joy of it, but only for strictly-defined needs at lowest possible cost, then:
No Taj Mahal
No Sydney Opera House
No Durham Cathedral
No Guggenheim
No St. Mark’s Campanile, Venice
No Alhambra(add your own here)
Can’t remember the exact quote but Michael Scott used to say that Ireland was at the very end of a chain of architectural events that began in classical/Renaissance Mediterranean and slowly worked its way across Europe.
I think he saw Modernism in broadly similar terms.
Although the Brits are good at architecture, they tend not to invent styles. They’re pretty near the end of the architectural chain, too.
Possible exceptions are Arts and Crafts, and high-tech. British-originated? Discuss.
Only eleven more days to get your Christmas shot-peening done.
(I’m really, really sorry I said that)
I had the misfortune to see this when in NYC a year ago – it was almost finished then, so what took them so long?
I could hardly believe my eyes. All it needs are leprechauns dotted about. A very serious subject, which could have been treated with enormous dignity and power, is turned into pure schlock. It needs a bit of ironic intervention by conceptual artists such as Jake and Dinos Chapman, I’d say.
When you think of how resonant such memorials can be – like the semi-underground memorial to the WW2 deported in Paris – this one hits an all-time low. Like something out of a garden festival.
First time I’ve ever heard American “football” described as English. They do play rounders as well, but call it something else.
Anyone for cricket?
Why have a street cleaning department, when you have Photoshop to do it for you virtually?
Architects use this a lot. In the UK, Wilkinson Eyre always hated the staithes that the Tyne harbourmaster insisted on placing in the river under their “opening eye” bridge between Gateshead and Newcastle, to guide ships into the centre of the channel.
So in all their photos of this great bridge, they just Photoshop them out. Reminds you of the way leaders of the Soviet Union used to suddenly disappear from group portraits.
