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| [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, [10] ] |
| Subject: Indeed | |
Author: Dave (UK) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 16:38:19 10/26/04 Tue In reply to: Dave (UK) 's message, "Not just London..." on 16:03:22 10/26/04 Tue I actually quite like the Swiss Re tower (Gherkin) and Portcullis house, but I am saddened at the loss of what used to stand at these two sites. The Royal festival hall is junk, like most buildings from that period. The space rocket thing was the only piece of the festival worth preserving in my opinion. It reminds me of the art deco kitsch at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow in 1938 too, all of which has been lost. What was wrong with County Hall exactly? Why did Commissar Ken move London Government from a purpose built building on the most recognisable waterfronts in the world, to an egg-shaped greenhouse next to Tower Bridge? Is it more of this “transparent democracy” metaphorical rubbish? [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: 1960's planners in Toronto | |
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Author: Jim (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:13:14 10/26/04 Tue Downtown Toronto, though never bombed, has been almost completely rebuilt since the 1960's. Many of the grand Victorian buildings were demolished and replaced with modern office towers. A 1966 plan to construct a downtown expressway ring would have involved demolition of more, but that was stopped after massive protests in the 1970's. Parts of the expressway system proceed towards the city centre and stop just outside downtown because the rest was cancelled. One good thing that did happen was that many of the beautiful columns and edifaces from demolished downtown buildings were saved and transported to a public garden in the suburbs and then erected again there as monuments. I live near this garden and I often walk through it. It seems funny to walk through a park and see a huge column or ediface with 60 King Street West engraved on it! (a street in downtown). It was still a good idea to save some of the beautiful architecture by relocating them as decorative monuments in a public park rather than just eliminating them completely. Urban planning is my profession, by the way (post 1960's). [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Movement of monuments... | |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 19:18:59 10/26/04 Tue It's not as bizarre as what they did in India in the 1950s. A fair majority of British structures in the major cities had royal coats of arms, reliefs depicting the King-Emperors etc. etc. They couldn't easily get rid of them, but didn't want them cluttering up their independent country's towns. So, most of them were picked up and moved to the suburban parks and what-not. Walking through Victoria Gardens in Bangalore, or the MG Gardens outside Calcutta, you occasionally come round a clump of pipal or gum trees and find the front only of a large building over the doorframe of which is a seven foot statue of Queen Vic. These Indian public parks have become a graveyard for imperial statuary, and walking through deserted bibighars or phulavaariya is rather sad... rather like that poem by Shelley: "And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair'. Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." But I grow sentimental... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |