Bloomberg, Walbrook - a review
My review on facebook.
I walked around the new Bloomberg Building yesterday. I have contradictory thoughts. But what is clear is what an impact it has. Its huge, its restrained, elegant, perhaps timeless and brings out its neighbours. It places you face to face with great architecture by Wren, Koolhaas, Stirling, Lutyens, Dance and so on. It reinstates part of Watling Street. it creates a sense of space. So it many ways it is a magnificent achievement. And by far the best Foster building in the City for a very long time.
But and there are a few buts for me.
The
public space it creates is not great. Yes, it does give it a sense of
space around the building but there is no great new public square. just
quite nice small spaces. The building lets down Cannon Street. The
facade along Cannon Street could have helped make Cannon Street into a
better retail street but it is given over to a services entry which is
surely very wrong for Cannon Street. But mostly, it is yet another
landmark in that great task that the City of London has embarked on -
the destruction of the historic City. Yes you can see great pieces of
historic landmarks but they sit as islands in a sea of modern
architecture. They are isolated, it helps them become icons perhaps,
Somehow Bloomberg marks a period, an end to the Victorian and early 20th
Century City. It is gone, it is pickled in Bankers and Hedge Fund
aspic. Mammon has won
This link described the project.
https://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/new-european-hq-unveiled/
I walked around the new Bloomberg Building yesterday. I have contradictory thoughts. But what is clear is what an impact it has. Its huge, its restrained, elegant, perhaps timeless and brings out its neighbours. It places you face to face with great architecture by Wren, Koolhaas, Stirling, Lutyens, Dance and so on. It reinstates part of Watling Street. it creates a sense of space. So it many ways it is a magnificent achievement. And by far the best Foster building in the City for a very long time.
But and there are a few buts for me.
The
public space it creates is not great. Yes, it does give it a sense of
space around the building but there is no great new public square. just
quite nice small spaces. The building lets down Cannon Street. The
facade along Cannon Street could have helped make Cannon Street into a
better retail street but it is given over to a services entry which is
surely very wrong for Cannon Street. But mostly, it is yet another
landmark in that great task that the City of London has embarked on -
the destruction of the historic City. Yes you can see great pieces of
historic landmarks but they sit as islands in a sea of modern
architecture. They are isolated, it helps them become icons perhaps,
Somehow Bloomberg marks a period, an end to the Victorian and early 20th
Century City. It is gone, it is pickled in Bankers and Hedge Fund
aspic. Mammon has wonThis link described the project.
https://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/new-european-hq-unveiled/
Comments