Building Design articles from March 2003

Building Design archives from March 2003

Tobacco warehouse fails to spark bids.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Only one bidder had come forward to redevelop Liverpool's historic Tobacco Warehouse by last week's deadline for proposals, BD learnt this week. The sole submission is from regeneration developer Urban Splash. The prominent warehouse...

Architects join Goodsyard row: top names join the fray as campaigner prepares to take battle back to High Court.
March 7, 2003... A group of high-profile architects threw their weight behind a last-ditch campaign to save the Bishopsgate Goodsyard in east London this week as it emerged that the battle over the historic site could return to the High Court. High-profile...

Design sends 'worrying messages'. (News).
March 7, 2003... There is something deeply troubling about Daniel Libeskind's winning World Trade Centre design, writes Robert Bevan. It is not the spire and sunken memorial garden -- which are, surprisingly for Libeskind, firmly in the traditional...

Six-month contract lets Libeskind start at WTC. (News).
March 7, 2003... Daniel Libeskind is poised to sign a six-month contract to start working on the detailed redesign of the World Trade Centre, he told BD this week. The short-term contract, expected to be signed by the end of the week, is needed to put...

Walsall waterfront shortlist. (News).(KCAP and S333)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Two Dutch partnerships, KCAP and S333 are among the five architects shortlisted for the [pounds sterling]100 million Walsall waterfront redevelopment. The design list also features Lab Architecture Studios, Alsop Architects and DSDHA....

TR Property Investment Trust and Bellhouse Joseph Holdings.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Caption: The first major new building in Piccadilly, central London, for almost 30 years has received planning permission from Westminster council. The eight-storey 8,500sq m mixed-use development on Church Place linking Piccadilly with Jermyn...

Could be U2. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... More than 500 entries have been received for a competition to design a 10-storey tower in Dublin Docks which would include a recording studio for the band U2(News February 14). A winner is expected to be announced next month.

Revamped guidance. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Guidance on Tall Buildings was relaunched by Cabe this week following input into the consultation document sent out last summer. The document can be found on www.cabe.org.uk

Drop the shop. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Cabe chief executive Jon Rouse used the property fair Mipim this week to warn architects, planners and developers against replicating out-of-town retail developments in town centres. He also challenged Manchester to broaden its design of new...

East London bridge contest is back on. (News).
March 7, 2003... A design competition for a major new bridge in east London that had been abandoned (News February 7) is now back on, Transport for London said this week. In a move that will delight the world's bridge design luminaries who were expected to...

Livingstone talks up Draft London Plan. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... London mayor Ken Livingstone hit back at critics of his Draft London Plan this week, arguing that the 15-year development strategy was deliverable and that funding would be secured to create an "exemplary, sustainable world city". Speaking...

Rogers, Alsop and Pelli unveil Docklands towers. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... The Canary Wharf Group is to submit two major office developments in London's Docklands for planning permission, by the Richard Rogers Partnership and Cesar Pelli with Alsop Architects. The combined office space of the two developments is...

Urban Regeneration Company.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Caption: Hull planners have granted consent to Citybuild, the Urban Regeneration Company, for this Michael Hopkins & Partners-designed 3,000sq m office block that forms the first phase of the company's 25,000sq m mixed-use Island Wharf scheme....

Airport options set for takeoff: ministers ready to consider architects' alternative projects. (News).
March 7, 2003... A new raft of huge airport projects, worked up by architects, will be presented to ministers in the next few weeks, BD has learnt. The schemes, masterminded by architects including Bluebase, Pleiade Associates and HOK Sport, have forced...

Bermondsey designs replaced. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Munkenbeck & Marshall has been selected to redesign a [pounds sterling]25 million mixed-use scheme for Bermondsey Square in South-wark, south London, originally designed by Amp Associates. M&M beat competition from Cartwright Pickard and...

Cabe scathing of Croydon plan. (News).
March 7, 2003... A [pounds sterling]250 million high-rise scheme in Croydon by Michael Aukett Architects was slammed by Cabe this week for its "confused" and "sketchy" approach. Cabe's design review committee concluded that the 5ha scheme on a landmark...

Foster's scoops NY arts project. (News).(Avery Fisher Hall, part of the famous Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts in New York. )(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Foster & Partners has won some consolation for failing to make the final round of the Ground Zero competition by winning an international contest to redesign Avery Fisher Hall, part of the famous Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts in New York....

Hospital procurement 'lacks patient care'. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... The government shows no concern for patient care when it is procuring hospitals, according to architects who debated the issue last week. Instead the process is dominated by the rush to get a certain number built by the next general...

Arb withdraws De Montfort's validation. (News).(De Montfort University)
March 7, 2003... The school of architecture at De Montfort University in Leicester has become the first school to lose its Arb validation in a move that leaves the future of approximately 250 part I and part II students in doubt. The move, unprecedented in...

PFI problems. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... A report by the government's NHS watchdog, the Commission for Health Improvement, has found a series of problems with the Llewellyn Davies-designed PFI hospital the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle. The report found that areas originally...

EP land transfer. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... English Partnerships has agreed to transfer packages of its non-strategic land holdings and assets to local authorities as part of deputy prime minister John Prescott's Sustainable Communities plan. EP will work on an individual basis with each...

Steel design shortlist. (News).(Structural Steel Design Awards)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Fourteen practices have been shortlisted for this year's Structural Steel Design Awards, including Skidmore Owings & Merrill for 5 Canada Square, London; Grimshaw's for 25 Gresham Street, London; Amp Associates for the City of Manchester...

Crown Estate scheme. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... The Crown Estate has won planning permission from Westminster council for a [pounds sterling]55 million remodelling of 185-191 Regent Street and 13-17 New Burlington Place in central London. The scheme includes 1,750sq m of new shop space on...

ABS break. (News).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Assael Architecture is challenging practices to follow its example and collect at least [pounds sterling]10 from each of their employees for the Architects Benevolent Society. Donations can be forwarded to the Assael Challenge, Architects...

The deafening silence of English Heritage. (Comment & Analysis).
March 7, 2003... Standing up to the big boys always takes guts, but it is particularly tough when you are on your own. This is the situation of brave market trader Andy Prokopp who entered the fray this week over Bishopsgate Goodsyard declaring that he will...

Letters.
March 7, 2003... Make it work From Richard Bower, Exeter Thanks to Piers Gough for his excellent piece (Comment & Analysis February 2l). As architects creating a solution, let alone a pleasing one, we all know the situation we work in; the meetings...

Addendum.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Last week's picture caption of the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin did not mention that the architect was S&P Architects.

Truly bazaar: The annual Mipim property fair in Cannes looks set to be the usual mixture of car parks, champagne and the Croisette. (Comment & Analysis).
March 7, 2003... Mipim is hilarious. The premier development-industry binge. is held in a converted car park under a multiplex cinema. Colossal red-faced estate agents with huge bums sticking out of their double-vented jacket flaps squeeze past dapper...

Hoop dreams. (Concrete Boots).(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Food giant Heinz's offer of [pounds sterling]100,000 to have a possible version of London's Millennium Wheel in Birmingham named the Spaghetti Hoop was this week trumped by a well-known crisp firm which has started selling baked-bean flavoured...

Crimewatch MK. (Concrete Boots).(Cabe's recently appointed director of partnerships, Chris Murray, shares his powers of winning confidence)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... Cabe's recently appointed director of partnerships Chris Murray shared with BD this week his amazing powers of winning confidence. In his former life heading up the cultural planning department at Milton Keynes council, Murray invited a group...

Flushed with work. (Concrete Boots).(Richard Rogers)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... From challenging the government over the possible war in Iraq, Richard Rogers has found a new cause to fight. Straight from the campaigning fields of Hyde Park, Richards has repositioned himself as a champion for higher standards of public...

Snow business. (Concrete Boots).(snowfall in Cleveland makes sidewalks around Peter B. Lewis building dangerous)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... After announcing that it was too risky for him to fly to Britain at the present time, Frank Gehry found that record snowfall in Cleveland had diverted attention to his [pounds sterling]40 million university building there. After the big freeze...

One that got away. (Concrete Boots).(actor Liam Neeson was almost an architect)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2003... A profile of Irish actor Liam Neeson, famous for playing Oscar Schindler in Shindier's List and a jedi Knight in Stars Wars: The Phantom Menace, revealed that he was an early exile from the architectural profession. The 50-year-old actor listed...

Artistic license: one-time sculptor Chris Murray is Cabe's new director of partnerships. (Comment & Analysis).
March 7, 2003... Cabe's newly-appointed number two has a lot in common with its number one. Jon Rouse and Chris Murray are both in their thirties, they are both men and they both speak with the strong accent and inflection of their native Yorkshire. They dress...

Digital generation. (Perspective).
March 7, 2003... Three young London practices - Ocean UK, UFO and Plasma Studio - are at the forefront of digital practice in this country, using advanced processes to create architectural structures that previously would not have been possible. Kieran Long...

Urban Future Organisation. (Perspective).
March 7, 2003... Urban Future Organisation is another architect arranged as a network of practices scattered across the globe -- an arrangement that seems to be increasingly fashionable for young offices. The organisation was founded in London in 1996 by a...

Plasma Studio. (Digital Designers).
March 7, 2003... Plasma Studio is seen as being in the vanguard of digital practice, despite its still small size. Its approach to architecture depends on a highly politicised and inflected interpretation and use of computer technology. While its buildings...

On location. (Culture).
March 7, 2003... Two new films, one a sci-fi Hollywood blockbuster and the other a gritty dose of British realism, share one thing: the integral role played by design. Liz Haggard previews the fascist architecture-influenced Equilibrium and talks to Pure...

Working the streets. (Culture).
March 7, 2003... How do you ensure that a low-budget British film set in east London, which explores issues surrounding drug addiction and prostitution, represents poverty on screen without being patronising or sentimental? Working on the production of...

Diary.
March 7, 2003... LECTURES MONDAY * Enrique Norton, of Ten Architectos. Venue The Geological Society, Burlington House, London. 630pm. Cost [pounds sterling]10/[pounds sterling]5. Details 020 7300 5864. TUESDAY * Joep Van...

Big & Green - Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century. (A Leaf Through New Titles).
March 7, 2003... Big & Green - Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century, edited by David Gissen, Princeton Architectural Press, [pounds sterling]32. The quest for the sustainable skyscraper is explored in this compact new book combining case...

Design in Steel. (A Leaf Through New Titles).
March 7, 2003... Design in Steel, by Mel Byars, Laurence King, [pounds sterling]25 PB. Work by Ron Arad, the Azumis, Jasper Morrison and a host of more contemporary designers is showcased in this glossy picture-led book on how designers tackle steel....

Below Ground Level - Creating New Spaces for Contemporary Architecture. (A Leaf Through New Titles).
March 7, 2003... Below Ground Level - Creating New Spaces for Contemporary Architecture, Ernst von Meijenfeldt et al, Birkhauser E65 ([pounds sterling]45). This book delves into the special conditions defining architecture below ground level. Essays on...

Public Sculpture of the City of London. (A Leaf Through New Titles).
March 7, 2003... Public Sculpture of the City of London, by Philip Ward-Jackson, Liverpool University Press, [pounds sterling]62.50 HB, [pounds sterling]29.95 PB. Includes both standalone and architectural sculpture ranging from Charles Wheeler's work on...

Architecture of Bali - A Sourcebook of Traditional and Modern Forms. (A Leaf Through New Titles).
March 7, 2003... Architecture of Bali - A Sourcebook of Traditional and Modern Forms, by Made Wijaya, Thames & Hudson [pounds sterling]32 HB. Lush and detailed images and an account of the various components and styles of Balinese architecture,...

Rigidal keeps B&Q Warehouse under cover. (Showcase).
March 7, 2003... B&Q's latest development at the Pompey centre in Portsmouth features a striking, double barrel-vault standing seam roof construction, created using Rigidal Ziplok 400 in 0.9mm plain mill aluminium, the sheets were roll-formed on site and...

Trox wings it at BAE Filton. (Showcase).
March 7, 2003... Seven hundred aircraft design engineers and project staff are now being kept comfortable thanks to the tempered air provided by more that 700 Trox multi-service chilled beams (MSCBs) fitted in the [pounds sterling]14 million, 9,700 sq m office...

Kingspan Insulation Limited. (Showcase).
March 7, 2003... Premium and high performance walling and roofing insulation products by Kingspan Insulation have played a major role in the success of the award winning Clarion Quay Apartments, a prestigious project at Excise Walk in Dublin's regenerated...

Fusion A0900 lever design. (Showcase).
March 7, 2003... Also known as the 'Whale' the Fusion A0900 lever design is produced in stainless steel and bronze materials in either satin or polished finishes and is exclusively available through Monaghan Group Companies. The Whale is one of fourteen...

Wicanders innovates to grow cork flooring market. (Showcase).
March 7, 2003... Designed to grow the cork floor market and offer far greater choice and diversity to customers, Wicanders has created an innovative and extensive new flooring range, New Colour Collection, which will be available in the UK early this Spring....

Greatness in lateness. (Back Space).
March 7, 2003... Times and opportunities," George Kubler remarks in The Shape of Time, "differ more than the degree of talent". The history of art affords few more compelling proofs of his maxim than Titian, subject of the National Gallery's latest blockbuster...

Ian Martin.
March 7, 2003... Monday Design a new bridge for Thames Gateway. As the brief calls for something reflecting "the optimism of the 21st century", I give it a fragile look. It is, if I say so myself, brilliant. Not only does it wink and wobble, the...

Farrell alters BDP scheme.(Building Design Partnership)
March 14, 2003... Terry Farrell has personally intervened on a [pounds sterling]26 million Building Design Partnership (BDP) scheme to extend his Edinburgh International Conference Centre, causing the practice to substantially alter the scheme, BD has learnt....

Tom De Paor scoops YAYA 2003.(Young Architect of the Year Award)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... This year's BD/Corus Young Architect of the Year Award has gone to DE PAOR Architects, which wins [pounds sterling]5,000 in prize money. YAYA judge Mohsen Mostafavi, chairman of the Architectural Association, said that Dublin-based Tom De...

Dust flies on Beijing's building plan.
March 14, 2003... The Chinese government has set off an explosion in architectural activity in Beijing, by decreeing that all construction in the city must stop by 2007. The "moratorium" on building projects has been set because the government wants the...

Prefab quotas to prime demand: targets in public housing projects 'will kick-start production'. (News).
March 14, 2003... The government is set to broaden its commitment to prefabrication in public housing projects, housing minister Tony McNulty told BD this week. McNulty said the market for factory-produced housing would not be kick-started with government...

New look for hove seafront unveiled. (News).(Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers Partnership and Wilkinson Eyre)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Competing designs by Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers Partnership and Wilkinson Eyre for a 25-30m sports centre and flats on the Hove seafront in Sussex were unveiled last week. One of these schemes will be chosen to replace a rundown 1930S...

Three woman join Arb. (News).(Architect's Registration Board)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... The new-look Arb board will have three women architects on it following the results of the election. The new board members include the youngest candidate in the election, 31-year-old Nita Sharma, director at Edward Cullinan Architects, who...

Libeskind in London. (News).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Daniel Libeskind will be in London at the end of the month to talk to the Architectural Foundation about his plans to redesign the World Trade Centre. He will be speaking at LSO St Luke's, the UBS & LSO Music Education Centre, Old Street, on...

Pointing the finger. (News).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Research by Loughborough University together with the European Construction Institute and the Health & Safety Executive has revealed that designers are not addressing health issues for construction workers. Preliminary research has found that...

Spectator advice. (News).(Football Stadia Improvement Fund; Football Licensing Authority )(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... The Football Stadia Improvement Fund together with the Football Licensing Authority has published a new design guide: Disabled Spectators at Stadia. The guide was sent out for consultation this week. Find out more at...

Back to schools. (News).(RIBA Learning & Skills Council)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... The RIBA Learning & Skills Council (LSC) forum is holding a symposium on developing new learning environments for further education colleges on April14 at Newbury College. Delegates are charged [pounds sterling]100+ + VAT ([pounds...

Health merger. (News).(Tangram Architects; DEWJOC Partnership)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... London-based Tangram Architects and The DEWJOC Partnership have teamed up to form a healthcare design alliance bringing to gether 100 staff.

BDP Bristol win. (News).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... BDPhas beaten 61 other submissions to win the design of two secondary schools in Bristol.

Cabe crusades to enrich urban green spaces. (News).(Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment)
March 14, 2003... Cabe launched a campaign to upgrade the quality of Britain's urban spaces this week as government minister Tony McNulty told BD that designers should be used to transform urban green spaces from "rat runs for burglars" to the hub of...

Arb fines architect [pounds sterling]2k for incompetence. (News).(Architect's Registration Board)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Arb has fined an architect [pounds sterling]2,000 for incompetence for issuing a completion certificate too early on a house in Halifax in 1999. The Arb's professional conduct committee last week found Anthony Moreton-Deakin guilty of...

Architect rejects barracks school fears. (News).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... The architect of a school set to be built on the site of a former military barracks in Yorkshire hit back this week at critics who claim the site is unsafe. David Longfield of Aedas AHR dismissed as "local gossip" claims that unexploded...

RIBA floats a split in architectural courses. (News).
March 14, 2003... The RIBA is considering sweeping reform of the profession's education system under which architecture degrees and the professional qualification would be separated. At the moment the BA and part I are welded together, as are the diploma...

Apartheid scar to be healed: architect plans to rebuild housing at Cape Town's District Six for families that were originally forced out. (News).
March 14, 2003... One of the world's most controversial urban spaces -- Cape Town's District Six -- is set for an emotional rebirth. Leading South African architect Lucien le Grange has submitted plans to rebuild housing on the vacant city centre site more...

Small firms told to look to public sector. (News).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Small practices were urged to be more proactive last week to exploit work opportunities in a public sector "awash with work". Nick Snow, architectural manager at Kirklees council in West Yorkshire, told the RIBA small practices conference:...

NHS in 'smell to get well' initiative. (News).
March 14, 2003... In the hospital of the future patients will recover quicker because of the colour of the walls, the view from their bed, or the scents vented through their ward. Architects will be encouraged to design with sensory devices in mind under...

'Patients prefer multi-bed wards'. (News).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Most hospital patients prefer multi-bed wards to single rooms, says patient feedback for designers of two new hospitals. Research by designers for St Mary's hospital in Paddington, west London, and South Tees hospital in the North-east,...

Show toasts weird in housing design. (News).(Art of Living)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... A celebration of unusual and outlandish housing design is on show this week, including work by Chetwood Associates, Ushida Findlay and Birds Portchmouth Russum. Chetwood Associates' Butterfly House, inspired by Dadaist Jean Arp, is set to...

Ashford to rise up in Kent expansion. (News).
March 14, 2003... The tallest building in the Southeast outside London could be built in Ashford as the Kent town expands under the deputy prime minister's Sustainable Communities plan (News February 7). A landmark tower above the existing Channel Tunnel...

Is the future of public space in this issue? (Comment & Analysis).(Column)
March 14, 2003... The design mandarins at Cabe and in government are tub-thumping for better public spaces. Stuart Lipton is rightly convinced that it is a cause to catch the public imagination, and has proposed that lottery players help foot the bill. But...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 14, 2003... Umbrella heaven From Gordon Watson, London I am writing to congratulate Piers Gough for his excellent article ("Truly Bazaar" March 7) about the Mipim property bash in Cannes. I haven't laughed so much for years. I couldn't get there...

Smells like team spirit. (Comment & Analysis).(Malcolm Fraser Architects)
March 14, 2003... Our office, Malcolm Fraser Architects, had its 10th birthday party last week: we had a big boozy Ceilidh, with stovies at nine and lots of reels, dancing, disco and good cheer. And it's also time for our six-monthly office reviews: this...

Tony's no crony. (Concrete Boots).(Tony McNulty)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... While interviewing Tony McNulty MP this week, Concrete Boots experienced what can only be described as a New Labour moment. Your intrepid reporter, accompanied by two tape recorder-wielding government press officers, was interviewing McNulty...

A&Edas? (Concrete Boots).(Andy Robson injured, dedicated)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Frenzied Mipim is a potential minefield. The combination of free champagne, exotic canapes and swaying luxury yachts can be very dangerous. But ironically Andy Robson, director of the Manchester office of Aedas AHR, hadn't had a drop to drink...

A bigger Splash. (Concrete Boots).(Tom Bloxham, Urban Splash)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Tom Bloxham, the head of Urban Splash, is well known for his enthusiasm for regenerating rundown areas in the North. A promotional video for the Alsopdesigned New Islington housing estate in Manchester has almost become a cult item. The short...

Q and eh? (Concrete Boots).(Stuart Lipton and Michael Hopkins debate PFI)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Cabe chairman Stuart Lipton is always ready to stir the pot, and his New Statesman lecture at the ICA in central London this week was no different. The chairman turned to PFI, one his favourite topics, and wondered aloud why he hadn't...

Foundation course. (Concrete Boots).(Brief Article)
March 14, 2003... Management at the RIBA could become a little complicated now that the RIBA Foundation is about to takeoff. The steering group for the foundation has wound up, and the search is on for a director and chairman to run the real thing. They will...

Peter Smithson 1923-2003: Kester Rattenbury pays tribute to a hugely influential and intellectual force of 20th century architecture. (Comment & Analysis).
March 14, 2003... With the death of Peter Smithson at 79, we have lost one of British architecture's most idiosyncratic, hotly debated and influential figures. Alison and Peter Smithson's profound achievement is shown in a handful of buildings, some of immense...

We've all had a lot of fun, but seriously now...in the RIBA's Small Practice, Big Future conference, Ian Martin discerns a shift from oppositional to aspirational thinking.
March 14, 2003... What do small practices want, exactly? It's a simple enough question, but the answer is complicated. I'm not sure to what extent it was answered at last week's RIBA conference -- Small Practice, Big Future -- but the question was nicely...