A BID to save WHSmith’s Swindon headquarters from demolition by making it a listed building has faced heavy criticism The Twentieth Century Society suggested the idea following the submission of plans to knock down the Greenbridge site and build 228 homes. The society argued that the 1960s building was of historic importance because staff there helped create the ISBN system and it was of architectural interest because of its arched roof. But some called the structure an eyesore that did not deserve protection. North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson said: “I am at a loss to understand why anyone would seek for the WHSmith building to be listed – aesthetically, it offers nothing to our town.
Last autumn AHMM withdrew contentious plans for a major extension of Deny Lasdun’s Grade II-listed 1983 building after revisions to its initial designs
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Cressingham Gardens was built between 1969 and 1979 to the designs of Ted Hollamby
A 20-home scheme which will require part of Tulse Hill’s historic Cressingham Gardens estate to be demolished has been recommended for approval by Lambeth council.
The four-storey Conran and Partners-designed block on Roper’s Walk for the council’s in-house housing firm Homes for Lambeth will replace two lower-rise blocks consisting of 14 homes, the first part of the estate to be redeveloped.
It has provoked a searing backlash from Cressingham Gardens residents, who have been engaged in a near 10-year campaign to save the 306-home estate since the council first earmarked it for redevelopment in 2012.
The construction industry is notoriously inexact, and any project is filled with uncertainty. What mysterious ruins will be found digging for the foundations? What critical components will not be delivered on time? Who’s even going to turn up on site today? As a casual viewer of
Grand Designs will tell you, budgets and schedules are hopelessly inexact, and the inability to make construction more efficient and reliable has held the industry back for a long time. But when Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, recently suggested to
Building that the cost of refurbishing the Houses of Parliament would be ‘at least’ £12 billion, three times the official estimate of £4 billion, even the most cynical ears should have pricked up. What on earth could possibly justify a cost of that magnitude?