Although we don't live in the height of art deco, it is an aesthetic that has only fairly recently started to be appreciated - fashions come and go, one only has to look at the corrugated cladding put over the main facade of the Odeon in 1970, where all the artist's impressions at the time hide every last piece of what was then seen as old-fashioned detailing:
A great deal of good art deco architecture has been lost in Scotland, even recently - anyone passed the gutted shell of Nardini's lately? A sad sight, and I also saw last week that the faience tiles have been removed from the former Lawson Fisher store on London Rd at Glasgow Cross.
I'm glad to see that some of it is now being recognised as a positive thing and restored sympathetically, such as in the case of the Beresford in Sauchiehall St (although even that I think has been botched on the outside, with some of the tiling painted over rather than cleaned up).
Anyways, the problem with a lot of modern architecture is that it just doesn't seem to aspire to anything - at least with baroque, deco, nouveau, baronial, brutalism etc, they do express a particular coherent style - lots of modern stuff, however, is neither one style nor the other, it's just a mish-mash of functionality and what's cheap. I've nothing whatsoever against someone trying something bold and new - as has been mentioned, we can't just sit still. But in this case, the building is both listed and in a conservation area - therfore it must have at least some regard to the original facade and its environs, otherwise what is the point of these designations?
The proposed design would be an interesting structure for a more open gap site, with spacious precincts surrounding it - but hemmed in tightly in a gridded city streetscape, I'm not so sure. I would like to see a design that imagines what deco would have become had the war not pretty much halted its development in the UK and parts of Europe - there are some funky things in places like India and Cuba that I've seen lately that hint at what it might have become.
Anyways, just my two pence worth, I'm glad this inspired some debate on both sides, as it's interesting to see what people who live and work in the city think of it.
by cheesemonster » Fri May 11, 2007 2:19 pm 
what floor do you live on again shweet cheeksh? 