Feb 3rd, 2016: Facadism

[xoxoxoBruce]

Cities never seem to be in balance, there's always a bunch of unused office space with landlords chewing their nails, or not enough space for the current boom with people scrambling to cash in on that need.

Currently London is having a boom in the Spitalfields area. I can understand the developers want to get done quickly or they might miss out entirely. But many people don't want wholesale change, they don't want to see "historic" sections razed for more look alike commercial buildings. The compromise which nobody seems happy with, is retain the front wall. But instead of gutting and modernizing the interior, they've followed the letter of the law rather than the spirit, and propped up the old front wall like a Halloween mask, making the area look like a Hollywood back lot.



Yes sir, we'll just build a new Rock Ridge right over here.

What qualifies a building as historic, ask ten people you'll get ten answers, and some of those answers will be in conflict with each other.
I've a feeling it won't be too many years before people start demanding those facades be removed for safety.

link, link

[Griff]

terrible

[Snakeadelic]

Agreed, and a major reason I never want to live in an urban area again!

Bruce, many awesomeness points for the movie reference . I'm about to have a horrible day; that may be the last time I smile for a bit. Thank you.

[glatt]

They snuck an extra floor in there. From 4 stories to 5.

I've seen the facade saving thing done here with all that external bracing, but then they use the facade as an actual exterior wall. It looks a little funky but is much better than tearing it all down. This just looks moronic.

I found historical imagery of the construction site a few blocks away. You can see all the bracing of the facades on both sides of the street, and the finished products in the current street view.




I think they did a better job on this one than on that example in London.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yes sir, we'll just build a new Rock Ridge right over here.

Originally Posted by Snakeadelic

Bruce, many awesomeness points for the movie reference .

I just hope they don't work up a Number 6 on them.

[Carruthers]

How on Earth redevelopments like those were ever approved is beyond me.
I've never actually seen anything quite like it, but the architects and local authority planning committees should be ashamed of themselves.

Here's how it should be done, although others might take a contrary view.
The Ovaltine company ceased production at its factory in King's Langley, Hertfordshire in 2002.
The site was redeveloped into luxury flats but the facade of the factory was retained and incorporated in the new building.
Now, despite my loathing for Art Deco architecture, I think that they made a good job of it. YMMV.



Street View Sep 2009

Can you see the join?

[xoxoxoBruce]

That would be kind of neat... Where do you live? Oh, the Ovaltine building, you can't miss it.
Here they would likely make them continue the color around the building. We see the houses on PBS's This Old House are quite often in historic areas, and run into restrictions like acceptable colors, or you can replace windows but the new ones have to have the same number of lights.

I feel sorry for people who buy a house, or live in a generations old house, who are suddenly saddled with a ton of restrictions because somebody else decided they were within the boundaries of a historic area.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

snip...

Here they would likely make them continue the color around the building. We see the houses on PBS's This Old House are quite often in historic areas, and run into restrictions like acceptable colors, or you can replace windows but the new ones have to have the same number of lights.

I feel sorry for people who buy a house, or live in a generations old house, who are suddenly saddled with a ton of restrictions because somebody else decided they were within the boundaries of a historic area.

I can only assume that the Ovaltine Building wasn't 'listed', ie under a preservation order, as the obligations that come with ownership of a listed property are often burdensome and 90% demolition would be a non-starter.

A similar building, which was most definitely listed, is the Hoover Building on Western Avenue in West London. Another Art Deco horror, it now houses a Tesco supermarket and the structure remains unaltered.



Street View

[xoxoxoBruce]

I understand you don't like art deco, but would you rather see them tear it down and replace it with this?

[Carruthers]

You make a good point, Bruce. New Tesco stores are rarely architectural gems!