From: tsm@fastmail.ca
On Feb 18, 2026 at 11:07:04 AM EST, "Tara" wrote:
> On Feb 18, 2026 at 11:00:04 AM EST, "Wilson"
wrote:
>
>> On 2/18/2026 10:36 AM, Julian wrote:
>>> On 18/02/2026 15:28, Wilson wrote:
>>>> On 2/17/2026 6:20 PM, Tara wrote:
>>>>> Tara wrote:
>>>>>> On Feb 17, 2026 at 4:24:25 PM EST, "Julian"
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I’ve got a new thriller out this week, under my pen name of S.K.
>>>>>>> Tremayne. I am pleased with the book, and I believe it’s
>>>>>>> entertaining. I
>>>>>>> am also aware that, in a tough and competitive market, that may not be
>>>>>>> enough for it to succeed. I am even more aware that readers might
>>>>>>> decide
>>>>>>> the book is dreck. They might give me one star reviews, and no sales.
>>>>>>> Then the book will crater, my publishers will probably abandon me, and
>>>>>>> my nice career will drift to an end.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And that, of course, is how it should be. No one in any career is
>>>>>>> entitled to a free ride. That especially applies to people who get
>>>>>>> to do
>>>>>>> a desirable, creative job such as novel writing. Whether you’re a
>>>>>>> writer, actor, director, sculptor or musician – if you want that
>>>>>>> enviably fun creative profession, you live and die by public approval;
>>>>>>> and if you are bad, goodbye.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Unless, of course, you are an architect. I was reminded of this
>>>>>>> peculiar
>>>>>>> anomaly by last week’s furore over the latest architectural wart to
>>>>>>> attach itself to London’s battered face: the already notorious
>>>>>>> ‘Belgrove
>>>>>>> House’, that now dominates a prime corner of Euston Road, where it
>>>>>>> sits
>>>>>>> right next to King’s Cross and St Pancras.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I presume it has been situated in London after the original design was
>>>>>>> rejected by a horrified Uzbek government, as being too ugly for
>>>>>>> Tashkent.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If you have not seen it yet, the best way to get a sense is to look at
>>>>>>> photos like the one here.
>>>>>>> https://x.com/ianvisits/status/2020440287785443433
>>>>>>> Briefly. The second best way is for me to describe it, but that is
>>>>>>> actually quite hard. Because it’s difficult to verbally capture this
>>>>>>> weird, stupid and meaningless collision of styles, materials,
>>>>>>> dimensions. The closest visual analogy, to my mind, is one of those
>>>>>>> plates piled high at a hotel buffet by an idiot: with a splodge of
>>>>>>> curry, some sauerkraut, five potatoes, some lemon pie, a lamb cutlet,
>>>>>>> smoked herring, and several cheesy crackers, and everything banal and
>>>>>>> tasteless even before you smush them together.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In short, the building is appalling, and it’s not going to get better
>>>>>>> over time. It is a dud. A turkey. A calamitous flop. It is the
>>>>>>> Millennium Dome. It is Fyre Festival. It is Triangle, the BBC soap
>>>>>>> opera
>>>>>>> set on a North Sea ferry route. It is Raise the Titanic. It is Harry
>>>>>>> Hill’s I Can’t Sing. It is Keir Starmer’s prime ministerial
career,
>>>>>>> rendered in concrete and plastic. It is my first novel, Absent
>>>>>>> Fathers,
>>>>>>> which got a cheque for zero pounds zero pence, as a computer could not
>>>>>>> believe an author could sell so few copies, so sent a cheque anyway.
>>>>>>> Finally, it is the architectural equivalent of Via Galactica (1972), a
>>>>>>> space-themed musical with actors on trampolines, which lasted seven
>>>>>>> performances.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> But here’s the thing. For all the creative disasters listed above,
>>>>>>> someone responsible paid a price. Even the lavishly coddled Millennium
>>>>>>> Dome project damaged careers. And yet, if you design and erect a
>>>>>>> hideous
>>>>>>> building, equivalent to these aesthetic catastrophes, you pay no price
>>>>>>> at all. And this despite the fact that, unlike a rubbish novel, you
>>>>>>> can’t chuck a bad building in a bin. No, the building squats there,
>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>> decades, blighting the lives of everyone who must look at it. And
>>>>>>> given
>>>>>>> that this particular building is situated in one of the most
>>>>>>> conspicuous
>>>>>>> sites in the capital, opposite two of its grandest railway stations,
>>>>>>> that is going to be a lot of people.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Worse, there’s a decent chance the architects of this carbuncle
>>>>>>> will get
>>>>>>> an award. Because that’s what they do in architecture world. They
have
>>>>>>> hideous ideas, then they force them on the rest of us, and then they
>>>>>>> give each other prizes. Until, about 40 years down the line, everyone
>>>>>>> accepts the obvious truth, and the pile of ugliness is finally
>>>>>>> demolished.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If you need proof, just look at the lists. Salford’s laughable
>>>>>>> Centenary
>>>>>>> Building, Britain’s very first Stirling Prize winner (in 1996), was
>>>>>>> set
>>>>>>> to be knocked down just 30 years later, to much applause. The Tricorn
>>>>>>> Centre Portsmouth won the Civic Trust award in 1967 and yet was
>>>>>>> demolished in 2004. Pimlico Comprehensive School collected a RIBA
>>>>>>> prize,
>>>>>>> then it was flattened in despair. Gateshead’s Trinity Square car park
>>>>>>> was recognised as a ‘most outstanding modernist building’ by the
20th
>>>>>>> century society after it was blasted to hell. Add to this, our own
>>>>>>> Belgrove House: yes it won a World Architecture Festival Award in
>>>>>>> 2023.
>>>>>>> Yes, they’ve already given it an award. Perhaps they got excited by
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> potential ugliness. In any other art form, failure is failure. In
>>>>>>> architecture, terrible failure makes for a garlanded career.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Clearly, what is needed is some kind of disincentive for architects. A
>>>>>>> way to punish them for the pain they inflict. Or they will keep
>>>>>>> inflicting this pain on us. We need the equivalent of West End reviews
>>>>>>> so bad they close a dismal show, thereby bankrupting producers.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> So who are the Guilty People responsible for Belgrove House? Who
>>>>>>> should
>>>>>>> we hold to account? It’s invidious to name names, but the names are
>>>>>>> Simon Allford, Jonathan Hall, Paul Monaghan and Peter Morris, and they
>>>>>>> are the leading partners of AHMM Ltd. But for the rest of us AHMM will
>>>>>>> be the company responsible for ruining the views of St Pancras and
>>>>>>> King’s Cross. That’s the company responsible for ruining the views
>>>>>>> of St
>>>>>>> Pancras and King’s Cross.
>>>>>>>
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
