From: tsm@fastmail.ca
On Feb 18, 2026 at 11:15:57 AM EST, "Wilson" wrote:
> On 2/18/2026 11:07 AM, 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
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
