Book

Concretopia by John Grindrod

An eminently readable account of the rebuilding of post war Britain - from the humble prefab to the sophistication that is an apartment at the Barbican.  Encompassing architecture, 'social planning' and a touch of memoir, John Grindrod has managed to produce a real page-turner.

Give Our Regards to 55 Broadway

For almost ninety years number 55 Broadway, SW1, has been the headquarters of the various bodies responsible for conveying the public around  London and now this magnificent building is deemed 'not fit for purpose' for Transport for London (TfL), who will be moving their new home at the Olympic Park by 2018.   

The architect responsible for 55 Broadway, Charles Henry Holden (1875-1960), also designed a number of London underground stations such as the delightful Arnos Grove (1932), Cockfosters (1937), Osterley Park (1934) Piccadilly Circus (1925/8) as well as the old BMA building in the Strand (now Zimbabwe House) and the iconic Senate House of 1932 for the University of London.

55 Broadway, built 1927/9 and Grade Listed I since 2011, incorporates St James's underground station and the building is adorned with some wonderful sculpture executed by Henry Moore, Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein and is considered one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in London. The building gave the capital perhaps its first taste of New York office building.

The architectural practice of TateHindle have been appointed to prepare the planning proposals for the redevelopment of this site, transforming much of the building into eighty-nine private 'luxury' apartments, complete with valet parking and a basement swimming pool.  A new-build wing will be added to incorporate thirty-five 'affordable' flats, sadly these residents are not expected to have access to the privilege parking or the pool.

The plans will be put before Westminster Council for consideration sometime next year.

A Bolt Out Of The Blue

One of the most elegant buildings to grace the City of London has to suffer the indignity, albeit temporarily, of having fencing erected around its ground floor to protect the unsuspecting public passers-by from things dropping upon them.  122 Leadenhall Street, known as the Leadenhall Building by most or 'The Cheesegrater by some, has lost a couple of its 'megabolts' recently - a bolt and nut fell to the ground from the fifth floor and a second bolt broke and landed on the access gantry on the nineteenth floor.

The 225 m (737 ft) tall Leadenhall building, designed by the firm of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, was largely constructed off-site with the megaframe made at specialist steelworks in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is divided into eight sections, each 28 metres high and comprising seven floors, apart from the first section, which contains five. The steel columns and beams are connected by joints with nearly 3,000 threaded steel rods or ‘mega bolts’  connect all the steel parts together. 

The company of  Laing O'Rourke, who constructed the 47 storey building, and structural engineers Arup are currently busy applying ultrasound tests to each and every one of the remaining 'mega bolts',  whilst the two failed bolts are undergoing rigorous laboratory inspection.  This procedure is expected to push-back the imminent completion of the building by a few weeks at the most, a spokesman for joint owner, British Land said.  He also stated that the building is not unsafe and that the fencing-off of the ground floor is a 'mere precaution'.

Pomp and Circumstance

This has been something of a good year for exhibitions on the theme of architecture.  The Royal Academy of Arts presented us with  'Sensing Spaces: Architecture reimagined' at the start of 2014 with the Design Museum swiftly followed on in July with the excellent 'Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture'.

Whilst 'Sensing Spaces' made the point that architecture is a thing of use to be touched, smelled, experienced, the latest offering from the Barbican Centre, 'Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age' presents the subject as a purely visual art form.

'Constructing Worlds' presents work by eighteen eminent photographers who capture buildings and, in some instances, their inhabitants, from shack to skyscraper, and, seemingly, everything in between.
Most of the photographers and their work will be familiar, but this beautifully presented exhibition will give the viewer something of a new perspective on the power of photography to 'say' something of their subject.

Berenice Abbot, coached and encouraged by Man Ray in Paris during the 1920s, captured New York in its pomp - as here, depicting Park Avenue and 39th Street in 1939,

as well as its lesser imagined side as here:

at an encampment for the unemployed in the same city a year earlier.

A copy of what is perhaps Abbots most famous work 'Night View' is on display, with an explanation of when and how she conjured what surely most be one of the most iconic images of New York.

Julius Shulmans work captures the Modern American Dream.  It was Shulman who photographed Pierre Koenig's Stahl House of 1959, with its floor to ceiling glass walls and 'to-die-for' views of the surrounding Hollywood Hills making it one of the most famous pieces of domestic architecture of the era.  Just standing in front of his pictures propels the viewer to another time and place. 

Shulmans work contrasts with that of Walker Evans.  Sent on an assignment to capture the mood of Depression hit America in the 1930's, Evans was to witness and record the grinding poverty endured by share-cropping families in Hale County Alabama.  His work gives dignity to people rendered poorer-than-poor by economic depression and persistent drought.  Evans tenderly captures their careworn faces and undernourished bodies as well as their homes, barely furnished wooden huts.

Other highlights include Lucien Herve, so long associated with Le Corbusier, picturing the architects work at Chandigartha; Ed Ruscha's air-borne views of sports stadia; Bernd and Hilla Becher; Thomas Struth; Nadav Kander; Guy Tillim; Hiroshi Sugimoto's rather haunting blurred images he refers to as 'architecture after the end of the world'. 

Over 250 images make up this splendid exhibition, beautifully designed by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen and curated by Alona Pardo and Elias Redstone.

Until 11 January 2015. www.barbican.org.uk