Deposed buildings

http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/ate/main/mondial/landmark/design/design1amk.jpg

Walking along the Thames one day I suddenly saw this building that looked as though an interstellar ferry had settled down beside the river. I mean it was RIDICULOUS, but really stood out among the grey car-parks that seem to occupy most of the rest of the north bank, and I do love me some sci-fi architecture. But I didn't give it too much thought until one day, I just looked around and it was gone.

Mondial House, 1975-2006. RIP.

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/17/17/171789_60c4cf73.jpg

Can't say i had much love for this one, the county hall annexe on the westminster bridge traffic island. It stood empty for 20 years after the dissolution of the GLC. 197? - 2006

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/02/13/article-0-0382D81F000005DC-895_468x286.jpg

... and I discover just this very moment, Pimlico School by the same architect, John Bancroft, is also dead and gone. I liked this one, lots of different surface angles, sheer glass panels, a 3d jigsaw effect. But apparently the floor to ceiling glass windows and large expanses of bare concrete meant the school was an icebox in winter and a sweltering greenhouse in summer. 1970-2010.

I really like the first one. The second one is odd in that I could totally see liking the design, but in actuality it looks pretty horrible.

I'm afraid I can't think of any to add to the thread, though it's a good concept.

Yeah, that second one is ugly, but I still feel inexplicably drawn to it and am finding myself wishing I could wander around inside it.

It certainly had a looming, mysterious quality - aided by being derelict and empty for 20 years of course.

Which makes it even more intriguing, imho.

http://www.lcm.org.uk/Images/content/117/119160.jpg

A break from the brutalism, the only non-surviving Hawksmoor church in London. Co-designed, along with St Luke's Old Street, by John James. Trademark Hawsmoor SATANIC SPIRE clearly visible in this photo, taken after it was bomb damaged during the blitz. The plinth is still visible, supporting the current building on the site. 1733-1968. or 74.

ledge, i haven't read this but i've heard good things about it. it might interest you.

http://www.versobooks.com/system/images/1217/original/9781844677009-A-Guide-to-the-New-Ruins-of-Great-Britain-NIP.jpg

http://www.versobooks.com/books/951-a-guide-to-the-new-ruins-of-great-britain

sorry for that massive cover image.

That book looks great, ooh, and it is available from Amazon here in the States. Might have to place an order.

Definitely seems worth a look - interestingly short and recent lifespan its considering (judging from the summary there). The Tories may have left inner cities to rot but I don't think the idea of regeneration was alien to them - I remember visiting at least two of the National Garden Festivals, I wonder what happened to them? Or I did, until I read that page.

i had a look through the book and i have to say that the précis on the verso site is a bit misleading. there are chapters on e.g. the 60s motorway extensions in glasgow knocking down communities so that cars could get right into the city centre and park hill tower blocks in sheffield.

(strangely enough Owen Hatherley's follow up to "...New Ruins..." is a book about Pulp!)

was a piece on Park Hill in observer at the weekend

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/aug/21/park-hill-sheffield-renovation

xxp well even better. There was a proposal back in the 50s or so to drive similar roads into the heart of Oxford - well i daresay nearly every city had a brush or closer with these schemes- but i wonder if my parents still have the book with the lovingly rendered pictures of huge grey arteries piercing the heart of the dreaming spires.

(strangely enough Owen Hatherley's follow up to "...New Ruins..." is a book about Pulp!)

Yeah, his blog is always a joy to read.

Does no-one else have stories of buildings loved and lost?

Here's a purely personal one. David Russell Hall, St Andrews, my hall of residence for years one and four at uni. Fairly unremarkable cookie-cutter accommodation blocks, but the slight ski-slope roofs and geometrical arrangment provided a modicum of charm. 1960s-2003

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-ash1/v132/37/16/773455552/n773455552_1187325_2437.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Maths_Tower%2C_University_of_Manchester_2.jpg/220px-Maths_Tower%2C_University_of_Manchester_2.jpg

I went for an interview here (I had no real interest in going there, the course was just filling up my spaces on the UCAS form and I wanted a day off school to go record shopping in Manchester), and in the lift I was told the story about how the building was built 90° off the correct alignment. I'm pretty sure that's not true. I went to Salford uni anyway, and spent most of my 4 years in Manchester going up and down Oxford Road. It still looks weird to me that this is missing. University of Manchester Mathematics Tower 1968-2005

I've been inside Pimlico School many times, it was incredibly dark and labrynthine.

http://www.plasticbag.org/images/extra/tricorn_image.jpg

Tricorn Centre, Portsmouth - RIP "Britain's Ugliest Building".

The Tricorn Centre and Mondial House are amazing.

Hatherley's book is really interesting. The focus is definitely on the cheap identikit developments thrown up during the Blair years, rather than the the architecture they were replacing, but it has some great stuff about the unfashionable brutalist developments in places like Sheffield that are being torn down or remodelled. It's totally polemical but a really passionate, invigorating piece of work.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Marsham_Towers_Three_Ugly_Sisters.jpg

Marsham Towers, headquarters of the Departments of Transport and the Environment from the 70s until the mid-90s. I worked here for a time in the early 90s. Three unlovely towers in a row, which was ridiculous as you often had to walk from one tower to the next.

> places like Sheffield

i always liked the eggboxes...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/image_galleries/peace_gardens_eggboxes_gallery.shtml?8

It still looks weird to me that this is missing. University of Manchester Mathematics Tower 1968-2005

oh yeah otm, that's a good one, it was such a striking, interesting looking building from wilmslow road; the slightly lopsided windows looked like segments of stained glass somehow. & replaced with such a fucking weird building.

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/00/24/002412_ea578088.jpg

Disused Ministry of Defence building on Portsdown Hill near Portsmouth in Hampshire. Not sure if the demolition of this one is complete yet but it is certainly underway. I also worked here for a time, it had excellent views across the Solent.

Marsham Towers looks great in that photo - the scaffolding bookends add a real weight and sense of orwellian government menace. Can imagine how dingy they'd have been irl though, Elizabeth House at Waterloo is similarly dilapidated - and due for demolition in current regeneration plans.

This thread is making me revisit all my old Civil Service workplaces.

http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/siteimages/pic05/fullsize/04542.jpg

Lambeth Bridge House, another Department of Transport building. Demolished in 2001.

I'd love a 3d model of the Tricorn. Personally I dig that shit but I can see how it garnered such a bad reputation. Otoh in some aspects it's not dissimilar from the Barbican, and that's pretty well loved. (Wondering about a separate "Brutalism, C/D" thread now...)

The Barbican was hated by almost everyone for a good 30+ years.

Seems a shame Preston Bus Station is apparently being demolished. i must admit to never having seen it first-hand- anyone?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Preston_bus_station_232-26.jpg

i think, no? it's reputation only started to revive in the last 10 years or so.

oops

http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/assets/_files/cached/img/402x270.09375/jan_10/pnw__1264752626_preston_bus_station.jpg

I'd love a 3d model of the Tricorn. Personally I dig that shit but I can see how it garnered such a bad reputation. Otoh in some aspects it's not dissimilar from the Barbican, and that's pretty well loved. (Wondering about a separate "Brutalism, C/D" thread now...)

Give you a clue - one's full of rich people.

^^^

yeah but the reasons why the Tricorn were hated were largely practical rather than aesthetic – it was badly constructed, dark and damp, and towards the end it was literally falling apart. I can get behind it as architecture but if a building doesn't function properly then it's no good to anyone

Yeah that's more or less where I was coming from.

Rich people comment otm too, I don't know for sure how the Barbican's fortunes and favour have waxed and waned over the decades but it was designed for young professionals, rather than as social housing, unlike the once very much deprecated and now definitely rejuvenated Trellick Tower.

The Tricorn was also, if I remember correctly, strangled by a ring-road and largely inaccessible by foot, unless there were underpasses. Obviously it was neglected but I went there once near the end and it genuinely did appear to be huge and empty and possibly containing a fair few drug addicts and the odd sad-looking pet-shop still hanging on in near the entrance.

Here's the Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke, now absolutely terrifying, nearly empty and part-demolished, when it was new:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/2614575877_693defba83.jpg

Weird to look at these places when they're new and shiny and look like architect's drawings.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/2614575341_cbcf4c1d19.jpg

amazing photo

it's funny that so many of these are Brutalist structures. or, it isn't funny or surprising, really, but i've always found distaste for Brutalism rather perplexing, as i find many Brutalist structures rather striking and beautiful. but then again, i think that i am spoiled by memories of my university's library.

My love for Brutalism did take a while to develop. On moving to London I was probably kneejerk-negative about the National Theatre, now it's my favourite building.

I need a sensible book on the causes of decay in post-war housing estates, stat. Presumably social/economic factors far outweigh any of the supposed downsides of these structures.

there's nothing perplexing about hatred for brutalism. a lot of shitty tower blocks scarred cities, communites and individuals.

How can an individual be scarred by a tower block?

jed, i get you, and know my architectural history re: the scarring of cities and communities.

still, you seem to miss the caveat, which is that i find the hatred perplexing because 'i find many Brutalist structures rather striking and beautiful.'

Of course I would move out of my flat in a four storey block into a house at the drop of a hat..

http://home.freeuk.net/timarchive/assets/images/Mosley_Westgate_House_LS.jpg

Yet another government building I did time in, Westgate House in Newcastle, demolished in 2007.

by living in one? by being moved from your glasgow tenement street which was being demolished and dumped in a badly detailed concrete tower block with damp walls and condensation on the windows all year round? by being surrounded by people you don't know and don't have the chance to speak to?

table, i got what you said but it barely counts as a caveat re. people's hatred of brutalism. it's only a caveat in that it says why you don't hate it.

i get all that, but

a) what were the conditions like in those tenements?
ii) damp walls etc are of course a problem but not a direct function of any particular architectural style
3) why couldn't they speak to their neighbours?

I can't wait to put the Reeves Center and the Hoover Building on this thread

And I was glad to see the following go:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Third_Church_of_Christ%2C_Scientist_-_Washington%2C_D.C..JPG/1024px-Third_Church_of_Christ%2C_Scientist_-_Washington%2C_D.C..JPG

I dunno, I kind of liked that thing. It was ugly and stumpy but in a kind of "Our Temple Of R2-D2" fashion. Telling out-of-towners that it was a church was usually good for a chuckle.

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fp-fst1.pixstatic.com%2F5254438b697ab0510b003947._w.500_h.375_s.fit_.jpg&f=1
BEEP BOOP come inside all are welcome BLEEBOP DEEDOOP

Aw, I really liked that one, was sad to not have gotten inside the one time I saw it.

I liked catching a glimpse of that from K St. on my morning commute, but really that just says something about the rest of the garbage buildings in this city.

It was a brutal year for concrete architecture.

gutting.

I drove by the OC Government Center fairly recently. It was depressing.

http://www.amsterdamse-school.nl/Content/images/Building/10699/P1040421.JPG

Villa de Oliphant, Haarlem.

Olifant, sorry.

not so much deposed as never posed:

http://www.dezeen.com/2016/01/10/ordos-a-failed-utopia-china-raphael-olivier-photo-essay/

(also not a city but an entire town)

Another building about to be taken down on the former Ambassador College property (two honeycomb buildings I posted above are gone now). No great shakes architecturally, but it will likely be replaced with pseudo-Mediterranean condos.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/12644997_10207845599511699_8223301925690862262_n.jpg?oh=3b194aa496421da2f535085d527a1a19&oe=576C9EA2

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12687999_10207845599271693_3113600707136114589_n.jpg?oh=5eb2f47f484a8b9ff922e87626a377b8&oe=57240E08

A William Pereira complex in Los Angeles, threatened with demo. A larger tower on the property has been preserved, and converted to housing.

http://la.curbed.com/2016/8/22/12553868/william-pereira-mwd-sunset-demolition-photos

From its hetday:

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4ZB8Jy4Jd3eXn8q5lk1NMhjrL0M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6972751/gri_2004_r_10_b289_f12_005.jpg

FLW in peril!

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/frank-lloyd-wright-lockridge-medical-building-is-slated-for-demolition-17-million-by-tomorrow?mbid=social_facebook

Pictures of some of them (trigger alert).

https://www.curbed.com/2018/4/6/17207934/brutal-destruction-pinkcomma-gallery-photography-exhibit

Dammmn, those are some good photographs. Pouring one out over here.

CBR Building in Brussels is apparently on the chopping block.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/34746455_1410096875802208_1678301738412539904_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=07c9eba7cc63e915e4746cee9d3d2fba&oe=5BADB53A

More pics here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:CBR_Building_in_Brussels

Like a giant cheesegrater full of liquid bronze.

was talking about this on flickr a while back - this particular type of bronze-colored reflective glass is rare among late-modern/brutalist tics in having basically NO defenders, as of yet....

The Founders National Bank of America located in Oklahoma City. Designed by architect Robert Bowlby and completed in 1963. Photo: Julius Shulman

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/43342632_1541533439325217_6375721720749228032_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&oh=ec30bc000f12f914c0f1fcecfbf26257&oe=5C55E972

And today:

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/43384937_1541533419325219_5432836091285602304_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&oh=8e3d2802e9fb281461a55e4d25e7af27&oe=5C6330D8

;_;

what the fuck

an outrage

couldn't they find someone to stick a McDonald's in it

savages

, disgusting

I dunno. Lose the arches and it looks pretty much like any other branch.

https://i.imgur.com/m7EzBQ0.png

I dig that building in the background though.

https://i.imgur.com/XBJBZea.png

While undoubtedly controversial, I think the addition of a bulldozer is a bold design element.

Developer tears down a Neutra, city orders him to rebuild it.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/City-requires-property-owner-who-demolished-13467909.php?utm_campaign=CMS+Sharing+Tools+%28Mobile%29&utm_source=whatsapp.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR2gEvEvHTM_VH7bmsHC7GF8q3b5gAvyuOhXa7fsPdJOCUL7T9m-YRdycuI#photo-16648644

Zillow of the house pre-tear down.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/49-Hopkins-Ave-San-Francisco-CA-94131/15131464_zpid/?fbclid=IwAR1QNX7XbsfklJwR6CodJTVKfVcD9PJ6ft4iE03FwAmt7BhYnHNGYXFaNXY

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/17/goodbye-to-gomorrah-the-end-of-italys-most-notorious-housing-estate?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

When finished, the corridors were narrower than planned, the tower blocks closer together and the proposed transport links and social spaces non-existent. The effect was to isolate hundreds of the city’s most destitute families without access to work in a vast concrete slum.

a familiar story, but like the parkhill flats in sheffield - despite all the failings of making tower flats that are dignified living spaces - it looks awesome.

Parker Center, Los Angeles, includes a 1-min time lapse.

https://urbanize.la/post/city-completes-above-ground-demolition-parker-center?fbclid=IwAR1GeaqYbn0AAmU-21u2S7i_Pv866kwUB_oa1Pg2YzcFdTwSnZea71fHNEI

Oh no! Now they're building it back up!

https://i.imgur.com/1XBShvV.gif

The ghost of William H Parker is powerful.

here's a nice wee video depicting the whitevale and bluevale towers which were taken down a few years ago.

they were glasgow and scotland's tallest buildings - or thereabouts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluevale_and_Whitevale_Towers

https://vimeo.com/169669169

30% of Glasgow's high rise flats have been demolished in since 2006. Next on the list are the Whitevale and Bluevale flats - Glasgow's so called Twin Towers. When they were built in 1969 they were seen as the utopian answer to the city’s housing crisis. 45 years later they are a dystopian nightmare after years of crime and neglect..Lights Out is a short film that comprises of 4 years of documentation, timelapse recordings and audio interviews with the first and last residents of the Twin Towers in Glasgow prior to their demolition. Photographed, directed and edited by BAFTA Scotland New Talent award winning filmmaker - Chris Leslie. Soundtrack by John Maxwell Hobbs.

a remember someone who had lived in the lower floors of one of the towers when it was still new and he was young telling me that there were huge cracks up his family's living room wall, so no expense was spared clearly!

must admit some of the views look amazing

always remember them from visits to CP - we used to park opposite

Whatever you say about how fucked up and corrupted and incompetent many UK social housing projects were in the 50's/60's, at least there was a will to actually build them.

xp. i always get to one game at cp when I'm home and walk into town down the gallowgate and I'm still not used to those big behemoths being there.

if they'd actually built them well and thought about the social cohesion and community aspects when moving folk then they could've been a success i reckon

The Zack House by Craig Elwood burned by the Getty fire in Los Angeles.

https://www.facebook.com/KCMODERN/photos/pcb.2525595454199945/2525593230866834/?type=3&theater

An MCM in the So Cal desert is slated for demolition. Probably unavoidable as I can't image anyone with the money to restore it would want to live out there. The "Hilltop House" in Apple Valley.

https://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/newts-paradise-apple-valleys-spectacular-hilltop-house/

"Marcel Breuer's first binuclear house, Geller I in Lawrence, New York has been demolished in the dead of night."

https://docomomo-us.org/news/marcel-breuer-s-first-bi-nuclear-house-is-demolished

This is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. (Detroit, MI) pic.twitter.com/OHBjTOKuJI

— Hayden Clarkin (@the_transit_guy) July 6, 2022

?

"On the subject of tower blocks, streets in the sky, etc, I suppose soon we'll be able to add the Aylesbury and Heygate estates to this thread. So far I think only one of the buildings has been demolished."

I remember the Heygate Estate - it was popular with photographers and film-makers. I remember the final gun battle in a film called The Veteran was shot there. It felt odd because the estate was often portrayed as a drug-ridden hellhole, but the few times I visited there was almost nobody about and it was actually quite pretty because it was being reclaimed by nature.

https://i.imgur.com/K7cKTqY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BlBGVao.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/a8Ygn7O.jpg

At least it's now still buildings, although they aren't finished and I imagine they aren't cheap:
https://goo.gl/maps/89bAH1MpQzE59NsY8

Top Gear (or whatever the new one is called) did a show that featured that Detroit garage - it was an early 20th century theater that became a concert hall that became a garage IIRC.

I did whippets behind this one in San Francisco:

http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/170048/1465168115/large.jpg

"In addition to the main sanctuary building locally known as The Egg, there are a trio of additional buildings on the First Christian Church campus, all designed by Conner & Pojezny."

Oklahoma City

https://www.archpaper.com/2022/09/oklahoma-city-egg-shaped-first-christian-church-demolished/

Booooooooo!

most thin shelled concrete buildings won't last 100 years tbh

Chris Martin Tears Down John Lautner’s Garwood Residence

https://www.dirt.com/gallery/entertainers/musicians/chris-martin-house-malibu-teardown-1203603490/garwood3/