The Anonymous Widower

Is A Big Row Developing Over The Northern Line Extension?

I have just read this article in the Evening Standard, which is entitled Northern line extension: Battersea Power Station’s Tube bill ‘to rise by £240m’. This is said.

The Standard understands that the changes relate to a section of the  39-acre site known as Prospect Place, a dramatic cluster of apartment buildings designed by the Californian “starchitect” Frank Gehry.

The new plans envisage more ambitious “over station development” (OSD) than in the original Battersea Power Station masterplan from Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly.

Obviously, the more you put on top of a station, the stronger the box that encloses the station needs to be.

Hence the redesign of the box and the greater cost.

I do think that some architects are a bit precious and over-ambitious, whereas others create spectacular buildings, that seem to cost a fraction of those by the so-called architectural superstars.

Some schemes only seem to be capable of being built at enormous cost.

Architects never learnt from the fiasco of building the Sydney Opera House.

And it’s usually the poor taxpayer who picks up the bill for bad design.

May 20, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Architecture, Crap Design, London Underground, Northern Line Extension