Hooray! The news of the probable demise of the ghastly Caltongate scheme in Edinburgh's World Heritage Site dominates today's heritage news (see also yesterday's blog updates) as Mountgrange has gone bust, and today I can do no better than simply add these links to those posted at the bottom of yesterday's post:
The full cast of those responsible is assembled there, and all the back story is at
Wilson's Weekly Wrap:
City centre site now available – world class architecture wanted
..The project is - to all intents and purposes - dead, despite the optimistic noises being made by Manish Chande, one of the Mountgrange directors that he has another investment vehicle that could buy the assets out of administration. Given that nobody is lending money for commercial development just now, It’s difficult to see new finance being raised to simply carry on with the development as is. And that doesn’t get away from the brutal reality that nobody other than the city’s ingenuous council and that regular backer of losers, the Chamber of Commerce, had bought into this particular project. The trouble is, times have changed, even during the gestation of the ‘Caltongate’ scheme. People know when they are being offered cod consultation and resent it. They are also – despite many architects’ views to the contrary - able to recognise quality when they see it and nowadays expect it, especially in a city with the architectural and urban credentials that Edinburgh has. Which brings us to the nub of the problem – the many drawings published for this project illustrated a commercial style of architecture so unremarkable that it could have been in any city in the world. This may be unfair to the architects involved, but they produced the drawings so they can’t complain if the public isn’t convinced by what is put in front of it. What was required here was a modern form of architecture distinctive to Scotland’s capital and we can only hope that out of the Mountgrange ashes a phoenix will arise that is both appropriate for Edinburgh and genuinely world class in terms of its architectural quality....
Full article here:
and it's hard to disagree, really.
Pictures:
Listed buildings were to be demolished for that!
UPDATE ALREADY!
Nem
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