Cardinal Points...
Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanMost lunchtimes I pop across the Boots on Victoria Street to buy a packet of sandwiches and a bottle of Lemon flavoured Diet Coke for lunch. I usually wander across with a cigarette in my hand and stand on the end of Bressenden Place while I smoke it.
Over the past few months this has afforded me the opportunity to watch the progress of new building being constructed on the corner of Bressenden Place and Victoria Street. Two or three years ago (time flies, I can't remember how long ago it was, now) a bunch of perfectly serviceable buildings were demolished both on that corner and on the block behind it so that a big combination office block/mall development could go up. Since then, the new building on that corner, Cardinal Place has been steadily taking shape.
The picture is a few months old, and the end of the building is being finished off with a rounded top coming to a point where it arches down to the ground.
I assume that the name derives from the fact that it is opposite Westminster Cathedral on Victoria Street (The Catholic cathedral built in Byzantine style, not Westminster Abbey). Over the past few months, as the builders have installed the outer fittings on the corner, and started glazing the building, I have noticed that from that angle at least, it looks more and more like some bloody great steel and glass bird of prey that has landed flat on its belly and stuck its beak into the ground.
I wonder if there's a deliberate architectural pun here; maybe it's meant to be a Cardinal Bird, and is nothing to do with its location opposite the cathedral?
Or maybe it's just my overactive imagination.
Over the past few months this has afforded me the opportunity to watch the progress of new building being constructed on the corner of Bressenden Place and Victoria Street. Two or three years ago (time flies, I can't remember how long ago it was, now) a bunch of perfectly serviceable buildings were demolished both on that corner and on the block behind it so that a big combination office block/mall development could go up. Since then, the new building on that corner, Cardinal Place has been steadily taking shape.
The picture is a few months old, and the end of the building is being finished off with a rounded top coming to a point where it arches down to the ground.
I assume that the name derives from the fact that it is opposite Westminster Cathedral on Victoria Street (The Catholic cathedral built in Byzantine style, not Westminster Abbey). Over the past few months, as the builders have installed the outer fittings on the corner, and started glazing the building, I have noticed that from that angle at least, it looks more and more like some bloody great steel and glass bird of prey that has landed flat on its belly and stuck its beak into the ground.
I wonder if there's a deliberate architectural pun here; maybe it's meant to be a Cardinal Bird, and is nothing to do with its location opposite the cathedral?
Or maybe it's just my overactive imagination.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-05 02:21 pm (UTC)A quick google gives a number of websites about the development, but none seem to talk about the architectural concept. The only vague pointer seems to come in a 2003 press release when they changed the name of the development, but it doesn't say from what.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-05 04:33 pm (UTC)With the name Cardinal Place it is obviously designed by Dark Forces (tm) to re-place Cardinal Murphy. Catholics visiting Westminster to take a Sacrament will be redirected to the appropriate sales floor. All major credit cards accepted.
controversial
Date: 2005-07-05 04:48 pm (UTC)Something of an aside
Date: 2005-07-05 07:35 pm (UTC)Re: Something of an aside
Date: 2005-07-06 06:03 pm (UTC)Re: Something of an aside
Date: 2005-07-10 04:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-06 04:43 pm (UTC)I have to say i like arhcetecture when it is good and this seems alright so far. I am not sure however that i would get up early to get all gooey in front of any building.