An Architect to Architects

Printed below is the sermon delivered by the Reverend Dr Allan Doig FSA - Fellow and Chaplain to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford at the Company's Annual Service at St Lawrence Jewry on Monday 5 July;

A few days ago I was in Edinburgh where I spent a long while in a small octagonal room in the National Gallery of Scotland.  It is dedicated to Poussin’s paintings of the Seven Sacraments.  These absorbing works develop intense, focussed, relationships amongst their central figures in a variety of situations.  Their action is suspended in the almost breathless pivotal moment of transformation, even transfiguration, of relationships between people, and with God.

The Book of Common Prayer helpfully defines a sacrament as ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace’.   Even in the strictest sense, many other traditions recognise a greater number of sacraments than the two, baptism and Holy Communion, discussed in the Book of Common Prayer, and it can be illuminating to try living in a sacramental world, even for brief moments – a sacramental world where God has left his ‘fingerprints’, so to speak, all over his creation.  In that small octagonal room punctuated by Poussin, the main transformative and revelatory moments of life rhythmically paused your circuit of the room.  Similarly, out in the world it can be more of a syncopated interruption of our journey, as we are frequently surprised by transformative moments of God’s grace, caught and made visible in a plethora of outward signs. 

The ‘fingerprints’ God has left on his creation, like all fingerprints, are a sign of the identity of the creator.  If you look at a work, the fingerprints, the special characteristics of its form and the relationships within it, you can come to recognise significant things about it creator.  That is true of Poussin and those seven paintings, it is true of you and the buildings you create, it is true of the New Jerusalem of living stones being fashioned by that heavenly Architect, and it is true of that great Architect, and the whole Universe he has made.

Job’s life had been collapsing around him, as had his self-understanding, and his understanding of Divine justice, so his faith demanded that he question God.  We heard God’s answer in that first reading.  God answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?

Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions?

Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set?

Or who laid its cornerstone?

When the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

After this opening, follows a great song of creation – a reflection on God’s Wisdom imposing finely detailed order on chaos.

You have before you a visual reflection and meditation on the same theme.  On the service sheet you see a 13^th-century manuscript illumination, frontispiece for a Bible Moralisée.  Text and image together were a revelation of the Wisdom, the ways, and the works of God. 

God made a place for mankind in the order of his Creation.  You, as architects do something very similar: you create places for human habitation, human flourishing, and the luckiest of you (or the chosen few) create places for human encounter with the Divine.

Those places of encounter are special places with a special sacramentality that I want to look at in a couple of special examples, but I do not want to pass over the sacramental possibilities of architecture in general.  Buildings in general at the very least influence, and sometimes control, the type and quality of human relationships and human flourishing that take place within and around them.  If they do that well they can be outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace in the fulfilment of the second part of our lord’s two-fold commandment – to ‘love our neighbours as ourselves’.

Churches, on the other hand, are sacramental signs of the fulfilment of all the Law and the Prophets.  As places of encounter and unity of the worshipping community as the Body of Christ in the presence of God and the whole company of heaven, they are a sacramental sign of that Communion and the growing fulfilment of the twofold commandment:

“The first and great commandment is this: to love the Lord thy God with all thy heard, with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength; the second is lie unto it, namely this, to love thy neighbour as thyself.  No other commandment is greater than these; on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

These buildings are sacramental signs of the coming of God’s Kingdom – the New Jerusalem – ‘on earth as it is in heaven’.  The apse mosaic of Santa Pudenziana, shown on the order of service, was among the first figural mosaics in Rome, from around 390.  It shows Christ seated on a jewelled throne on the rock of Calvary which is surmounted by a jewelled cross.  In a golden toga, he is the Emperor of Heaven, surrounded by the Apostles dressed in togas as his heavenly court within the courtyard in front of the Holy Sepulchre.  Beyond the arcade of the courtyard are seen the buildings of Constantine’s new Jerusalem.  The Beasts of the Apocalypse fill the skies.

The message of the mosaic is clear: “the kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ”.

“It is a long time coming!” I hear you say?   I suppose the answer is the same as God’s answer out of the whirlwind to Job’s challenge: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  Tell me, if you understand!”  That is to say, it will come in God’s good time.

Meanwhile there are sacramental signs of its coming, visions of the Kingdom of God, signs of God present with and in his people, fashioning us as living stones to build the New Jerusalem. Churches are signs of God’s presence with his people, the sacramental image of the New Jerusalem, and I want to look at just one particular example to bring that home.  The example is Wells Cathedral, and not just the Cathedral, but the mediaeval building brought to life by the mediaeval Sarum liturgy.

The West Front of Wells (the last illustration on your service sheet) was completed by 1250.  The whole elaborate system of niches and aedicules is populated by Old and New Testament figures, saints and angels; all were originally brightly polychromed – ‘angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven’ and indeed there are times when you could hear the ‘singing of their endless praise. In the double register of quatrefoils above the West Doors, and just below the Apostles in the topmost full register, if you look carefully you can see rows of holes.  These open from a singers’ gallery within the facade above the Doors, and a musicians’ gallery at the top.  Crowning the composition of the facade is the figure of Christ Enthroned, flanked by winged seraphim.

The liturgy of the Sarum Rite is characterised by elaborate processions and dramatic presentations.  On Palm Sunday, for example, after the morning office, processions would proceed round the cloister to the cemetery in front of the West Doors. Meanwhile, at the Altar, a consecrated host was placed in a shrine with relics.  The ‘Body of the Lord’, present with his saints, preceeded by a light, was taken directly to the West Doors where it met the main procession. Everyone standing in the western graveyard ‘in the midst of death’ was holding a blessed palm and the passage from Matthew 21 was read out: Christ was about to enter Jerusalem in triumph:

‘And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the tress and strewed them in the way.  And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!’

At that there was a blast from the musicians’ gallery, high in the facade and all proceeded to the West Door where ‘Gloria, laus, et honor’, ‘All Glory, laud and honour’, was sung by the choir in the hidden gallery behind the carved angels above the West Door.  The congregation responded with the refrains.

From Christ Enthroned with seraphim, through ranks of Saints, angels, biblical scenes and figures, down to the ground where the present generation of God’s people thronged, singing in response to the hidden choirs of angels, the facade was the entry both to Jerusalem of old and the New Jerusalem yet to come – foretold in the Revelation of John the Divine, and already prepared to receive us.  It both is, and is to come. So, the processions and the people then entered the Cathedral under the shrine containing the ‘Body of the Lord’ and the relics of his saints held aloft.  Inside, they were probably met by the clamour of a nave organ that seems to have been supported by two large corbels still seen in the south gallery. Carefully and elaborately coordinated liturgy and architecture brought all participants into the real presence of the Kingdom of God.  The Cathedral is a sacramental sign of the New Jerusalem. 

So, to return to where I began: that octagonal room in the National Gallery of Scotland had a wall for each of Poussin’s paintings of the Seven Sacraments.  That is the traditional, even orthodox doctrinal number, but I invite you, through reflection on the general definition of a sacrament to see yet more sacraments – at the very least, more potential for true sacramentality. The eighth wall of that octagonal room naturally contained the entrance portal.  By the time you leave that room, having seen those seven intensely spiritual paintings, the eighth wall and it doorway open into a world with renewed sacramental possibility.  Architecture is a powerful force for its realisability.  Architecture creates luminal places, places of encounter between people, and between the people and the Divine breaking into the world.

These are places for human habitation, places that hold and shape human experience, places that enhance human flourishing, places that unfold and reveal all that is Good, and Beautiful, and True.

Given these possibilities, you as architects, have a great calling, a Vocation.  In theological terms, it is to reveal the Christ, who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except by this Way, this Truth and this life, revealed and shaped and enhanced by the places where we meet, those luminal places shaped by you.

You can hold heaven in the palm of your hand.  Take care how you handle it.

Book Review

Wine by Design, Second Edition (2010, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-72141-4), is written by two Canadian architects, Sean Stanwick and Loraine Fowlow. Both bring obvious passion to the idea of architecture as culture and see wine as part of that same artistic realm. This second edition adds nine new and exciting wineries to the first edition and some updated text and photographs.

The authors focus on so-called ‘international star’ architects, which means that Frank Gehry with his Le Clos Jordanne in Canada and Marqués de Riscal in Rioja, , Renzo Piano at the gorgeous Rocca di Fassinello in Maremma, Santiago Calatrava at Ysios and Zaha Hadid with her gem of a tasting room at the very traditional López de Heredia Viña Tondonia feature. The authors also discover first-rate wineries designed by local architects, such as Fielding Estate by Ontario architects Superkül and Adega Mayor in Portugal by the über-Modernist Alvaro Siza. Okay, they missed quite a few others, like Calera’s gravity flow in California, but that’s a quibble.

The book is beautifully designed and the wineries are impeccably photographed. It is almost a ‘coffee-table’ book. However, the summaries for each winery, including recommended wines and winery details, are well-handled and nicely presented on individual pages. As an architect, I savour the technical terminology and the critique of each winery’s design, which are indeed excellent. I would have adored more architectural drawings: plans, sections and even axonometrics. As a Master of Wine, I find the discourse about wine production simplistic and occasionally inaccurate. And, like many wine amateurs, the authors spend far too much time waxing lyrical about photogenic barrels and cellars, and perhaps spend too little time describing the wines, the respective styles and qualities, and whether the wines fit the winery architecture and design and packaging. 

As a read, it is probably more for wine-drinking architects than for architecture-loving wine consumers. But, the book certainly captures the romance and excitement of the winery experience in many parts of the Old World and the New World, and for that it must be commended. Enjoy with a superb vintage wine.

contributed by Patricia Stefanowicz MW

The New Ashmolean

The Ashmolean Museum claims to be the oldest public museum in Britain and perhaps it is. Maybe it depends on one’s point of view. 

The New Ashmolean is certainly visionary. Rick Mather Architects with exhibition designers Metaphor (great name!) have created a new, glassy addition to the old Neoclassical Museum to create a seamless modern museum in traditional, ultra-conservative, Oxford. The concept of exhibiting the stunning collection by themes is not unheard of but is a bit unusual, shall we say?

As an architect and regular visitor to Oxford, I found the transformation extraordinary. Yes, the ‘classics’ so-to speak are still mainly contained in specialist galleries, so my beloved Italians are still mostly within their periods.

What I found thrilling on my first visit during our January 2010 snowfalls, though, is how the curators managed to find common links between textiles produced thousands of miles apart and somehow make the story work. The same thread (ouch!) permeates the other themes. For example, who, apart from the genius now managing the Museum would have thought to have a theme on Beauty and then to hang great works of art from as diverse 18^th century cultures as Japan and Italy next to each other?

It works, if you can think laterally, or make use of the (inevitable, nowadays) audio-guides or lunchtime guided walks, but I suppose for the general tourists it may all be a little bit confusing, nonetheless. After all we are normally taught to think in a straight, logical and historical line. Architects and art-lovers aren’t like that, so we just wend our chaotic way through whatever comes up. And, I love it, the materials, the stairs, the colours, the ‘mix’.

The last includes the rather enticing rooftop Ashmolean Dining Room, which is managed by benugo, a fairly clued-up pair of brothers (Ben and Hugo), who have restaurants, cafes and concessions throughout the UK, including at the V&A. In March my gremolata encrusted sea bream was more than just acceptable. For more information about the Ashmolean Dining Room, read Nick Lander (FT Weekend food crtitic) reviews on www.jancisrobinson.com. 

contributed by Patricia Stefanowicz MW

Photographs to follow

The Company Visits Bath

The Master, Roger France organized an excellent visit to Bath over the (long) weekend 17-20 June. A more scholarly assessment of the visit is to be put together in due course. Suffice it to say at this stage that, in addition to the customary charms of this World Heritage City, much good fellowship was enjoyed and a great deal was lerned about the city and its history from a glittering array of speakers organized by the Master. It was interesting to learn that, while much cudos attaches itself to a city recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, there are not many practical advantages. Development is not permitted and both the economy and the city's two excellent universities suffer accordingly.

A New Gate for All for 2012

Earlier in the year the Company, with the support of a number of other construction related Livery Companies and the City Property Advisory Team of the C ity of London, instituted an architectural competition for the Design of a New Aldgate - a temporary landmark and entrance to the City of London. The structure is to be ready for the Olympic Games in 2012.

Over 90 Entries for the competition (run on behalf of the Company by the Architecture Foundation) were received from architects from round the world in early June. These were judged anonomously by a panel including Alderman Mike Bear; Achim Borchardt Hume, Chief Curator of the Whitechapel Gallery; The Master of the Company, Roger France;  Sarah Ichioka, Dorector of the Architecture Foundation and Peter Murray, a Court Assistant of the Chartered Architects' Company and Chairman of New London Architecture.

Five schemes were shortlisted and these, along with a selection of the other schemes were exhibited at St Botolph's Church Aldgate from 18 June until 4 July. The Shrotlisted proposals illustrated here were:

'The London Gate' by DONIS (Netherlands)

'The Listening Posts' by Foster Lomas Ltd (UK)

'Aldgate to the World' by Juan Alfonso Galan Arquitecto (UK)

'Ceci n'est pas une maison' by NORMAL (Canada)

'Vertical Forest' by Sou Fujimoto Architects (Japan)

The winning proposal will be announced  on 22 July and will receive a prize of £3,000.

Illustarated below (from the top):'The Listening Posts',  'Ceci n'est pas une maison'; 'Vertical Forest'; 'Aldgate to the World'; 'The London Gate'

Further details of the Competition can be found on: www.architecturefoundation.org.uk

A pathetic excuse for a blogger

It's not that nothing has happened these last several weeks; more that too much has been gouing on and your blogger and his pen friends have been rather too occupied elsewhere. More complete reports of some of the fiollowing posts are to follow. This will serve as an update.

Since the issue of the May Newsletter a nimber of members of the Company have attended the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy at St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday 11 May. This splendid occasion sees the Masters, Upper Bailiff and Prime Wardens of most Companies joining a procession with both Church and civic dignitaries at a service which has its roots in history (this was the 356th such service). Great music and an inspiring sermon delivered by The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Reverend Alan Harper.

Newsletter Issue 21 - July 2010

Newsletter 21

Newsletter Issue 20 - May 2010

May 10 Newsletter

Visit to Wilkinson Eyre Offices - 5 May 2010

It was both a pleasure and a privilege for the Master and a small group of the Company to be welcomed by Chris Wilkinson to their office - the stylish ‘modern’ building by YRM and Fitzroy Robinson, 1976 -79.

Chris gave us an introduction to their work and practice, over a glass of wine, and then a tour to see the environment, meet some of the staff and hear about their projects. This was followed by a screen presentation reviewing the different sectors in which the office was engaged - commercial, offices, schools and some housing; and also a continued interest in bridge work, following the masterful achievement at Gateshead/Newcastle. 

All of the projects were creative and design was aided by models, and wide range of computer programmes. Teams were responsible for the different projects, and the Partners were very much involved through the studios. Overseas work was important, including commercial and mixed use projects in China. A very tall office and hotel tower (230 m ?) was nearing completion in Shanghai. In Singapore working with the landscape designer, two very large ‘glass houses’ in a new parkland were well on their way. 

The technical aspects of achieving ‘sustainability’ were fundamental to all of the design work, as shown in their glass house at Kew. Wilkinson and Eyre were awarded one of the first school projects under the BSF programme, which showed an imaginative approach to the physical planning and also allowed for repetition of building elements. 

Key to achieving design and architectural quality was the inclusion of appropriate specialists into the team. 

The impression following our tour, was of a well managed design conscious team, where real architectural creativity was developed in an environment which breathed the same. It was an experience not to have missed -and a pity that some did.

Tom Ball

10.5.10

The Peter Milo Lecture 2010 - Quality Streets, Quality Townscapes

Those of you who did not manage to visit the City Marketing Suite at The Guildhall, London on 26th April 2010 missed a fantastic opportunity. The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects hosted two eminent Urban Designers/Planners to discuss City environments. Roger France, Master of the Company introduced the speakers.

Georgia Butina Watson, PhD (pictured left) is Head of the Department of Planning and a Research Tutor in the Joint Centre for Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, UK. Her experience is international and she has noted expertise in urban morphology and place-making.

Joe Weiss, FICE, FIHT  (on right) is the Transportation and Projects Director for the Corporation of the City of London, UK. He has wide-ranging experience of rail, highways, urban design and even airlines, the last of which had him arrive from North America moments before he was asked to speak.

Georgia’s segment of the Lecture focussed on the Art of Place-making and Sense of Identity. We loved her definition of place identity: ‘…any cultural landscape which users draw on in constructing their personal and social identities.’ Managing townscapes produces character and supports ‘empowerment’. According to Butina Watson, empowerment includes a sense of roots, inclusiveness, co-dwelling with nature (sustainability) and an evolution of the place. ‘Nostalgia’ is fine provided it doesn’t prevent development and gradual change.

Cities, and indeed urban spaces, require permeability, stability, perimeter blocks and variety, so that people can experience the place and connect with its identity. We need responsive environments that can be animated by people.

So, how does Georgia recommend we make them? Even in Oxford, a relatively small City (but it does have a Cathedral!), there must be districts, nodes, parks, edges, landmarks and legibility. Magic.

Joe’s section of the Lecture was very much the view of our City of London, the not-very-Square-Mile, and rightly so, given our lecture venue at Guildhall and his role in the Corporation. He started with a summary of the history of London, at least from 11th century; he didn’t have time to go back to the pre-Roman era. (Is Peter Ackroyd following our blog?)

Despite the seriousness of Joe’s talk, there were certainly some wonderful ‘sound-bites’ in his potted history. The ‘Blitz’ was ‘unauthorised town-planning’, but created the wasteland that facilitated a site large enough to develop the Barbican, an English icon.

Joe’s discussion of the recent past was more serious and possibly sobering, even for us. His map of what has been redeveloped/reconstructed since the 1970s was surprising. Over HALF of the City has been remoulded.

Sustainability-economic, social and environmental-is crucial. So Joe, picking up on Georgia’s themes, went on to discuss what the Corporation is doing to make the City a better place for people, vehicles and companies. Of course, the City can not exclude vehicles, but they have set up ‘security zones’, traffic capacity control to manage the number of vehicles that are in the zones at a given time. Clever, actually. To facilitate pedestrians the City has lowered curbs and defined what could be pedestrian zones (or vehicular zones, or even bicycle zones) by intricate paving patterns and an occasional ‘sleeping policeman’.

Artistic works, lighting and green spaces, even trees, feature in the Corporation’s all-encompassing plans. Making places that are easy to access for pedestrians and moving traffic appropriately are crucial to making a City that people actually want to be in. Even if Moorgate Junction is ‘Telly-Tubby Land’, many of the Corporation’s concepts seem to work well.

Knowing your customer, whether it’s the City-worker trying to get in-and-out of his/her office or the tourist trying to work out the intricacies of medieval Oxford, town-planning and an integrated approach are clearly critical.

© Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, London

2009 New City Architecture Awards

The winners of the Company's new City Architecture Awards for 2009 were announced and Certificates presented to the representatives of the winning team at the Annual Livery Banquet on Tuesday 13 April. The Banquet was held at the Ironmongers' Hall in the presence of Alderman Sir John Stuttard (the Master's principal Guest) and Sheriff Peter Cook (representing the Civic Team) who made the presentations.

The Assessors report was as follows:

This year’s judging panel comprised: The Master, (Roger France), Assistant Jaki Howes, Graham Francis and Charlotte Harrison. They were assisted by the Clerk, David Cole-Adams. Paul Finch OBE and the Renter Warden Michael Wilkey were prevented by the vagaries of London Transport and temporary indisposition from joining the group though Paul Finch followed the assessment party and, happily, reached identical conclusions.

 Judging took place on Tuesday 2 March 2010; eleven buildings and public space projects were visited.

 Of the projects visited 5 were new build schemes with a further five being refurbishment / re-cladding projects. There was one public open space entry.

The 2009 Award Winner

 Watermark Place, One Angel Lane – an office redevelopment incorporating retail outlets and public open space linking Upper Thames Street to the Thames frontage.

Architects:                   Fletcher Priest Architects,

Building Owners:        Oxford Properties and UBS Global Asset

 

Comment:

The building replaces the redundant international telephone exchange, Mondial House. The height and massing of the building is informed by the strategic viewing corridor to St Paul’s Cathedral and meets the City’s criteria of encouraging access to the river and the development of the river walkway.

The panel found that the development made a positive contribution to the river frontage.

There was an intriguing contrast between the neat detailing of the main building and the gutsy treatment of the sun louvers and their timber props which made reference to the historic sailing craft that used the river. The coherent treatment of the landscaping was also commendable.

The jury commended a further two projects (both refurbishments involving either re-cladding or refurbishment behind a retained façade. :

125 Old Broad Street – the re-cladding, refurbishment and extension of the old Stock Exchange Building for office and retail uses.

Architects:         Grimshaw Architects with GMW

Building Owners: Hammerson UK Properties

Comment:

The panel commended the consistency of the curtain walling (cantilevered out to create additional floor area) and the well designed entrances which made use of the newly created pedestrian route across the site.

One Lothbury – the 1950’s building designed by Victor Heal was influenced by the adjacent Bank of England building. The façades to Lothbury, Princes Street and Old Jewry were retained and, in places, extended and the space behind rebuild to meet contemporary office standards.

Architects:           Fletcher Priest Architects

Building Owners:  Westfield Investments Ltd

Comment:

As a refurbishment scheme, the design shows respect for the main elevations in its treatment of the new attic, and the new elements at the side are integrated into the existing fabric with commendable subtlety. 

In commenting on the Awards, Sheriff Peter Cook noted

'It is tremendously important to the City to have the right people coming to work in London for it to remain internationally competitive. The environment in which they work has to be exciting, beautiful and liveable and the combination of great buildings and a carefully planned street scene make for a great City.

This Award not only assists the City by its architectural attributes it also gives a wonderful opportunity to promote the wider activity and influence of the Livery – another area that needs more exposure in order to help a better understanding of all that goes on within it.'

Further details of the Banquet itself will be posted shortly.

City Discourse

The Company is to host its annual Peter Milo Memorial Lecture in the City Marketing Suite at Guildhall on Monday 26 April 2010. Details of the event which will take the form of a discourse are as set out below.

Quality Streets, Quality Townscapes

 

PETER MILO MEMORIAL LECTURE 2010 - Monday 26 April 2010

As a Company we are keen encourage good architecture and planning in the Square Mile. One of the ways in which we can do this is to foster discussion and debate about architecture and urban planning. With this in mind the Master has arranged for the Milo Lecture to be a discourse this year dealing with the topic of creating identity in city townscapes.

There are to be two speakers – Professor Georgia Butina Watson – Professor of Urban Design and Head of Department of Planning at Oxford Brookes University and Joe Weiss – Strategic Transportation Director at the City of London Corporation. 

 

Professor Georgia Butina Watson BA MA PhD

Georgia’s professional expertise lies in the area of urban morphology, urban regeneration and in developing approaches to involve local com-munity groups in the improvement of local urban areas. She was involved in setting up a database system for recording and analysing vacant and underused land and was a project co-ordinator of the DoE sponsored study on ‘Quality in Town and Country’.

She is Director of CABE’s Built Environment Virtual Teaching Package Project and a major contributor to CABE’s digital library of urban design good practice

 

 

Joe Weiss MSc FICE FCIHT

Joe Weiss is a Chartered Engineers and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Highways & Transportation. Over the past 35 years his time has been split between jobs in central government, the priv-ate sector and local administrations.

London’s employment model has resulted in greater pressures on public space and rail transport due to increased commuting. This, while it contributes to climate change, may still be more desirable than dispersed jobs which are mainly car dependent. Joe believes he has been able, occasionally, to chart a politically acceptable course through this maze.

Professor Butina Watson will present some conceptual models that allow us to understand the nature of identity in the urban scene and Joe Weiss will demonstrate the ways in which the City Corporation works to encourage distinctive townscape quality in new building developments. There will be time for discussion after the presentations and it is hoped that the speakers’ contributions will stimulate a healthy debate on the issues raised.

The lecture will be held in the City Marketing Suite at Guildhall commencing at 5.00 for a 5.30pm start.  Wine and nibbles will be available to allow informal association from approximately 6.40pm. The event is will finish at 7.30pm. 

The City Marketing Suite can be found at the corner of Basinghall Street and Guildhall Buildings, behind the Guildhall Art Gallery. It is opposite no. 8 Basinghall Street and within easy walking distance of all public transport

The event will be open to members of the City Architecture Forum and other allied organizations and to London Region architects generally. Tickets charged at £15.00 per head (£4.00 for Company students) will be allocated on a first come first served basis – as space is limited, early application is encouraged by application to the Clerk - David Cole-Adams - on 020 8292 4893 or by email to wccaclerk@blueyonder.co.uk.

 

Newsletter Issue 19 - Jan 2010

February 10 Newsletter

New City Architecture Award for 2009 - Assessments

It being bound to be a fine day the Company's selected assessment panel consisting of the Master (Roger France), Paul Finch (Chairman, the Renter Warden (Michael Wilkey), Jaki Howes, Gaham Francis and Charlotte Harrison will be sent on their way tomorrow (2 March) by the Clerk to select the winner of the New City Architecture Award for 2010.

Those familiar with the City might like to hazard a guess as to which project the judges might favour.

The award is given for the 'building or other work of architecture, completed free of planning conditions, in the qualifying year which makes the most significant contribution to the streetscape and skyscape of the Coty of London.'

The list of entries selected for the judges to consider are (in no particular order):

1. 1 Lothbury   - façade retention, extension and new build - Fletcher Priest Architects

2.  Dashwood House, 69 Old Broad Street - Recladding and refurbishment of an office building with 2 storey and plant room extension, change of use of part ground and mezzanine levels  and the removal of the bridge to the Highwalk. - Fletcher Priest Architects

3.  8-13 Lime Street - Office building with retail – Architects: Rolfe Judd

4.  34 Lime Street - Recladding and refurbishment of office building with retail -    Houseman Henderson Architects

5. 62 Queen Street - Part refurbishment, part redevelopment of offices Architects: Rolfe Judd

6. Grants Quay - Street  scene enhancements on Riverside; improved seating and Landscaping

Street Scene Team, Corporation of London with Bere Architects

7. 125 Old Broad Street - Recladding and extension of former Stock Exchange building for office and retail uses -  Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners with GMW Architects

8.  60 Threadneedle Street - Office development with retail on western half of former Stock Exchange building site - Eric Parry Architects

9. 5 Aldermanbury Square -    Office development with retail uses and new public square - Eric Parry Architects

10.  8-10 Old Bailey - Office development - Sidell Gibson Architects

11. Watermark Place, 90-94 Upper Thames Street - Office  redevelopment including retail uses and public open space - Fletcher Priest Architects

Comments will be welcome but are unlikely to have a great deal of influence on the judges' decision. It is possible that a short list with relevant photographs will be posted withing a few days - watch this space.

Hyderabad revisited

Those members of the Company who joined the study trip to South India in 2008 wll remember being shown around what had been the British Residency. This splendid Palladian composition had been built for - and substantially to the designs of - the colourful James Achilles Kirkpatrick, who was the Resident for a few years either side of 1800.

Post 1947, the buildings had suffered a number of different occupancies, each seemingly determined to do less to safeguard the architectural quality. Many of the components of the complex had simply collapsed and the principal building itself was in an advanced state of decay. At the time of our visit the building was functioning as the Osmania Women’s College. The main reception room was littered with desks, all strategically placed so as to avoid the possibility of their occupants being eliminated by falling pressed metal ceiling tiles. Their support system, having lasted from the early days of the eighteen hundreds, was no longer up to the task. The adjoining room that had, if my memory serves me right, originally been a ballroom, was equally dispiriting in that a selection of trestle tables were groaning under the weight of a vast collection of nineteenth century books - many first editions - that had once been the Residency's library collection.

Things did not get better from there. Access for visitors to the upper floor was not a possibility; the stairs were unsafe; only students were permitted access. Never let it be said that women’s education is not valued!

The good news - and, indeed, the cue of this post - is that rescue is at hand. The Spring 2010 edition of Monumentum, the quarterly journal of the World Monuments Fund, reports that a Conservation Management Plan has been adopted and, when funding is available, the Residency building will be restored to its former glory. Many of the unsatisfactory constructions which have sprung up in the extensive gardens will be removed when the renewed space is finally available again.

New Year Court Dinner

Cutlers Hall in Warwick Lane EC4 was the venue for the New Year meeting of the Court and the informal dinner which followed.

The red brick and sandstone Grade 2 Listed Cutlers’ Hall was designed in the late 16th Century manner by T. Taylor-Smith (whose sole work of note the Hall appears to be) and erected in 1888. It is the Company’s fifth hall.

While there are few records of the 13th Century hall, the 15th century Hall (‘next to the tenement belonging to the famous Richard Whityngton - sometime Mayor’) was rebuilt in 1666 only to be destroyed by the Great Fire 3 months later.

The replacement Hall showed more fortitude lasting from 1670 until compulsorily purchased by the Metropolitan Railway Company in 1882. The present Hall suffered damage from a fire bomb in 1941 but was recommissioned by 1951.

The finely carved terracotta frieze to the Warwick Street elevation was the work of Benjamin Creswick - a pupil of Ruskin. It depicts cutlers working at their craft.

66 member and guests enjoyed an excellent dinner marked by a selection of wines which were chosen to reflect the fact that 26 January is celebrated on the other side of the world as Australia Day. Guests were welcomed by the Master with the toast being responded to most engagingly by The Master of the Arbitrators' Company - Christopher Dancaster. The Senior Past Master of the Company, John Owen-Ward MBE proposed the toast to the Master and the Company.

Belated report of Christmas Festivities

Given the vageries of the late December weather and the Clerk's almost immediate flight to even worse weather in the United States (where, at least, they have a very effective snow ploughing regime) this report has been a long time in coming. Sadly there are no photographs to illustrate the happy gathering of members of the Company and their opposite numbers from the Furniture Makers' Company at song and supper in the Church of St Mary-le-Bow and at table in the Furniture Makers' Hall in Austin Friars.

The service was unremarkable apart from the facts that the sermon was preached by the Reverend Oliver Learmont - an old friend of the Master and there were a few unusual readings. The first was an extract from a letter of Bishop Leo of Rome to Bishop Flavian dated AD449. In the times of Bishop Leo the Great there were disgreements about the correct way to state the truth that Jesus Christ is both God and man. It was this letter (known as the Tome of Leo) written to Bishop Flavian of Constantinople, in which he affirmed that Christ has two Natures in one Person. The other two were poems - one by Richard Crashaw (1613 -49), the other from Sir John Betjeman.While it is accepted that those who preside over City of London Churches are subjected to rather a lot of Carol services in the run up to Christmas and look for opportunities to introduce a bit of variety, there were some in the congregation who felt sad that the traditional readings had been dispensed with.

The supper which followed at Furniure Makers' Hall was, as usual, a convivial affair. The Architects were heavily outnumbered by Furniture Makers this time - perhaps beacuse of the wearther, perhaps the distance between church and hall or perhaps because of escalating prices. Perhaps a combinbation of all three. Watch this space.

...and with the Master away in York

Each year the Company's Charitable Trust supports the TeamBuild competition run by the Institution of Civil Engineers with the support of both the Chartered Architects' and Constructors' Companies. This weekend event which started in the early 1990's continues to evolve but sticks to the original intent of encouraging teamwork within multi-disciplinary groups of building professionals. The Company gives a prize for the team offering the Best Construction Procurement Strategy.

The Company was represented this year by Ronnie Murning an Assistant on the Court and an experienced project manager. Ronnie's take on the event was:

'It was a memorable weekend. Team Build is an incredibly well rounded concept that has matured into an event that is in my opinion is very very special. It really does deserve the Company's unswerving support for the future.

I also ..... discussed broadening the naming of the WCofCA prize to procurement and construction. The organizers were supportive of the suggestion and will hopefully raise the matter for discussion at the next committee meeting.

The logic is that it would be then consistent in that the WCofConstructors gave the design prize and we gave the procurement and construction prize covering the whole spectrum of a project from inception to completion.
 
With the inclusion of the construction element, which is a discrete activity within the weekend's overall programme, it is complementary and in balance with the design prize. It also reinforces the teamwork connection as the Constructors give the design prize and the Architects give the procurement and construction prize.'

A visit to York

It has become something of a custom for the Master to dust off his passport for the annual pilgrimage to attend the Annual Dinner of the York Guild of Building. This year he was accompanied by the Upper and Junior Wardens and a selection of Past Masters and other Chartered Architects. The dinner was held in the splendid Merchant Adventurers' Hall on Thursday 19 November.  




As may be seen from the photograph above, the Master and Upper Warden were in good and colourful company.

Many members of the travelling party made a weekend of it by staying of for a bit of sightseeing and the Guild's Annual Service at All Saints Church to which the Master and Upper  Warden processed from the Guiild's base in Bedern Hall


In keeping with local tradition, festivities were concluded with a sherry, fruitcake and cheese reception back at the Hall