New Street Square

I'm typing this on my brand new laptop without a cracked screen. Only downside so far is that the shift key on the right is alittle small, but other than that it makes a good blogging instrument.

But enough about me... what about the buildings???

At the weekend I went to visit New Street square, where the evocatively named Building A is to be 76m tall, and as very little else taller is being built at the moment I thought I ought to visit. As mentioned befor I also thought maybe I'd spotted it from a distance, but on visiting the site I think I'm probably wrong as the spread of cranes didn't look extensive enough, and it looked far more complete than the photo from the other week. So that mystery remains.

I've concluded that the architects, construction firm, or whoever, are well-meaning, but feckless. Evidence for this includes:

• the tunnel to protect pedestrians from debris, which Broadgate tower only has around part of its perimeter, and the Willis Building doesn't have at all. Fecklessness is evident though in its not having any windows for curious children and bloggers to peep through.
• They seem to have installed a massive soundsystem under the eaves... but I just can't for the life of me see where they're going to fit a dance floor. The road's in the way!!!
• They're very keen to emphasise that Dr Samuel Johnson, compiler of the first dictionary (inventor of the dictionary?) once lived around the corner. They do this by means of a big finger and liberal use of a thesaurus on some signs:
  
  • Telephone, ring, contact, enquire, acquaint, touch base, bell, tinkle, buzz
  • Visit, look up, come by, drop in, pop to, frequent, h???, swing by
    
  Fecklessness? He wrote a dictionary, not a thesaurus. It's also media bollocks, broadcast testicles, press cojones.
  
• It looks rather lovely, in a norwegian way, with it's exterior wooden blinds and bevelled corner looking like a lost lighthouse from some angles. So why then, for the narrowest fart of a corner, give the game away by piling eighties boardroom on top of eighties board room and ruining the gentleness.
• I find it odd how finished the bits with wood look, while he stairs don't even have a wall/windows, and there's clearly a lot of structural work still to be done at the top of the building.
  
• Completely lacking in fecklessness is the crane company's logo. I'll look out for it over the coming years.
  

Across the road from New Street Square is the Rolls building.

Phew - it has all just become clear to me. I spent a while on Sunday photographing a decrepit building and the zealous signs surrounding it, wondering at the mismatch, and thinking "you can make that sign as big as you like, but still no one will rent the place." Turns out it's going to be extensively redeveloped. Should have worked it out really. Although I can't believe construction will proceed exactly as depicted in this video - surely walls come before a roof?

On the edge of the roof a couple of ropes are coiled around a railing, looking somewhat like oversized gloves. I imagined the building being consigned to ruin as a deathtrap after a worker fell to his death from the over-sized gloves.

It's been a long blog, so just 2 things to finish. First, I pased a cool looking pub called the seven stars, which I'll try to visit again someday. Secondly, a photo to finish; I think it looks like a lava flow.