The Shard: scintillating or a scar?

[Nick Armstrong]

Simon Jenkins doesn't like it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...face-of-london

I find it rather exciting.

Opinions?

It opens tomorrow evening amid a laser show...

[Northender]

To me, it looks like something the Luftwaffe only half-destroyed in the Blitz and nobody's yet bothered to deal with. It might benefit from having rosebay willowherb ('fire weed') growing out of it. I've never understood this obsession with ever-higher buildings. (Curvy buildings, now....)

[mercia]

well I haven't seen it in the flesh, only photos & film
I don't mind it's shape [it's prettier than the four-square Canary Wharf buildings], or position or being all glass but why does it have to be sooooooo huge? It looks too dominant. I'm a bit concerned that it has set a precedent for ever more huge buildings in London

second thoughts, I don't like the position
if it had to be that big it should be further east (IMO)
was there a burning need for such a building at such a location or was it a case of an architect just letting his/her imagine take flight ?

[Northender]

well I haven't seen it in the flesh, only photos & film
I don't mind it's shape [it's prettier than the four-square Canary Wharf buildings], or position or being all glass but why does it have to be sooooooo huge? It looks too dominant
I'm a bit concerned that it has set a precedent for ever more huge buildings in London

second thoughts, I don't like the position
if it had to be that big it should be further east (IMO)

I'm sure they'd love it in, say, Japan or South Korea - or, nearer home, it could be used as social housing for those unfortunate immigrant non-citizens who do all the (literally) dirty work in certain Middle Eastern kingdoms. It's far too high in relation to its immediate (and much more characterful) surroundings.
If memory serves, there's a pub in the area called the (Hung?) Drawn and Quartered...perhaps the architect might like to pop in for a drink and ask the locals what they think of his (or her) monstrous phallic symbol.

[Lateralthinking1]

I have no objection to modern buildings with unusual shapes. I don't mind their close proximity to traditional buildings if the juxtaposition has been properly thought through and is an integral part of the concept. The Shard is ok in the former but not the latter. It looks very shoved in to me. I also dislike its size.

It was Livingstone who initially instigated vanity projects and Johnson has taken to them just as readily. In that respect, they aren't very different from each other and arguably it goes with the role. I was somewhat astonished post 9/11 that buildings of such height again became popular. I would have expected the very opposite but then I underestimated the political dimension. They are apparently a retort. A show of strength, even if they might ultimately cost a number of anonymous lives.

In terms of the practicalities, ie it is supposed to be a home, I think the top of the Shard looks like a prison. I wouldn't be paid to live there above the clouds in a small space with angled walls. If people who think differently want to pay ludicrous amounts for the privilege, I guess fair enough.

But the laser light show sounds like more conceit and cost and, actually, I think they have the politics wrong. The more dodgy a regime, the more you are likely to find modern buildings that make a statement. Still, at least the Shard and indeed the Gherkin have a little creative style which is more than can be said for Canary Wharf.

[Serial_Apologist]

Overpaid for, oversexed, and over here.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

site

[Serial_Apologist]

Prick

[gradus]

Hated it but now like it, just as well as it is visible in Essex from well beyond the M25 and I would guess as far as Stansted on the M11(?).

[mercia]

Hated it

can you remember why ?

[amateur51]

I'm sure they'd love it in, say, Japan or South Korea - or, nearer home, it could be used as social housing for those unfortunate immigrant non-citizens who do all the (literally) dirty work in certain Middle Eastern kingdoms. It's far too high in relation to its immediate (and much more characterful) surroundings.
If memory serves, there's a pub in the area called the (Hung?) Drawn and Quartered...perhaps the architect might like to pop in for a drink and ask the locals what they think of his (or her) monstrous phallic symbol.

I don't know what sort of phalluses you've come across (!) Norths but ....

[Ferretfancy]

It's opening officially tomorrow night with a laser display which should be visible for miles. People always complain that new buildings spoil the view of St Pauls, but then everything could be said to do that. The Gherkin is another once hated and now loved building, I suspect The Shard will be seen in the same way.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's opening officially tomorrow night with a laser display which should be visible for miles. People always complain that new buildings spoil the view of St Pauls, but then everything could be said to do that. The Gherkin is another once hated and now loved building, I suspect The Shard will be seen in the same way.

Yes but the gherkin is a nice, comfortable ovoid shape, which makes it belie the building's size - whereas the shard is well-named, (anyone here actually like pieces of broken window pane?) besides resembling the one thing the giant it was presumably designed to impress would want to avoid sitting on.

[Nick Armstrong]

I don't know what sort of phalluses you've come across (!) Norths but ....

Answer came there none....

[Northender]

Perhaps the only appropriate reaction to this particular edifice is Shardenfreude.