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This is… _sad_. I mean, if there is no other choice because restoration of the building is no longer technically feasible, fine. But just to throw up something

This is… _sad_. I mean, if there is no other choice because restoration of the building is no longer technically feasible, fine. But just to throw up something bigger and newer? For shame.

iguy 7y ago
But you assume the alternative is to keep the whole building. If the alternative is to keep nothing, then this is great. (Although some of the examples work better than others, of course.) Much of the feeling of the streets is about the first few stories of the buildings facing them. And big new buildings tend to be terrible at this, and are widely hated for it. Better to have strange hybrids than a whole city frozen in time by preservation.
Symbiote 7y ago
I can't believe they build new buildings behind the façade where the windows don't line up. London's bigger problem is the shoddy quality (at all stages) of new construction, in the unbound race for profit.
- kiney 7y ago
  > I can't believe they build new buildings behind the façade where the windows don't line up. That surprised me also. Here (germany) we got the trend of "facadism" too. But usually they try to properly integrate the old facade with the new structure.
- myspy 7y ago
  Looks pretty awful. I see a lot of old buildings that can be modernized and saved but the costs are probably higher. Extending the old building with new constructions can definitely be done better than this. At least make use of all outer walls and the roof.
- eru 7y ago
  The race for profit is pretty malleable. Just set up the taxes and other incentives right, and people will do the right thing for profit.
  - afarrell 7y ago
    Taxes, incentives, and regulations don't directly achieve the goal. If the real goal is a shift in company cultures across an industry, then there also needs to be well-informed communication. Incentive structures can be part of that communication[1]. But people don't obey incentives unless they keep those incentives in conscious thought. If incentives were all it took for organisations to pay the cost of changing priorities, then there would have been no value in naming a bug "Heartbleed". https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/09/what-heartbleed-can-teach-the-oss-community-about-marketing/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/09/what-heartbleed-can-tea...
    - eru 7y ago
      Who says incentives have to be purely monetary?
      - afarrell 7y ago
        Not me
  - sideshowb 7y ago
    Or they might judge that it's more profitable to lobby against the incentives.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  I have the impression at this point that it is "Spite House" style Mallicious Compliance from owners fed up with trying to actually use the building for something useful and facing all of those constraints so they make it functional and in the laws while ugly as possible in protest to discourage future meddling.

This is… _sad_. I mean, if there is no other choice because restoration of the building is no longer technically feasible, fine. But just to throw up something bigger and newer? For shame.

iguy 7y ago

But you assume the alternative is to keep the whole building. If the alternative is to keep nothing, then this is great. (Although some of the examples work better than others, of course.) Much of the feeling of the streets is about the first few stories of the buildings facing them. And big new buildings tend to be terrible at this, and are widely hated for it. Better to have strange hybrids than a whole city frozen in time by preservation.

Symbiote 7y ago

I can't believe they build new buildings behind the façade where the windows don't line up. London's bigger problem is the shoddy quality (at all stages) of new construction, in the unbound race for profit.

kiney 7y ago
> I can't believe they build new buildings behind the façade where the windows don't line up. That surprised me also. Here (germany) we got the trend of "facadism" too. But usually they try to properly integrate the old facade with the new structure.
myspy 7y ago
Looks pretty awful. I see a lot of old buildings that can be modernized and saved but the costs are probably higher. Extending the old building with new constructions can definitely be done better than this. At least make use of all outer walls and the roof.
eru 7y ago
The race for profit is pretty malleable. Just set up the taxes and other incentives right, and people will do the right thing for profit.
- afarrell 7y ago
  Taxes, incentives, and regulations don't directly achieve the goal. If the real goal is a shift in company cultures across an industry, then there also needs to be well-informed communication. Incentive structures can be part of that communication[1]. But people don't obey incentives unless they keep those incentives in conscious thought. If incentives were all it took for organisations to pay the cost of changing priorities, then there would have been no value in naming a bug "Heartbleed". https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/09/what-heartbleed-can-teach-the-oss-community-about-marketing/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/09/what-heartbleed-can-tea...
  - eru 7y ago
    Who says incentives have to be purely monetary?
    - afarrell 7y ago
      Not me
- sideshowb 7y ago
  Or they might judge that it's more profitable to lobby against the incentives.
Nasrudith 7y ago
I have the impression at this point that it is "Spite House" style Mallicious Compliance from owners fed up with trying to actually use the building for something useful and facing all of those constraints so they make it functional and in the laws while ugly as possible in protest to discourage future meddling.