Lukeski, a perverse choice of photo, if I may say so. It almost knocked me off my swivel-chair. Does this photo almost rival the Portsmouth one for ugliness? Actually, it's not Alexanderplatz at its worst, presumably taken from the top of the Fernsehturm, but it contrasts nicely to Grosz's Berlin of 70 years earlier. What one guide book ordered me to remember when I was struck by Alex-as-we-affectionately-call-it's grimness was that the plan was to anthrax the area towards the end of the war. (I hope this isn't apocryphal Quatsch I'm typing here.) So at least a fairly ugly post-war rush job on the architectural front is preferable to however many hundreds' (thousands'?) of years of uninhabitability, so a triumph of a kind. (PS. Thank you Arrakeen, whence the photo has been pilfered.)
Unfortunately, The Tricorn centre, pictured above is no more. After 30 years of neglect, it has been torn down, to be replaced by an American style mall to regenerate the Portmuthian economy. You can read the history of this most neo-brutalist of bulding here.
Liukchik, are you chuffed to bollocks that Portsmouth now has its Spinnaker Tower to replace its Tricorn Centre? The local MP said of it, "It is a wonderful structure with a magnificent view and I am full of admiration for it. But it is an icon of municipal incompetence and blundering. It should never have been built in the first place." Is Pompey now flooded with tourists?
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This is mine: Portsmouth
Lukeski, a perverse choice of photo, if I may say so. It almost knocked me off my swivel-chair. Does this photo almost rival the Portsmouth one for ugliness? Actually, it's not Alexanderplatz at its worst, presumably taken from the top of the Fernsehturm, but it contrasts nicely to Grosz's Berlin of 70 years earlier. What one guide book ordered me to remember when I was struck by Alex-as-we-affectionately-call-it's grimness was that the plan was to anthrax the area towards the end of the war. (I hope this isn't apocryphal Quatsch I'm typing here.) So at least a fairly ugly post-war rush job on the architectural front is preferable to however many hundreds' (thousands'?) of years of uninhabitability, so a triumph of a kind. (PS. Thank you Arrakeen, whence the photo has been pilfered.)
Unfortunately, The Tricorn centre, pictured above is no more. After 30 years of neglect, it has been torn down, to be replaced by an American style mall to regenerate the Portmuthian economy. You can read the history of this most neo-brutalist of bulding here.
Liukchik, are you chuffed to bollocks that Portsmouth now has its Spinnaker Tower to replace its Tricorn Centre? The local MP said of it, "It is a wonderful structure with a magnificent view and I am full of admiration for it. But it is an icon of municipal incompetence and blundering. It should never have been built in the first place." Is Pompey now flooded with tourists?
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