City lofts St Paul’s tower cladding design row
Standing your ground
You’ll have no doubt read about the current disagreement over the panels used on the outside of the City lofts St Paul’s tower development in town. In a nutshell, the council agreed a certain specification of cladding, which the developer then changed.
The council has stood firm and now crisis talks are taking place between both parties with the hope of resolving the issue. You can read the detail of the saga unfolding in the 196-page thread in the Sheffield Development Forum.
I was passing the development this week with my camera so took some photos which are below.
Despite it being a brilliant sunny day, the brown panels still looked a bit dingy. And as someone also pointed out in the discussion thread, if this is them at their best, how many clear sunny days will we get in Sheffield to see them like this?
Even with the sun directly reflecting off the side of the building, as shown in the bottom photo, it still has a dated look to me and reminds me a bit of a 70s London building that I used to work in and is about to be ripped down.
What do people think, should the council continue to stand its ground and demand an improved design, risking that the tower is left to stand empty or even be demolished?
Personally, I think that the council should stand their ground.
I think it’s very cynical of the developers to get planning permission on the basis that the building will be built to a certain standard and then downgrade it to look like it’s being clad in recycled caravans.
The council should definitely stand its ground. Allowing the currently cladding to go up would be a huge mistake. It looks terrible, and considering the tower’s height and location will not be something that can be ignored or written off as a bad move. It would be better for Sheffield to demolish the tower rather than allow what is going up now; hopefully neither will be necessary.
This has now been cleared for completion:
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/dailynews/2008/12/conrans_sheffield_skyscraper_cleared_for_completion.html
Discussion over the proposed changes is here:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=478951&page=201