Hideous orange - new building on corner of TBR & Druid St

This building appears to be being covered in panels having a rather unlovely orange and grey colour scheme. Does anyone know if this is some kind of intermediate stage or the final finish? Someone please tell me that it isn't actually going to end up this colour!

Presumably you are referring to the building mentioned last year on another thread...

Quote:

alan chapman Sunday 20 March 2005 10.38am wrote:

Another surprise for me was to se that an apartment block is to be constructed onthe corner of Druid Street and Towerbridge Road on a previously vacant site adjacent to St John's Churchyard. Surely it would have been much better to have compulsorily purchased it and added it to the park!
As it is it will stick out like a sore thumb, being the only buiding on the that side of the road between Devon Mansions and the railway.

Lang Rabbie Sunday 20 March 2005 1.54pm wrote:

Oddly enough, the last time I went past the advertising hoardings I was wondering who owned that site, and thinking that even if the lucrative adverts had to stay "something should be done" to improve their landscaping to complement the restored park.

The new building is:

Southwark planning web page wrote:

Erection of a six storey building with a lower ground floor comprising retail (Class A1), food and drink premises (Class A3) or offices (Class B1) at ground and lower ground floors and 14 flats on upper floors.

[LR - 14 flats being just below the threshold for including some affordable housing on site strangely enough]
The website shows date received as 03/11/2003 and the decision date as 31/12/2003. Was this simply a renewal of an existing permission. Can't believe that it got planning permission back in December 2003 as a delegated officer decision - would no one have objected?

The few images I have seen of work by Nigel Upchurch associates suggest that their contemporary stuff is pretty brightly coloured -see for instance their current job advert.

BTW- from this it appears they are moving the practice to Bermondsey - possibly into the ground floor of the new building? (I can't say that I think it is a great advert for them.)

That's the one - certainly not a great advert for them if they do move in and it is still orange stripes.

And as if the orange and grey (or is it brown?!) wasn't enough, it's made of corrugated metal sheeting too!!!

I noticed it a couple of weeks ago and it looked to me like it was the exterior cladding and that the paint scheme is final as the metal sheets are pre-painted and are being attached in precise positions.

What is this sudden desire to make all new buildings colourful? They look hideous now and will look even more so after a few years of weathering and dirt build up.

I quite like it. I cant wait for the reaction when the pink Bingo building goes up on corner of TBR and Abbey street.

Better than mock Georgian anway. Dont think you will get much of a nights kip though...

I think this is it (hoping the link works)

http://www.maximproperty.co.uk/towerview.php

so it looks like it is staying orange and grey...

I really like it, I understand the concerns about it getting dirty but bwhich buildings don't & at least it isn't another boring old glass box.

But why does it have to be so garish and why corrugated metal? Painted concrete would have been better. And why not pastel shades!

Why would pastel shades be prefereable to orange & grey?

Because they are less garish/noticeable/in your face/startling.

I'm in favour of a bit of colour to offset the drab greys, beige and Browns of steel, concrete and glass (of which Ken's Helmet is a perfectly hideous example) but personally I feel primary colours are too bold and bright and make an eyesore. A brightly coloured building often ages badly (although Ken's helmet is too), it is intrusive and usually not in sympathy with its surroundings. I believe that architecture should stand out for it's design aesthetics not the use of garish colours which, IMHO, is an amateurish, if not childish, effort by less skilled architects to draw attention to their work. The new Home Office building (http://www.hughpearman.com/articles5/homeoffice.html) which is interesting from a design point of view (though I take issue with some aspects of the facade) does not, I believe, require the coloured glass panels. However, at least in the case of the Home Office they are less obtrusive and calmer (pastel?) colours.

My main objection to this Grey/Brown and Orange building is that it is panelled with corrugated metal which, in combination with the garish colours, makes it look cheap and unpleasant. At first I thought it was a quick build Prescott cheapy for key workers but from an earlier posting in this thread it seems not. In a way I could understand why you'd make a cheap pre-fab building in garish colours cos it gives it some spirit and character that it otherwise wouldn't have (due to low architectural input/imagination) and probably helps to lift the spirits of those unfortunate enough to find themselves living there!