Unilever House and views of St Paul's

This shows the catastrophic damage done to St Paul's by the recent Unilver House extension -

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=12795684&postcount=28

How ironic that the architects said this about its appearance:-

"...to create useable space on the roof while reducing the overall detrimental effect of the building as foreground to views of St Paul's from Waterloo Bridge and the South Bank."

"...the west elevation is entirely replaced and treated to reduce its visual impact."

It is indeed repugnant. I was thinking only yesterday how bad it looks.

I've split this into its own thread as the Thames vista one is mainly about Chambers Wharf and it didn't seem sensible to muddle that with talk of Unilever House.

Who takes the decision to allow these monstrousities to be built next to our beautiful monuments? Is there a way of stopping them?

Well I dont know if it was cheap (probably not) but it sure is ugly.

Somewhere there should be a very red-faced planning officer.

It doesnt look as bad as some of the towers going up in the City. The Planning Officer who dealt with the application is a personal friend and is a very nice person, who take pride in what they do. Didnt this go to Planning Committee??

Pops wrote:

It doesnt look as bad as some of the towers going up in the City.

Is that supposed to be a joke?

Pops, am I right in thinking that you are saying that you think it's okay because your friend is the planning officer?

That extension wouldn't look out of place on a retail park - it's really not up the standard we should expect in that location.