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Which era of the buildings are you referring to?

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Lisnaholic

Yes, your idea would be great, and I'm sure it's just lack of financial viability - or lack of imagination - that stops it happening.

The flat tops of tall buildings are such an under-used resource. They are places where both people and plants can breath and "let themselves be beautiful."
What's more surprising is that even when built, people don't bother using roof gardens. At least, that is the strange story of this extensive roof garden atop a department store in the UK.

.....


As teenagers, me and my bff used to go there, sit at the café tables or walk over the concrete stepping stones. We were usually alone, the heyday in photo #3 having long gone, and the goldfish in the ponds invariably outnumbered the visitors. For us, that made it an even more magical experience in the middle of a fair-sized bustling city. But with no punters, they had to close the café and then the roof itself.; on my last visit, sneaking in where I wasn't supposed to be, it was overgrown and dilapidated, looking stranger than ever. But the strangest thing of all is that the city had such a wonderful facility and lost it just because they couldn't be bothered to climb a flight of stairs!

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Cuthbert

Looks a nice place to go and chill mate. Great pics. I'm guessing it wasn't in London?







This is just glorious.

Lisnaholic

^ Thanks, MLM. The pics, like the place, had a kind of dated charm about them. Yep, it was a town about 35 miles from London.

Yes, beautiful pictures of an absolutely wonderful building. Those turrets, those towers, the arches over the windows! I know we're not supposed to eat or sleep with a building, but if we could, I'd choose St.Pancras.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Cuthbert

It's a fantastic building. I love how imposing it is. I'm glad it's still there, not that I'm saying it'll ever be demolished but everything should be done to protect buildings such as this. When I think of the architecture lost during the war and then bad planning after that, it makes me so annoyed.

Gone:



It was replaced by this :



That's gone as well now thank fuck, but if the architect was still alive I would like to ask him what was going through his head when he thought this was a good idea.

Cuthbert

The Harrods store in London is just stunning.

Cuthbert

Not expecting everyone to like this one but, one of my favourites, Ibrox in Glasgow home of Rangers FC:









It needs some work doing but on the whole I think it's excellent and is a well balanced stadium, especially compared to other builds from the same era.

The main stand was based on the Trinity Road stand I mentioned in post #44, it was the same architect who designed both (Archibald Leitch, also worked on many other grounds around the country including Highbury, Old Trafford, Anfield and many others), but Rangers were able to redevelop it without destroying the main facade and added a roof to theirs.

I really like this one.

Yac

These don't have to be depressing, but they need to be repainted and taken care of. Which includes also the surroundings. In Poznań where I live these ugly "commie blocks" are surrounded by a lot of green, almost like they were constructed in the middle of a park.. and it works. Sort of. Well, you don't want to kill yourself at least. Not because of the buildings.

Lisnaholic

Wow! I'm being quoted by Yac! This is a total honour. I don't suppose any of us know about the architecture of Poland, so I hope you'll post us some more pics.

And your photos are very interesting; they show how, with a little bit of paint, vegetation and imagination, our cities could look so much better, which in all seriousness, can really lift peoples' spirits. There is also an immediate bonus, in the UK at least, of reduced vandalism if people are given a reason to be proud of where they live. I particularly liked the artwork in your first photo, Yac, with it's discreet pattern and Dali-style animal: compared to the annonymous flats of Zagreb, how much nicer to be able to say, "My flat is the one above the antlers." (Of course not so cool for the guy who has to say, "Yeah, I live in the moose's butt.")


^ I've never seen Ibrox Park, but you're right about the symmetry, etc. I am particularly impressed with the curved stair towers that've been added on; a pleasing shape, clearly from a different era, but blending into the original design. That's not an easy thing to get right.

^ You are very well informed, MLM. I think you have given the little-known Archibald Leitch the honour of being the first architect to get his own personal name check in this thread!

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Yac

Wut. I don't know about it being an honor But I can share some info on our architecture
There's a lot of "commie blocks" in Poland, and I mean A LOT. The country was almost literally razed to the ground during ww2, there were millions of homeless people after that, so something needed to be done.
Most were created using prefabricated concrete elements and looked buttugly from the start. A couple of years ago everybody was sure these building will start collapsing, many are 50+ years old and "they were never designed to last this long"... People were doing their best to move away.
Now ? Now that cities started actually caring about the way they look, now that they started renovating these buildings along with the surroundings, it doesn't look half bad. The fact that steel reinforced concrete, when properly maintained, turns out to have amazing longevity doesn't hurt either
Here's some examples of what is being done to these buildings, it's still not as common as I'd like, but if they don't get a mural, they at least get proper insulation and a new paintjob, so it's no longer an eyesore. I'll put these photos inside a spoiler tag as some are quite big.