Building Design Online has done a great job so far covering the controversy surrounding the monstrous Goodsyard proposals.
Read their latest piece by clicking HERE (registration required), or below:
BDONLINE.CO.UK
Bishopsgate campaigners blast 'dull, monolithic' tower proposals
6 November 2014 | By David Rogers
Campaign group formalises objections to PLP and Farrells plans for Shoreditch fringe
The campaign group fighting proposals to build a series of towers at Bishopsgate Goodsyard in east London has damned the architecture by PLP, blasting it as “dull, monolithic and stylistically bereft”.
The practices are among a number of firms lined up to work on the £800 million scheme – masterplanned by Farrells – at the City fringe site in Shoreditch. It will include a dozen tall buildings, including proposals for four residential towers of 46, 42, 34 and 30 storeys.
In a preliminary three page objection sent yesterday to the planning authorities in charge of making a decision – Tower Hamlets and Hackney councils – Open Shoreditch, which is also known as More Light, More Power, said: “We support development and regeneration. We continue to believe that high-density development of the Bishopsgate Goodsyard is both necessary and desirable.
“But this does not warrant the height and massing for which the applicants argue…The proposals represent the worst type of exploitative development, shaped by short-term economics and lacking a long-term vision for Shoreditch and Spitalfields.”
Open Shoreditch said the designs “ignore the local context and diversity of the area” and is “better suited to Canary Wharf” further east. It added: “It does not appear the applicants have been listening to, nor heard, the concerns of local residents in terms of scale, massing and design which have been expressed repeatedly throughout the consultation process to date.”
The group, which has produced a series of before and after shots which it says show the impact the scheme will have on the area, adds that most of the 1,500 planned residential units will not go to local families, while it said the area’s reputation as a focus for start-up firms, particularly in the technology sector, would wither because “the large floorplates currently proposed will only serve the High Street multiples, currently absent from the local area, or large corporations moving out of the City of London.”
The scheme is being jointly developed by Hammerson and Ballymore Group who want to include parts of the Goodsyard’s grade II-listed Braithwaite Viaduct into the development.
The planning application runs to around 1,000 pages and Open Shoreditch took a swipe at the amount of time – three weeks – it has had to respond to formal proposals. It added: “Our final comments in respect of the applications will obviously be influenced by the outcomes of any further consultation and so we are unable to provide definitive comments on the applications until all avenues of consultation with the applicants have been exhausted.”
Other firms working on the scheme include Faulkner Browns Architects, which has been appointed to the scheme’s retail element, Chris Dyson Architects is responsible for the historic properties and Spacehub lined up for a park.
A spokesman for the developers said: “Whilst the statutory consultation period may be 21 days we’ve been in dialogue with the community from The Goodsyard’s inception back in 2009 right through to submission of the planning application and will continue to do so.
“We firmly believe that this is the right scheme to help to tackle London’s housing crisis, provide a new elevated park with city views unrivalled in the world, bring the historic arches back into use through a unique retail offer, provide the opportunity for local creative industries to shape the new commercial space and to create at least 5,000 new jobs which we’re committed to ensuring that local people can access.”
The deadline for formal comments is November 8 with Tower Hamlets and November 10 for Hackney.