Part of the Brutalist Anderston Centre in Glasgow. Designed by Richard Seifert, it was an early example of the megastructure style of urban renewal popular in the 1950s and 60s. While it opened in 1972, it was never completed. It's size and design turned out to be problematic with its many walkways proving difficult to police. By the 1990s, much of it was partially derelict and several parts have since been demolished.
Glasgow Past and Present: The tower of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson's Caledonia Road Church overlooking a modern housing development in the Gorbals area of the city.
The lodge at the gateway to Maxwell Park on the Southside of Glasgow. Designed by H.E. Clifford, it was built in 1890, along with the neighbouring Pollokshields Burgh Hall.
Here's another rather unusual Glasgow building, this time in Summerston. Like many others, it has a corner tower, but it seems to have been specifically designed to look like a ruin at the top (the neighbouring terrace has exactly the same look to its corner tower!).
It's great to see the scaffolding is finally off the Elder Park Library in the Govan area of Glasgow, and apparently it's scheduled to soon re-open. Designed in an Edwardian Baroque style by J.J. Burnet, it was built in 1902 with funding from Isabella Elder. It was opened by the Scottish-American Steel Magnate Andrew Carnegie, who himself was no stranger to funding the construction of new libraries.
A question to start today: Why is constructing the building on the left be VAT-free, while renovating the historic building on the right and converting it to a new purpose is not? To me, this is completely the wrong way round and such tax rules are undoubtedly contributing to what seems to be the rapidly-accelerating loss of our built heritage.
Two-tone tenements on Clifford Street in the Ibrox area of Glasgow. Local legend has it this effect is due to the builders running out of one colour of sandstone and completing the building with another. However, it seems much more likely that this was a conscious design choice to use harder red sandstone on the ground flooor, where most wear was likely to occur, and the softer blonde sandstone above.
New drawing. A cinema I frequently visited as a child. It's pictured here as I remember it, circa December 1977/January 1978. It has long since been demolished.
Lambhill Stables on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow. This was one of four stables built to the same classical design (similar to that used for Canal House at Speirs Wharf) along the canal in the early 1800s. These provided fresh horses at regular intervals for Swifts (fast passenger boats travellig the length of the canal). The other similar stables were at Shirva, Crainmarloch and Easter Cadder near Kirkintilloch.
I continue to work on my #OpenTelemetry demo. Its main idea is to showcase traces across various technology stacks, including #asynchronous communication via an #MQTT queue. This week, I added a couple of components and changed the #architecture. Here are some noteworthy learnings; note that some of them might not be entirely connected to @opentelemetry
Saint Columba of Iona's Church in the Woodside area of Glasgow. Designed by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia in a modern twist on the Italian Romanesque style, it was built in 1937.
"Have you ever walked through a great city and thought, wow I love this place? What is it that makes some places great and others ... not? One key factor is what urban planners call a “sense of place.”"
YES, yes, yes!
I never understood why I like that small streets in the old (denser) part of my village. Now after watching this video, it makes completely sense. And it's great to hear that this does not only appeal to me, but it seems to be a general thing (otherwise there would not be a theory behind this).
This building at 35 Whitefield Road in the Ibrox area of Glasgow has always struck me as being potentially interesting, but rather frustratingly, I've never been able to work out its original purpose.
The Chicago Board of Trade building anchors LaSalle Street in the financial district. It serves as headquarters for Bruce Wayne Enterprises in Batman:The Dark Knight.
Perched atop towering rock formations, the Meteora monasteries in Greece merge seamlessly with the dramatic landscape. The ancient structures with their orange-tiled roofs contrast starkly against the rugged cliffs under a brooding sky. Lush greenery at the base adds a touch of vitality to this awe-inspiring scene. Imagine this super sized on your wall space.
A decorative caryatid on a spandrel between the doors of William Whyte's French 1885 Renaissance style tenement on Queen's Drive in Glasgow. This is one of a number of similar sculptures on the building which are grouped into differet themes, including the arts.