Beautiful House Being Trashed

[sham71]

I agree that quality modern architecture is great. Unfortunately, what we have in Sheffield is NOT quality modern architecture. It is totally cost-based, bland, conservative and short sighted.

 

Good luck to the developers making all the money. They won't, however, be remembered. Unlike Steade, Wostenholm etc that built the Victorian houses in and around Nether Edge.

[t020]

Originally posted by sham71

I agree that quality modern architecture is great. Unfortunately, what we have in Sheffield is NOT quality modern architecture. It is totally cost-based, bland, conservative and short sighted.

 

Good luck to the developers making all the money. They won't, however, be remembered. Unlike Steade, Wostenholm etc that built the Victorian houses in and around Nether Edge.

 

Yes, I doubt any new builds now will be around in 100 years time.

[Tony]

It's a simple thing. Some things are old some new, some things are good some are bad. Most are 'adequate'

 

However, 'old' and 'historical' are entirely different things.

 

 

If we can close that idea for a while though, the fact remains that proportionally people in Sheffield seem unwilling to pay for quality compared to other cities. I believe that this is more of a issue than old-v-new.

[sham71]

surely the fact that the cost of these apartments has gone through the roof in the last few years gives the developers more scope to build better.

 

200 apartments at £75,000 each is £15m.

200 apartments at £150,000 each is £30m.

 

Have any developers given us 'backward' sheffielders the choice of something better that we have turned down?

 

I think it is more the case that costs are kept to a minimum resulting in ever increasing profits as the prices have gone up.

[Tony]

Well prices in Sheffield are consistently 20% or more below similar cities. However, it still costs the same to build here.

 

Your example above is a gross oversimplification. Developers pricing work on previous evidence and pricing / cost is an incremental thing because of the huge numbers at risk, so you are unlikely to have had an opportunity to 'turn something down' because it wouldn't be offered in the first place.

 

Now that is the techical reason for the historical position, so all that said there are a few schemes which look very interesting! The ones you talk about now were planned 5+ years ago.

 

There is an old yet true adage that Sheffield is 5 years behind Leeds and 10 years behind Manchester.

 

If Sheffields buildings are improving, imagine what Manchester has planned!!!!! This might help.

[t020]

Originally posted by Tony

It's a simple thing. Some things are old some new, some things are good some are bad. Most are 'adequate'

 

I'm not talking about functionality though, I'm talking about appearance, and in MY opinion (and I suspect most peoples') new build houses and apartments lack the same amount of character and charm compared to older houses.

[Greybeard]

Originally posted by Tony

 

If Sheffields buildings are improving, imagine what Manchester has planned!!!!! This might help.

 

 

That 'Skyhouse' would look well in Fulwood , but how do you force a 'social mix' ? Those paying 500 grand and up for the posh bits won't be very comfortable sharing the building and it's facilities with the common herd of key workers. The very concept negates the exclusivity that people with lots of money want most to enjoy.

 

Anyway it's a little hard to take seriously an article in which John Prescott is described as a 'luminary'

[nick2]

Originally posted by sacredearth

Its happening all over. All the beautiful buildings being pulled down to make way for 'a sad excuse for apartments'. Monstrous looking things. What happened to preserving our heritage? But then again look what they did with London Bridge- stuck it in the middle of a desert.

 

I've actually been there, to Lake Havasu, it's very tacky, they have a London village thing thats cheap and nasty, the weather was nice though, it was about 95 degrees I think.

 

One old building I would have liked to have see restored and used as flats was the factory just off Park Square, opposite Granellis sweet shop, that was about 150 years old, but no-one was up in arms when that got demolished to build a car park, perhaps it wasn't pretty enough to save ?

 

What you also have to consider is if you owned that old house you own something worth about £1 million but if you demolised it and built a housing block you would own something worth £30 million or more, what would you (honestly) do ?

[clogginchris]

In today's Telegraph it says that the Ranmoor Conservation area has been extended, and that this house now falls in it, which should protect it.

[rubydazzler]

It was actually rushed through for that very purpose, the Council planners do try their best to protect buildings sometimes, obviously. The same thing happened when the Porterbrook Conservation area was extended to protect the Wards Brewery Clock Tower, I seem to remember?

 

I thought that factory building was impressive and worth saving for another use too nick, but by the time i found out it was due for demolition, it was toooo late to do anything effective about it .. a great pity - we might have had a conservation area extended to save it ... hmmmm!

 

One area that ought to get some attention is the area around Meersbrook Park, Albert and Shirebrook road and what's left of Artisan View, Springwood Road etc.. there's some fairly historical, unusual and mixed architecture around there that could just be dropped anytime the owners feel like it ..

 

The planning, conservation and heritage regulations/laws seem to be a total mess and local interests are lost in the national applications. Developers can do as they like and seem to feel bound only by what the market will bear and what will line their and their shareholders pockets. If they're turned down frivolously, they just appeal to the Secretary of State and often get their way and then we have to pay the piper ...

 

grrrrrrr! makes me soooo mad sometimes