COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Duty of an architect; Trust The Post.Byline: Louise Douglas COLUMNIST Valerie Hill never shies away from making her point. And in a recent column (December 30) she took the extension of Whiston Hospital to task as well as the architects who have worked the scheme. She wrote: "You must study for quite a long time to be an architect or town planner town planner n → urbanista m/f town planner n → urbaniste m/f town planner town n → . Learning about buildings' aesthetics, social purpose and their effects on the landscape. "A development's impact on communities has to be ingested and their relationship with the existing population considered. "Not that there is evidence of any of this with the extension of Whiston Hospital. Oak trees have been uprooted and a handsome Georgian building masked for a monstrous multi-storey car park... "Then there's the imminent demolition of the hospital's Victorian chapel, the first purpose-built ecumenical place of worship Noun 1. place of worship - any building where congregations gather for prayer house of God, house of prayer, house of worship bethel - a house of worship (especially one for sailors) in the country. "Well done, chaps. Your qualifications have served you well." But B Wood, a member of RIBA, leapt to their defence and writes: "Valerie Hill is wrong to solely blame them for the sort of development that she is critical of at Whiston Hospital. "Architects (and all professionals for that matter) would not be able to function without clients. It will have been the client (in this case, Whiston Hospital) who decided there was a need for a car park, not the architects or planners. During the design process, the architects and planners will have discussed the problems with their client, eg, site restrictions, the need to chop down Verb 1. chop down - cut down; "George chopped down the cherry tree" fell, strike down, cut down, drop - cause to fall by or as if by delivering a blow; "strike down a tree"; "Lightning struck down the hikers" trees (never done except as a very last resort and the view of the Georgian building being obscured. Unfortunately, client requirements will always win in the end and provided that building and planning law has Architects would not be able to function without clients not been transgressed the client will have his way. Likewise, if the hospital's Victorian chapel is to be demolished, then it will have been the client who has decided that site is needed for something more pressing, and if it is not a listed building or subject to a preservation order there is nothing that the architect or planner can do to prevent this. "As a school teacher, Valerie Hill is one of the educated of our society and her concern for architecture is to be applauded, but her article does suggest a blinkered blink·ered adj. Subjective and limited, as in viewpoint or perception: "The characters have a blinkered view and, misinterpreting what they see, sometimes take totally inexpedient action" view that I hope she is not taking into the classroom." Graham Crick Crick , Francis Henry Compton 1916-2004. British biologist who with James D. Watson proposed a spiral model, the double helix, for the molecular structure of DNA. He shared a 1962 Nobel Prize for advances in the study of genetics. , of Warrington, writes after spotting a Looking Back photograph which has stirred his memory - the image printed on December 23 of Jack Sharp's sports shop. He writes: "If my memory is correct, you could purchase football match tickets for Everton FC there. "I think Jack Sharp used to be on the Everton directors' board." Architects would not be able to function without clients |
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