Imaginary RIBA.

The fact that 1400 RIBA members supported the presidential candidature of a British National Party member might give architects reason to go 'Hmmm' and think about not renewing subscriptions next year. But that would be to cut themselves off from the institution's terrific library and its associated collections--even if you now have to take a long Tube ride across town to South Kensington to look at Palladio's drawings. One of these, the photographic collection, is run by the highly regarded Robert Elwall at www.ribapix. com. No, I've never met him but have reviewed his terrific, definitive book on the history of architectural photography. He has launched an official RIBA image bank which you access by typing ribapix in your browser's address box. RIBApix, the official name, gets exactly the same result. Cost of images seems reasonable and reproduction rights are at the usual extortionate level. Nice to see that the News of the World would have to pay twice as much as, say, Draper's Weekly would. Hope they're not going to charge The Architectural Review because it recently gave them its entire historic image collection.