Billy Elliot the Forum

kport,

That's JUST the huge assemblage of images I was hoping to see in this thread. One-stop shopping for the masses!

The overhead photo of the buildings and that whole block to the left of the VPT (sorry, I don't know my compass bearings where I live, much less London) was just amazing. Weird how they took down the whole block in every direction but left the exterior facing walls till last like some great green screen studio backlot in Victoria. That photo is quite poignant, actually. I was used to seeing even the most culturally insignificant buildings in the Greater Victoria area that have now disappeared.

tzwicky

Well, I must say it will be nice when they have the Victoria Station north ticket hall entrance built at Cardinal Place to make it easier to travel between the theatre and the Station. I can imagine many will appreciate the underground option on rainy or cold days. Just hope the show's still around when all the construction is finished . . . .otherwise I won't have much reason to use those new facilities.

I thought it good to see what the new NOVA buildings will look like when they are finnished. VP looks very small, although the sight lines to it seem to have been preserved quite well considering. May be they will move the Billy House into Nova 1 across the road - cool or what?

First a quick mention of the proposed extension to the VP previously posted by Keith (3Oct2012) in this thread as it’s not on the mock up photos. (so you can add the differences in your imagination)
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpg ... 0608_5.jpg

Here is a view from the Buckingham Palace Road/Victoria St junction. (too big for screen so move it about)
http://www.novasw1.com/sites/default/fi ... ior_04.jpg

and another from Vauxall
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpg ... 9_mh_9.jpg

an overview
http://www.novasw1.com/sites/default/fi ... plan_0.jpg

The old edge of the VP is in extreme bottom right on this one.
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpg ... 9_mh_6.jpg

http://www.novasw1.com/commercial/nova-south

Here is a view from the bus station direction I think it’s conceptual rather than real as I can’t see space where it fits.
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpg ... 0108_3.jpg

Here is the mock up looking at a new Cardinal Place entrance to the Rail Station (VP off shot to the left). I can’t quite get this one either.
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpg ... 0108_4.jpg

More on the main pages here http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/vic ... heatre.htm
And http://www.novasw1.com/thenovabuilding/gallery
And http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/vic ... change.htm

Those are amazing photos. London has experienced tremendous growth over the past twenty years or so. It is clearly booming.

I recall a tv program about the construction of the Leadenhall Building, which will be London's tallest when built; how it is shaped to retain a sight line of St Paul's Cathedral, and how the construction site is no larger than the footprint of the foundation - it is literally being built (much prefabbed hundreds of miles away) from the inside out.

The VPT will be like St Patrick's Cathedral or St Thomas' Church across Fifth Avenue - two venerable building from an earlier time, dwarfed by modern high risers. If anything, they will stand out all the better amongst the anonymity of relentless glass and concrete.

It is good that the VPT is Grade II listed.......I am sure the developers would have snapped it up if up were not. What is the piece of land worth now?

If they could please have it ALL looking like this by May, I would really appreciated it...

Not a chance, Jon, not a chance!

joninfinity wrote:Very cool renderings.... If they could please have it ALL looking like this by May, I would really appreciated it... And thank you...

Of what year???

kport wrote: It is good that the VPT is Grade II listed.

VP actually has Grade II* listing (apparently it was upgraded about 4 years ago), which is highly unusual for a modern 20th century building. It covers all aspects of the building and crucially, to some extent, the immediate surroundings, so hopefully there would be negotiations on how much the developers could encroach on it, like not abutting a great flat skyscraper at the side etc.?

The downstairs Bar features and carpentry in the auditorium all come under the listing, and could not be changed without a hell of a lot of negotiations with English Heritage. So happily the VP should retain its character whatever the developers/owners want to do. (although it wouldn't stop them modernising the loo's!)

Borrobil wrote:

kport wrote: It is good that the VPT is Grade II listed.

VP actually has Grade II* listing (apparently it was upgraded about 4 years ago), which is highly unusual for a modern 20th century building. It covers all aspects of the building and crucially, to some extent, the immediate surroundings, so hopefully there would be negotiations on how much the developers could encroach on it, like not abutting a great flat skyscraper at the side etc.?

The downstairs Bar features and carpentry in the auditorium all come under the listing, and could not be changed without a hell of a lot of negotiations with English Heritage. So happily the VP should retain its character whatever the developers/owners want to do. (although it wouldn't stop them modernising the loo's!)

I expect the 2* upgrade was done as a result of all the planning permission surrounding the VPT. The * would give it extra protection. I would imagine it has been given that status because of its music hall heritage.

I wonder if London grants the same 'air rights' to existing buildings as exist in Manhattan? When a developer wishes to build much higher building than an existing adjacent buildings (in effect, encroaching on the light and even air above the building) the 'air rights' above it have to be 'bought'. It is my understanding that St Patrick's Cathedral received many tens of millions of dollars in the 1970s, when the skyscrapers next door were built, for the 'air rights' above the cathedral. Too bad it wasn't invested; the cathedral is appealing for upwards of $200 million for restoration work.

I'm not aware of any actual "Air rights" in the UK, although right to light, and right to privacy are considered important in planning. I guess financial quid quo pro's are not out of the question either, for loss of amenity etc.

Traditionally London's planning developed from a decree by Charles II after the Great Fire of London which is inscribed on The Monument and says:

Charles the Second, Great Britain, France and Ireland, passed an Act, that ...., with public money, buildings..be rebuilt from their foundations. They also enacted, that every house should be built with party-walls, and all raised of an equal height in front, and that all house walls should be strengthened with stone or brick......

So most of The City and Old Westminster is free of the irregular skylines of other capitals, until you move farther from the center.

In London "Sight Lines" to and from major Historic Parks and Buildings are of utmost importance (including Buckingham Palace) which is one reason why there are so many odd shapes, as buildings lean out of the way of views of major buildings.

I am wondering if the theatre ceiling collapse earlier this year would be a get-around to altering a Grade II listed building? Not that I have any plans (as I love the VPT just the way it has been since it became a large part of my world in 2005), but it would seem that all the inspections and huffing and puffing from structural experts in the wake of the collapse would possibly be a way to "subvert" (or as do-gooders always paint themselves in the best light, regardless of the outcome) or "improve" a Grade II building if the fix was structural and a bit of glitz and glam was snuck in here and there.

Not as if a theatre topped with a gold leaved statue of a 19th century ballerina isn't a pretty classy way to top off a theatre.....

Oh, and despite reality, I cannot get too excited about the massive Underground improvements around the VPT because I almost never ride the subway, mostly because I need an adult to hold my hand and make sure I do not exit the tube in Belfast, because that's what usually happens if I try to get somewhere without an adult or local guide. Yes, I know it's impossible to screw up that bad, but I'd manage the crossing and mileage if I was left to my own devices. But I do not hold all the improvements against locals or people who can use the Underground, because most normal people do this every day without all the drama.

tzwicky