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The American Revenge
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17641 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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6 / 1990 |
2,033 Words |
| Author
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Kenneth Powell
Kenneth Powell is an architecture writer for the London Daily
Telegraph. |
American architects are "threatening London with a rash of quite unsuitable buildings. The revenge of the once rebellious colonies is to undermine our historic capital," Lord St. John of Fawsley has said, in response to the influx of U.S. architects into Britain. It is "an invasion, and one more of Vandals than Goths," says Lord St. John, onetime government minister and now chairman of the powerful Royal Fine Art Commission.
St. John was speaking to an audience consisting largely of British architects, whose professional figurehead, Royal Institute of British Architects President Maxwell Hutchinson, has also expressed concern at thee American "invasion." Hutchinson feels that British firms should receive the commissions that are going to Americans.
'Alien Approach'
Both St. John and Hutchinson, backed by a number of critics, argue that American designers has an alien approach. "Urban design," insists Lord St. John, "is not the American architect's strong point." Americans are used to putting up huge buildings on cleared sites - "If an old building is in the way," he adds, "it is more often than nor torn down to make way for its successor." He has evidently not talked to American developers outflanked by tough landmarking policies. Indeed, his comments are both patronizing and xenophobic. (An American architect working in London observes: "He reminds me of white supremacists back in the sixties who said they had nothing against blacks but world just prefer them to stay in their own areas.")
But why are the activities of American architects in
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