Palumbo defended
Sir: Gavin Stamp's tirade against the Mies van der Rohe office tower in the City of London ('A monument to the dead', 12 May) was delivered with his customary elegance and verve. He should not, however, encourage readers to believe that anyone who supports the scheme is either (a) a naïve dupe of Peter Palumbo's publicity machine or (b) in the pocket of the Royal Institute of British Architects and/or an 'ageing architectural establishment'. Building Design supports Palumbo's proposal largely because it arises from a formidable combination of important site, excellent design, sympathetic client, and certainty of realisation once permission is given. This combination is, alas, all too rare. When it occurs it should be encouraged, whatever the views of the RIBA or of publicity machines.
According to Stamp, our support for Palumbo makes us part of a. reactionary lobby, but his arguments suggest this accusation is the exact opposite of the truth. Take, for example, his astonishing statement that Palumbo has 'pre-empted the two alternative schemes' for the site. You might think that the alternatives had Iren with us for nearly 20 years and that Palumbo is trying
to mess them up by getting something run up in the last 12 months. It is, of course, the other way round. Then again Stamp makes the curious claim, given his stated view that architecture is a response to a specific site, that the Mies tower 'could, quite literally [sic], go anywhere'. It could not, except in the sense that any building could. It should not because it was designed for the middle of the City and not, say, St James's Square. The regrettable fact is that critics of the proposals are trying to atone for mistakes they believe they have made in the past by picking on this design by a great modern architect.
The City Corporation, the people who gave you the delights of London Wall, is now so addled from years of approving or conniving in development that it is incapable of recognising architectural quality when it sees it. The only way to make it sit up and take notice is to be bigger than the corporation — hence the new Lloyds building. Unfortunately for Palumbo, he is just a private individual given promises of planning permission by the City fathers which have now been torn up and thrown in his face, having spent two decades carrying out his side of the bargain in the fond belief that they were men of their word.
Paul Finch
Building Design,
London SE18
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