Tag Archives: Seattle

May 4, 2011

Ghery gets it wrong?

By Tim GARRATT

I am usually a fan of Frank Ghery’s architecture – one of my favourtite buildings is the EMP in Seattle which I visited in late 2009. I thought the building was brilliant – striking and clever.

At the side of the HighLine in New York is another of his efforts – the IAC Building which I have photographed a few times. It is different although much more conservative than the Seattle ‘statement’. His Dancing House building in Prague is clever too as is the Guggenheim Museum in Balbao.

But his latest building in New York, next to the fantastic Woolworth Building and iconic Brookyln Bridge seems a bit of a disappointment.

It is huge – 1.1 million square feet and has been named the Beekman Tower. It climbs 76 stroeys and houses some Hospital space, a school and 903 apartments. You can read about it here.

But having just been opened I think it is one of Ghery’s least inspiring pieces of work. It looks as though the ‘Gheryisation’ has comprised some crinkly tin strips applied to the facade. It looks like a tall building with some bling? Surely with the amount of money and the talent of the architect this could have been really good?

I think it is a lost opportunity…

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Nottingham

December 31, 2009

2009 – a year in review

By Tim GARRATT

I think as you get older the years just seem to fly by much quicker. But looking back on 2009 as the year draws to a close, I tried to think through the highs and lows of the year. On reflection, many more highs than lows I think. Which can only be a good thing! So here goes:

High Points

1. A great weekend in September at St Andrews celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We stayed in an amazing hotel overlooking the 18th hole at the Old Course. Where did 25 years go? St Andrews is a magical place – I can’t believe we had not discovered it earlier. It helps if you like golf…

St Andrews - and the 18th hole on the Old Course

2. Our son Jack getting 8 GCSE’s and a place at Confetti. This despite his Dyslexia. And then Jade getting a hard-earned place at TeachFirst and working in two challenging schools. Adam worked on another film – the details of which I will spare you, but if I said it was an NHS Information film – that’s enough of a clue!

Jack, Jade and Adam - in the Summer.

3. Lesley and I seeing The Killers at Madison Square Garden (New York) in January. Quite a long way to go to see a gig but they were just brilliant – and then we came home and saw them again at The Arena in Nottingham. Musically the Isle of Wight featured in the calendar again – and was great – especially the infamous toilets & showers… I wasn’t sure about Neil Young though!

The Killers play Madison Square Garden NYC

4. The opening of the Abel Collins ‘Drury Bungalows’ in November – at the end of a three year stint! I think they are great and four couples will move in shortly! The Sheriff of Nottingham and his Lady did us proud on the day – and I think the bungalows are brilliant! Designed by Marsh Grochowski they are ‘of their time’! High green credentials make them highly energy efficient.

The Abel Collins Almshouses - Drury Bungalows

5. My trip with the Sheriff of Nottingham to the USA in September – to research World Class attractions. We visited six cities in 10 days, flying 12,500 miles. It was exhausting but informative – and there was some fun along the way. Highlights – Segway riding, The Experience Music Project in Seattle, Getty Museum in LA, Alcatraz, The High Line in New York and Little Boots in concert – and much more!

The USA tour team - at Top of the Rocks NYC

6. Seeing Jack play his first gig as part of the Hockley Hustle 2009. They were great (I may be a bit biased). That all of their friends turned up was just great to see.

Jack playing drums in his first gig

7. A great holiday in Dartmouth – including an interesting two days sailing – more so for me than Jack – who was none too well! It may have been something he ate – or could it have been the force 7/8 gale?

Dartmouth

Dartmouth Harbour

8. The celebrations in Paris for our friends John & Denise celebrating their 50th birthdays! They are getting old and I am one of the babies of the group. Good to see the gang growing old disgracefully – long may it continue.

The NHR gang do Paris in the Spring!

Low Points

Seeing Nick Hammond and Nick Lewis leave Castle College – both loyal clients over 17 years, but also really nice people & people I regard as friends. I do expect both of them to make returns in 2010!

Nick Hammond in LA (on the right.. in case you wondered)

And that’s it. I wonder what 2010 will bring – hopefully the same split again – or preferably no low points. But already things to look forward to – Minsk in January?, Skiing in February, MIPIM in March and at some point New York (again). I have also agreed to help the Bromley House Library look at the possibility of building an extension / upgrading the wonderful facilities they have!

Lots to look forward to then…. Happy New Year!!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Business, MIPIM 2010, Nottingham, Robin Hood

December 22, 2009

My favourite building this year!

By Tim GARRATT

As I have blogged about before, I went this year to the USA with the Sheriff of Nottingham to look at World class attractions – in the anticipation that we could transfer some ideas back to Nottingham with a Robin Hood theme. When I looked through the thousands of images I took in the year I wondered what was my favourite building in the year. And the winner was – The Experience Music Project / SciFi Museum in Seattle.

The experience music project - Seattle


The building split the group of us – a marmite moment!

Exterior facade of EMP - Seattle


I loved it.

EMP Seattle - Ghery architecture at its best!


It was designed by Canadian architect Frank Ghery He said “I wanted to evoke the Rock’n'Roll experience without being too literal about it”. His client was Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame). Ghery was the first person to use a computer modeling system called CATIA – which was used in the aerospace industry. As he said – “we did a building by computer for a computer guy”!

400 tons of steel was used – on top of which are laid 21,000 aluminum and stainless steel shingles. At the heart of the centre is the Sky Church – with a 70 ft high ceiling and the worlds largest LED screen it is an amazing place.

I think it is where art and architecture merge. It is challenging – the colours are amazing. And the wow factor is high! We had mixed views about what was inside the building – but that doesn’t take away from the building itself!

It was my favourite building in 2009. By a country mile!

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December 18, 2009

Guessing about 2010

By Tim GARRATT

As 2009 draws to a close everyone has started to try and second guess what will happen in 2010. And the reality is that we all want to sound very knowledgeable, but we are just guessing.

The original Starbucks in Seattle - business holding up for coffee shops?


The impact of a General Election is simply unknown. If the Tories win (as anticipated but not a ‘given’ in my view) the first few days of Government are going to be interesting. Can you imagine when they go to the piggy bank in the corner of the Treasury to discover it is not only empty, but is in millions of tiny pieces.

Retail property is a good barometer of the economy – it used to be manufacturing, but that has long since gone. The state of the retail industry is not good – 2009 was bad for many – as I have blogged about before. Woolworths was the big bad news story. Oddly coffee shops have done ok. But nationally it is estimated that 12.7% of our shops are vacant – up from around 5% in 2007.
So what of 2010? I can’t see vacancy rate getting better – will it reach 15%? Maybe.

Will the retailers have a good Christmas – I think they might. Last year there was an element of uncertainty, but we know we are in a mess and there seems to be an attitude of ‘getting on with it’. But by April when the new Rating Valuation kicks in there might be some more casualties.

I suspect the bottom end retailers such as Primark, Aldi, Lidl & Netto will also do well. The rich are still rich and so perhaps the high end will be fine too – but the middle market might suffer. We might start to see the emergence of local retailers again.
The effect on the property sector will be a move to shorter leases and rents could be driven down in secondary or tertiary positions. Prime rents might remain flat.

All told, 2010 will remain challenging – and we need to be fleet of foot, flexible and bright thinking! And if there is to be a car crash in Government, adopt the brace position – and pray the airbags work!

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December 14, 2009

Nottingham – Planning for the future

By Tim GARRATT

Last week I was invited to attend a breakfast presentation to see what the City Council had learned from the review undertaken of its Planning Service by Addison Associates.

EMP Seattle - would you get Planning Permission for this on Maid Marian Way? Thought not!


I was consulted earlier in the year – partly as a result of my involvement in the Castle College planning application for the rebuilding of the maid Marian Way campus. I won’t dwell on that process, but it was the 9th scheme that went before the Committee – with an Officer Recommendation, only to be adjourned. We did get the consent, but in reality had missed the window of opportunity. Subsequently the LSC funding debacle cost more than the scheme – it had a human cost too.

Jennifer Dearing is the interim Director of Planning – for a six month period. Her primary role as she explained was to push through the changes and improvements highlighted in the review. In fairness Jennifer started the presentation by listing some of the good things about the Planning Team – it wasn’t all bad! Nottingham lead the way on Transportation and produce some excellent written reports. But she did acknowledge that there was a lot to be done – partly as a result of a theme which came from the consultation:

Nottingham is less easy to do development in than other UK cities

Sadly I think this is true. It is difficult to highlight exactly why – but we do seem to get hung up on all manner of minutiae. To some extent Nottingham Castle causes as many issues for development as it benefits the City in tourism (if it does?). We shy away from tall buildings, but I am not sure why. We have critical views lines – from bizarre points (Musters Road West Bridgford?). We have to respect heritage – but I am not convinced we have a consistent approach – viz. The Nottingham Contemporary.

The positive news is that Jennifer is setting about trying to change all of this – and this must be welcomed. Jennifer has said, “Are we going to be a city famed for its modern, high quality architecture or a city well known for keeping the scale of development in keeping and in character with a much more human scale.”

Although not drawn on the answer this question is critical. I know what i think!

But we might also see the introduction of Planning Performance Agreements for large scale developments – which should be welcomed. These can give the Applicants an amount of certainty in the process.

I look forward to the new look Planning Service – Nottingham needs it to compete on the world stage. And we need to tell everyone too that there is a new broom sweeping clean – so that the people with bad past experiences might come back and give Nottingham a second chance!

Nottingham is a brilliant place – but could be better. The Planners have a critical part to play in our future… But so do the members of the Planning Committee!

My suggestion about making Nottingham the Friendliest Place in the World runs deep into the corridors of the Planning Department!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Business, Nottingham

December 6, 2009

When the little green men arrive what shall we do?

By Tim GARRATT

Bad news this week that the MOD have closed down the UFO reporting hotline! After 50 years it seems that the MOD have got bored of taking meticulous notes of ‘sightings’ and are no longer answering the phone. And it saves the UK £44,000 pa. But the log of sightings is amazing – see here for 2008. There’s hundreds of them! But worryingly 5 lights in Calverton on 12 February – and that’s not that far from my house!

The flying saucer I think I saw In Seattle!


So what do you do now if you are the lucky (?) one who sees a flying saucer. Rather unhelpfully the MOD just says ‘It’s not us who you ring’. So who do we call? I think it quite important if you do see a UFO landing (or just whizzing by), so suggest Downing Street. Ask for Gordon. Unfortunately, like the MOD you can’t actually ring them, but you can fax…. I include a link here for you.

And worryingly, there is a service which sends messages into space here. The Aussie folks have been sending texts to Gliese 581d, a planet outside our Solar System, which at a distance of 20 light years, or 194 trillion kilometres, away is the closest Earth-like planet that could support life. If there are aliens there, they will need a dish to receive the message, which will not arrive before 2029. So if they reply we will hear in around 2049? Perhaps the MOD should plan to open up the hotline just in case?

And I am sure the little Green Glieseys will be thrilled to get this text from PS Linsay in Brisbane – “Hi. Can you take me away from this God awful place. Thanks in advance!”

So we are sending messages out, but have no service to make sure the red (flying) carpet gets put out if they pop over for tea in their flying saucers. Am worried now. We need to take this more seriously.

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October 17, 2009

Email round robin letters – myth or real?

By Tim GARRATT

Last night I had an email from Bob at The World Wide Robin Hood Society – following my presentation at the Sheriff’s Commission yesterday. I made reference to the original Starbucks shop in Seattle – where I went last month as part of my Grand Tour of the USA.

Pike Place Market Seattle - The Original Starbucks store

The previous day Bob had received an email from a contact – and lots of people were copied in, it went something like:

Subject: Starbucks!!!

Recently, British Royal Marines in Iraq wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffees, and to request that they send some of it to the troops there.

Starbucks replied, telling the Royal Marines thank you for their support of their business, but that Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee.

So as not to offend Starbucks, maybe we should support them by NOT buying any of their products!

I feel we should get this out in the open. I know this war might not be very popular with some folks, but that doesn’t mean we don’t support the boys on the ground, fighting street-to-street and, house-to-house.

If you feel the same as I do then pass this along.

Thanks very much for your support. I know you’ll all be there again when I deploy once more.
Sgt. Howard Wright, 1 Platoon, Recon Company, Royal Marines

PLEASE DON’T DELETE THIS… PLEASE PASS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR E- MAIL LIST, IN MEMORY OF ALL THE TROOPS WHO HAVE BEEN WOUNDED, LOST LIMBS AND EVEN DIED, SO THAT WE MAY HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE !

Also, don’t forget that when the Twin Trade Towers were hit, the fire fighters and rescue workers went to Starbucks because it was close by for water for the survivors and workers, and Starbucks CHARGED THEM!!!

AN ADDED NOTE TO THIS: STARBUCKS HAD STORES ON SEVERAL MILITARY BASES IN THE UNITED STATES. THEY ARE NOW BEING REMOVED BECAUSE OF THIS.

There are 227 Starbucks stores across the UK , and there’s no doubt that our soldiers would get the same response from this company, so let us do our bit and boycott Starbucks to show them how despicable their actions are.

A fairly straighforward story? But I have seen similar things before and there is a great website where you can check out such emails to see if there any truth here.

And guess what – not it’s not true. Sgt. Wright issues his email in 2004 – and yet it is making the rounds this week. He also issued a correction. But that doesn’t seem to circulate!

This is what he said:

Dear Readers,

Almost 5 months ago I sent an e-mail to you my faithful friends. I did a wrong thing that needs to be cleared up. I heard by word of mouth about how Starbucks said they didn’t support the war and all. I was having enough of that kind of talk and didn’t do my research properly like I should have. This is not true. Starbucks supports men and women in uniform. They have personally contacted me and I have been sent many copies of their company’s policy on this issue. So I apologize for this quick and wrong letter that I sent out to you.

Now I ask that you all pass this email around to everyone you passed the last one to.

Thank you very much for understanding about this.

Most people know I am a big fan of Starbucks – that’s not really why I have blogged this story. My point is much more that the internet is a fantastic tool for spreading information quickly. But once it spreads it is quite difficult to stop – and retractions might not suit everyone!

So the moral is beware of these sort of stories – and check Hoax-Slayer before you send stuff on! I don’t blame Bob, by the way, these emails look genuine!

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