Gardeners instinctively know that flowers and plants are a continuum and that the wheel of garden history will always be coming full circle. – Francis Cabot Lowell There is something magical about a roof garden. Parks and backyard gardens are wondrous places, but when they are placed high above the earth on a rooftop, where they are not supposed to be, the experience becomes invigorating and unforgettable. In a
Emerging from the Bethnal Green tube stop, one might feel as if they had got off in Harlem instead of London. Sad, 1960s buildings line the street, with even sadder storefronts: quality car store, low-price tyres, off license city supermarket, City Chic. It in the middle of this neglected street is Bethnal Green’s old Town Hall, unassuming, yet stately. This 1910 Edwardian structure was built at the height of British
Pubs are a fascination of mine. Some of the older ones in London are tiny, hidden gems. Some have much written about them, others have hardly anything. The latter is the case with Williamson’s Tavern, located in the City of London, down the street from St Paul’s Cathedral and several pubs Sir Christopher Wren himself would frequent. The following is the result of an exhaustive search on Williamson’s Tavern, its history,
adaptive reuse case study THE DEPTFORD PROJECT location: Deptford, London former function: Jubilee Line commuter train carriage built: 1960s previous architect: unknown new function: café and bistro remodeled: 2008 architects: Studio Myerscough The Deptford Project, a delightful coffee shop in a redundant London Underground carriage. Photo ©Heather Shimmin On 14 February 2008, after a very slow journey from Essex, a 35 tonne, 57 passenger, decommissioned 1960s commuter train carriage
Green roofs are catching on in New York. It is no surprise that is the people who are leading the movement. In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Friday, I had the unique opportunity to visit the extensive green roof atop the Linda Tool and Die Corporation in Brooklyn.
I’ve just finished my MA program at New York University in Historical and Sustainable Architecture. The focus of the program is Adaptive Reuse, urban regeneration, and sustainability. I was fortunate enough to be able to study in London. My time there was all too brief but it has opened my eyes to the possibilities of adaptive reuse and just how far behind America is in such matters (among others, but
Hampton Court History in Brief Hampton Court Palace sits on the banks of the Thames in Surrey. Cardinal Woolsey transformed Hampton Court, a grand house when he acquired it, into a sprawling palace in the mid- 16th century. So impressed was Henry VIII with the Cardinal’s palace that Woolsey “gifted” it to the King (he really did not have a choice in the matter). Of all of his palaces, Hampton
Entrance to Sachenhausen Concentration Camp. Photo ©Heather Shimmin About 40 km north of Berlin, in the small town of Oranienburg, is Sachsenhausen, the first Nazi Concentration Camp. Sachsenhausen’s design was the model on which all other Concentration Camps were based. Its triangular shape was so that a single, mounted machine gun in the watch tower (in the centre of the triangle’s base) could reach the entire camp. The