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London, England
Do you remember that sunny day, somewhere in London in the middle of nowhere
A rare moment of continuity.
The City of London is one square mile of pure Dickensian evil (ok it's not really evil, it's just got narrow streets filled with bankers and lawyers and, um, ok, it might be pure Dickensian evil after all). The City's newest addition (seen here reflecting in the Lloyd's of London tower) is...
... Sir Norman Foster's inescapable Swiss Re (33 St Mary's Axe) Tower. Called many, many suggestive things, its inescapable form now dominates the City. Even though it hasn't been finished yet (it will be soon) the tower has taken a lot of the recent buzz away from...
... the Docklands and Cesar Pelli's signature tower. It's tall, really tall, the tallest building in London. It is and has been the centerpiece of the Canary Wharf Docklands, a North American office park isolated a few miles west of the City. For at least three years now, the best way to get there has been...
... Sir Norman Foster's massive Canary Wharf Underground Station. It's as long as Cesar Pelli's tower is high and is far and away the biggest station the Underground has to offer (although the never ending escalators at the Westminster Station are still more fun). Sir Norman is all over London, from the New Wembley Stadium all the way to...
...the Millennium Bridge. You may remember this bridge and its wobbly past, yet now all is forgotten. The terribly convenient pedestrian bridge connects Saint Paul's Cathedral (home of the fifth or sixth greatest dome in all of Christendom) and the City right to the front door of the...
...Tate Modern. Designed by Herzog and de Meuron and home to Europe's second best contemporary art museum, the Tate is always fun and surprising, even when its signature space (the Turbine Hall) is closed for an installation. And now we’re going to double back to the…
... The Swiss Re Tower, looming ominously over the city like the big shot it knows it is. From every angle it looks fascinating but wrong, like a special effect gone somehow awry. Even in the city, tall buildings feel out of scale in London- a place where narrow streets brimming with disease infested urchins are expected at every narrow turn. Even when you get out of the city to...
... Greenwich, views of the distant towers at the Docklands feel out of place. It looks like any midwestern American city, an all abandoned downtown with tall buildings just because other cities have them. The Docklands isn't that bad, but in reality more suburban than urban. This is the view from across the Thames, where in the last few years the...
... Hungerford Bridge opened to a pedestrian crazy public. This is the west leg of the dual crossing Hungerford Bridge, connecting Charing Cross station and the Victoria Embankment to the South Bank right near the wheel. The Hungerford Bridge is more used and far more convenient that the much more publicized...
... Millennium Bridge. It's nice to finally walk across it- its supports are designed so that as you find yourself in the center of the span they all but disappear, leaving you alone with the river and well engineered guardrail, designed to deflect river wind up and over your head. Looming beyond the bridge is the always popular...
... Tate Modern. Inside, on an escalator, is my favorite unintentional picture of the slide show, unmistakably the Tate.
