The Campaign for Better Elevations
The dozens of consultants appointed to take part in the design of a major project now include 'facade specialists', but these people don't presume to design the look of the elevations - that is one of the few jobs still left to the architect. However, a quick walk round many new developments suggests that some architects aren't much good at designing elevations. I don't offer any examples, but you can picture your own at this point. Is there a need for a new specialism? The handsome immeuble Lavirotte (or immeuble d'Alexandre Bigot ) in Avenue Rapp (two great names there), in Paris near the Eiffel Tower, has a sign explaining that it won 'le prix des facades de la Ville de Paris' in 1903. The design of elevations was also taken seriously as a discipline in its own right in London in the first part of the twentieth century. In the Survey of London one can find two typical examples of interwar buildings in Mayfair getting facade upgrades at the request...