Martin Filler’s piece at the NY Review of Books excoriates the Philadelphia architecture firm‘s new design for the American embassy in London. A large part of the design constraints apparently came from the US government, which wanted a building in a less populated part of London; a building with less shatterproof glass (the glass exterior is coated with polymer); and landscaping with water and lots of hillocks and berms — all of which are to protect against expected terrorist bomb attempts.
When Googling around to find out info about demolition of buildings for the Convention Center expansion I came across Inga Saffron‘s blog Skyline Online which is an extention of her columns for the Philly Inquirer. I read every post on the blog’s front page and am completely smitten — and embarrassed I’ve not discovered this blog before now. This is a passionate blogger who’s also a journalist and her stream of posts on public art, architecture and planning is terrific.