Finally been told by the contractor this is going to be finished and handed over next week.
AA Design and Make review with guests of this year’s project, and below, review of the scheme in Buro happold’s offices
The home straight – gutters going in this week, scaffold strip next week, and then it’s ready for use.
Final piece of the jigsaw – the curved stair – going in to Stillpoint just before the client moved in today.
Went back to the Archangel recently for a friend’s birthday, for the first time for a while. Still looking good, although there’s a lot in the detail that I wish we’d done differently. I was most distressed by the nosings on the mild steel stair which someone had added – visible in this picture, and also a steel handrail on top of the glass which I hated. I enjoyed doing the project though, and reminded me how interesting conservation type work can be. I remember asking Peter Salter once why he was doing a conservation course, and he said (obviously) ‘Because I’m interested in materials…’ which made me realise how locked in one particular mindset I was. This space in the photos was on the ground floor (not visible below 2 floors of mezzanines here) a skittles alley with a false ceiling and all the spaces visible in the photographs were inaccessible except for pigeons for the last 50 years. The Archangel has just been bought by a pub chain, and I wonder whether its rather eccentric charm will be retained.