Riverside revamp designs ‘appalling’ (From York Press)

Riverside revamp designs ‘appalling’

9:37am Thursday 22nd November 2012 in Letters By Readers' letters

THE designs for the revamp of the area near the Guildhall are appalling (The Press, November 20).

If they are the best five from 36, then heaven help us all – they would look out of place in Milton Keynes.

I can’t believe the council allowed the one on the front of The Press to get past the shredder.

Have they and the designers forgotten we are in an 800-year-old city?

It’s a shame none of the illustrations had Lendal Bridge for comparison.

I fear some of the architects have forgotten it exists.

We have lost a lot of old buildings since the 1960s to modern designs and it doesn’t do anything to enhance the city, Stonebow and part of Goodramgate, to name but two.

Dave Matthewman, Green Lane, Acomb, York.

• THANK YOU for the article on Tuesday about the shortlist for the proposed redevelopment of the River Ouse frontage at Guildhall.

The only good thing about the one shown of the front of the newspaper is the pontoons, which are badly needed in the centre of York.

However, they should be available for a limited time each day to all visiting boats to York and not exclusively for Yorkboat or for a river taxi or bus service, whoever the provider.

The only designs worth considering are those shown on page three next to the photograph of Coun Julie Gunnell.

The squashed up ‘‘beach huts’’ on stilts, shown on the front page, are surely not a serious contender.

I would rather have Tracy Emin’s famous beach hut, which she sold to an art museum in New York for many thousands of dollars.

Let us have a sensible debate as to the future use of the historic Guildhall.

Surely some ideas as to its use should be considered before any ideas as to a design?

Tony Martin, Secretary, North Riding Branch, Inland Waterways Association, Clarence Street, York.