WEARchitecture

An interesting article (and great comments) on Ashburn House, in Backhouse Park. 

OH NO.....

Preistman building revamp.

After Sunderland university have produced some of the cities most interesting and exciting buildings this is a complete disaster. I am so disappointed with this, I can't believe how boring and stale it is. Its surprising the University have released this flythrough as it lacks any kind of ambition or creativity. I cant imagine it will inspire any of the artists who study here.

The original building was financed by John Priestman in 1939, he did so much for the cities architecture and built environment. I'm sure he would be as disappointed as me to see what they are doing with his building if he was still alive. Having studied at the Glasgow school of art, seeing how Charles Rennie Mackintosh dealt with those art spaces, this is what this type of revamp should aspire to get close to.

The proposed work is costing the university a whopping £6.5 million. I would suggest they make some huge changes if they want to get something worth while. 

Roker Pier painted by me

I found this site through Twitter. A very beautiful and eye opening website totally dedicated to Sunderland. Im so happy to see this kind of thing happening and available. Sunderland has a lot to show off, even though sometimes it takes a very creative person to bring it out. Excellent work!

Follow the site on twitter @thisissunlun

Echo 24 building.

Designed by Mario Minchella Architects, Echo 24 is a landmark 13-storey scheme at the edge of the city centre, which occupies the narrow island site of the former Sunderland Echo printworks overlooking the River Wear. The £38m building has  won the Building Control Quality Award for Best Regeneration Project.

I went for a walk along Roker Pier over the Christmas period and took these photographs. It was a nice bight day but the wind was gale force and walking along the pier didnt feel too safe. There was however a good few fishermen braving the wind, trying to catch some dinner!

Roker Pier took 22 years to build and construction started in the 1880s. At the time the construction techniques were at the forefront of technology and engineering. On the pier you can see a couple of remaining tracks, these were part of this major construction process. During the build tracks ran a crane (named Goliath) up and down carrying the foundation blocks and other materials from land to the extent of the pier. A Subway was also created along the length of the whole pier for maintenance in bad weather conditions. See the amazing model, made by Fred Gooch in 2010.