I REFER to the letter, "Conserve city’s heritage buildings” (July 24), specifically the second paragraph. At the public participation meeting that I attended at the Barn on Monday July 16, not one objector said the extension "should be designed to look like the old building”.
The objection, by numerous people, me included, was specifically directed at the front facade facing onto Whites Road. We felt the proposed extension was not sympathetic to the old building, that there should be at least one architectural feature from the old building incorporated into the new extension to "tie” it architecturally to the older building.
Some suggested that the proposed extension looked more like a factory and said the design was also not sympathetic to the urban environment in which it would be situated.
Also, I must mention that the extension, for reasons of practicality, to allow people to move between the interior areas of the two parts, is to be attached to the older building. It will not be a free-standing structure such as the pyramid designed by IM Pei in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris, which is mentioned as an example later in the letter.
Elaine Hopewell, Port Elizabeth
Letters
| Letters
