Landmarks - Page 4

WillowTheWhisp · 17-06-2006, 13:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madhatter

well there you go then build a new shelter on the coppice out of bricks but design something into perhaps even using light like the spaceship one. you could do something then on the ground to link that across to the monument which would be refubished and perhaps raised on a new plinth. or encircle it with twelve monilith stones to represent time and have scenes of accy carved in to them. brick lines radiating out from the centre to each stone. or have chrome steel carved and outlined in black, each uplit at nite with colour changing lights.

Now if we HAD to have something on the Coppice that actually sounds better than some of the things we've been offered.

My main objection to the placing of something up there is the very fact that the only two things we have up there already have been vandalised and there is no guarantee that something new would not also succumb to vandalism. There is no real concrete plan for maintenance and upkeep, just some kind of vague hope that the council would find the funds from somewhere because of all the new business the existence of a panopticon would generate.

OK Gayle I'll grant you that Wycollar isn't a park in the sense of Oakhill but the panopticon there isn't actually towering over the town is it? It's snuggled away like theBlackbirn one in Corporation Park.

I did think we'd been offered and rejected the spaceship as there was a story about it in the media at the time along with the Hollywood style Accrington sign. So what have we been offered then apart from "High Form" which was a bit of a non-starter. I remember asking if we were compelled to have that artist but I don't know if I got an answer to that.

WillowTheWhisp · 17-06-2006, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madhatter

well there you go then build a new shelter on the coppice out of bricks but design something into perhaps even using light like the spaceship one. you could do something then on the ground to link that across to the monument which would be refubished and perhaps raised on a new plinth. or encircle it with twelve monilith stones to represent time and have scenes of accy carved in to them. brick lines radiating out from the centre to each stone. or have chrome steel carved and outlined in black, each uplit at nite with colour changing lights.

Now if we HAD to have something on the Coppice that actually sounds better than some of the things we've been offered.

My main objection to the placing of something up there is the very fact that the only two things we have up there already have been vandalised and there is no guarantee that something new would not also succumb to vandalism. There is no real concrete plan for maintenance and upkeep, just some kind of vague hope that the council would find the funds from somewhere because of all the new business the existence of a panopticon would generate.

OK Gayle I'll grant you that Wycollar isn't a park in the sense of Oakhill but the panopticon there isn't actually towering over the town is it? It's snuggled away like theBlackbirn one in Corporation Park.

I did think we'd been offered and rejected the spaceship as there was a story about it in the media at the time along with the Hollywood style Accrington sign. So what have we been offered then apart from "High Form" which was a bit of a non-starter. I remember asking if we were compelled to have that artist but I don't know if I got an answer to that.

Gayle · 17-06-2006, 14:34

What we have done in Ribble Valley is a labyrinth at Clitheroe castle.

http://www.land.uk.net/Clitheroelightlabyrinth.html

In one way it's a little bit like a panopticon but because it's not called that, they welcomed it with open arms.

firefoxfem · 18-06-2006, 17:07

I quite like the spaceship, it's better than the egg one

Gayle · 18-06-2006, 20:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

So what have we been offered then apart from "High Form" which was a bit of a non-starter. I remember asking if we were compelled to have that artist but I don't know if I got an answer to that.

A steering group was formed - chaired by Cllr Brian Walmsley and including at least three other councillors from both parties.

A curator was asked to come up with a shortlist of five architectural practices that were interested in designing something for the Coppice. She looked at the work of a number of architectural practices and brought a short list of five to the group. The past work of these architects was put in front of the steering group and they chose three out of the five to produce some ideas.

The three architects came up with designs which were then put on public display in six places and a questionnaire was put by the side. We received only about 50 responses. Only about 12 said that they did not want any of the designs, the rest expressed a preference for one or the other.

The steering group then had presentations from each of the three architects and selected the architect Peter Beard based on the responses and based on their own opinions.

Peter Beard was then asked to go away and redevelop his design which is when he came up with the High Form design. Before he went away to redevelop his design he'd actually submitted four ideas and I personally preferred one of them but when he was asked to redevelop the steering group asked him to look at the possibility of including the Accrington Pals in his thinking.

So, in answer to your question, we haven't been offered anything other than High Form however, there were plenty of opportunities to influence the design along the way. As I said, the incident with the Halo and then the rejection of High Form really left us with no room to manoeuvre at that point.

What frustrates me a little is that only 12 people actually bothered to look at the complete sets of designs and object. A higher proportion than that actually voted for one or the other of them. About 40 people turned up at the Town Hall meeting and the majority were in favour, equally a meeting at Huncoat Area Council had a majority in favour. I don't count the poll in the paper because they didn't print all the designs and so gave a biased picture to the ones that were never likely to be acceptable in the first place. Even people on here have said that they would be open to the right design given a chance.

But when you're faced with 'no, no, no' without any dialogue there really isn't anywhere else to go.

We (MPA) have four out of six of the designs being built this year so at the moment we're too focused on them to go looking for new sites and new architects for Hyndburn but it isn't totally ruled out yet. Having said that, the project time is running out.

Madhatter · 18-06-2006, 22:20

The site is the coppice in my opinion because it's the only open publicly accessible space available from which people will be able to view it. The land project could do something in the other parks possibly.

It's about time people got talking so that you got something instead of nothing, because it's obvious that most people want something.
Perhaps peter beard should hve asked for local ideas first, makes people think that they have input rather than being asked for opinions after somone has designed something. Make the design process a big community thing, even a competition the final design being based on the winner.

Madhatter · 19-06-2006, 19:24

testing 123

Gayle · 19-06-2006, 19:57

The thing is Mad that there are 100s of different ways to have gone about the process and yes, in hindsight you could argue that we chose the wrong way but how were we to know that at the time?

The basic idea was to get an up and coming trendy, professional architect enthused about the town. If it had all worked out then Accrington would have got a name of the future designing something of significance. It worked in four out of the six districts so it wasn't a bad system. The Burnley one has won awards and is going to be featured at the Royal Academy this summer.

There is a community engagement programme that would have kicked in after the Panopticon was in progress - the Land project.

Guinness · 19-06-2006, 20:53

I've sledged down devils drop, kissed girls in the shelter, played 'japs and commandos' in the trenches, fished in the quarry, watched the red devils jump out of their plane, strolled over to 'gamblers caves', swum in the lagoons and simply sat on the steps of that sighting stone (or whatever it is) and took in the view, to name just a few things that the Coppice has given to me over the years...I still have the pleasure of just walking my dogs up there a few times a year

Designing something to put up there would be like putting hardboard over an oak panelled door. I wish someone would slap a preservation order on it or declare it a place of natural beauty.

Madhatter · 19-06-2006, 21:15

lol a preservation order on the shelter or the graffiti on the tumbling down stone?

SPUGGIE J · 19-06-2006, 21:19

Nowt wrong wi them emblems of teenage fun.

Like Guiness I did all the same and a few I will not comment on.

Madhatter · 19-06-2006, 21:23

yes, you did, as I did down here, but life goes on, and so does progress, as it once did when both the shelter and the monument were built. I wonder if people objected back then.

Guinness · 19-06-2006, 21:51

There is graffiti in Pompeii, and the Acropolis is 'tumbling down', maybe those should be altered by some trendy young architect, and we'll call that progress too shall we?

Gayle · 19-06-2006, 21:56

But if things didn't progress we'd all be living in mud huts.

Madhatter · 19-06-2006, 21:58

ah so you think those pics are ok. you like them. Right I'll do accy town centre to match then. green paint over broadways new planters, that will make it look ace, then we can all play japs and cammondo's through the arndale too, Me and gale will have our base at the arndale and try to take your's the coppice.