Dear Santa....

It`s that time of year again, the children are asking if it`s time to write to Santa ...in today's Scotsman the Haymarket Howler architect is already trying to get his demands in early. With a new arrival at the Cockburn Association, Santa and his little helpers in the council may not be able to give him what he wants. And he will have this former judge to hold him to account once again...


We thought we could help out with fulfilling not only this architect`s wants this Christmas but help all those in crisis with no real buildings to knock down, lives to upset and big phallic ugly high rise towers to build in this recession.



So for all you wee boys and girls, you know who you all - you architects, you developers, you in the Chamber of Commerce, you in the council planning and others departments, you in the government, you the PR Spin doctors, even you American tycoons (though there may not be a unspolit stretch of coastline on the board for grabs) here`s something to keep you all happy from Santa this year, you can even play online....while we can all sleep soundly in our beds...and with a tag line of

“Property Empire Building on an Unimaginable Scale”

we should have a little rest from their greedy nonsense demands on our city

Edinburgh Castle Outdated

In the republic last year, we told you of the council`s plan to re-brand Edinburgh and rename her Murrayburgh. after the architect they have charged with reshaping it

Well as things progress speedily, this week at the Haymarket Public Inquiry, it was suggested that well, castles are a bit old fashioned and de rigeuer of the day for city skylines are hotels and other symbols that scream Fred Goodwin, Mountgrange Capital basically " the age of greed"


The Haymarket Hotel artiste Murphy makes no apologies for changing the skyline.

But if his hotel is anything like his flats for us peasants in the Old Town, it will not be changing the skyline for that long.....now today is a day for getting out of town and building some castles on the beach ....perhaps a young Murphy was forever getting his sandcastles knocked down and this is his revenge.....big, bad hotels......The 17 Storey Haymarket Horror Hotel

What is A World Heritage Site?

Well, someone has been doing their homework!

The Big Question:

What is a World Heritage Site, and does the accolade make a difference?
By Paul Vallely The Independent Friday, 7 November 2008

Why are we asking this now?

A United Nations team is about to visit Bath to decide whether the city still deserves the accolade of a World Heritage Site. There are 28 such sites in Britain but Bath is the only entire city to be listed.

But the heritage police are worried. They originally called Bath "a city that is harmonious and logical, in concord with its natural environment and extremely beautiful". But now they fear this might be spoiled by a new development to which the city council's planning committee has given outline permission. It will add 2,200 houses with shops, a school and a park right next to the River Avon. Some of the buildings are nine storeys high.

Enthusiasts for the scheme attack those who would keep Bath as "a city in aspic" and worry that the whole project may be at risk if the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), which grants world heritage status, disapproves.

What kind of places are given the accolade?

Anything from a city to an individual building, monument, area, forest, mountain, desert or lake. There are currently 878 world heritage sites which include 678 listed for cultural reasons and 174 lauded as wonders of nature. These include the Great Barrier Reef, the Serengeti Desert, the Pyramids of Giza, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, Mount Kenya, Edinburgh's Old and New Towns, Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, Memphis and its Necropolis, Persepolis, the Palace of Westminster, the centre of St Petersburg, the Banaue rice terraces in the Philippines and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station in Mumbai. The country with the biggest number of sites is Italy, which has 43.

Great Barrier Reef

How did the idea begin?

In 1954, the desert valley containing the twin Abu Simbel temples – which were carved out of a mountainside in southern Egypt in the 13th century BC on the orders of the Pharaoh Ramesses II – were about to be flooded by the building of the Aswan Dam. Frustrated by the Egyptian government's lack of action to protect the ancient buildings, Unesco launched a worldwide campaign that saved the temples by relocating them to higher ground at a cost of $80m, half of it collected from 50 countries.
The project was such a success that Unesco campaigns followed to save Venice and the ruins of one of the world's earliest urban settlements, Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan's Indus Valley, as well as the largest Buddhist structure in existence, the Borobodur temple compounds in Java, Indonesia.

Who decides whether heritage status is granted?

The Unesco World Heritage Committee, which is elected by nation states every four years. It meets once a year to choose the world's natural or human-made wonders in the greatest need of protection. Any country is eligible to send in a list of nominees for protection.
This year, the committee met in Quebec City, Canada, and added an extra 27 places across the globe to its list of "endangered species". Among them were more than 100 monumental tombs at Al-Hijr in Saudi Arabia, built by the Nabataean people between the first century BC and AD100. Another was the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, where one billion butterflies overwinter each year. The committee also added the island of Surtsey, which appeared 20 miles south of Iceland as a result of volcanic eruptions between 1963 and 1967, and is a pristine natural laboratory for the study of plant and animal colonisation.

What are the criteria for inclusion in the list?

Each site must meet at least one of 10 criteria. They must represent a "masterpiece of human creative genius", be "an important interchange of human values" or "bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to civilisation" past or present. Or they can be an outstanding example of a type of building or settlement which illustrates a significant stage in human history. They can "contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance", or be outstanding examples of major stages of Earth's history or ecological and biological processes in evolution. Sites can also house threatened species "of outstanding universal value".

How political is the choice?

Well, just nine per cent of the world heritage sites are in Africa and seven per cent in Arab countries, compared with 50 per cent in Europe and North America. This does suggest a certain cultural bias, but there are other political considerations. The US, whose government saw Unesco as a stalking horse for Communist and Third World countries to attack the West throughout the 1980s and 1990s, has refused to propose any new heritage sites since 1995. In that year, plans to open a gold mine near Yellowstone Park in Wyoming got the area placed on Unesco's "world heritage in danger" list. Conservatives in Washington decided that the scheme was an undercover attempt to subvert America's rights to govern itself and to destroy the fabric of US sovereignty.

Have there been any other controversies surrounding the scheme?

Pressure groups use world heritage status as a lever in political battles. In Australia, a group of Aborigines teamed up with environmentalists in a dispute over a uranium mine in the middle of the Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage Site which is home to hundreds of species of wildlife and is one of the country's oldest places of human occupation, dating back 60,000 years. Unesco called on ministers in Canberra to put a stop to the mining project, but the government hit backing, saying Unesco's report contained errors of fact, law, science and logic.
There was a similar row over a controversial hydroelectric dam project in La Amistad International Park, a world heritage-designated site which straddles Panama and Costa Rica and is Central America's largest and most diverse virgin rainforest.

What are the benefits?

Listed places receive extra media attention and tourists. That brings extra money in addition to cash from Unesco's preservation fund, though only developing countries can apply for the grants. Britain contributes £130,000 to the fund every year but gets nothing back, although world heritage status can attract extra funding from the national lottery and the private sector.
Publicity can help. Two 150ft statues of Buddha carved into a mountain in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan in the 6th century, and which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, have received more than $4m from Unesco to help with the re-sculpting of the damaged stones.

And the disadvantages?

Listed places receive extra media attention and tourists. The higher profile that listing brings can draw an influx of visitors that poorer countries cannot handle. Fore example, the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu in Peru have all seen massive increases in tourism. Sometimes listing does more harm than good and upsets the delicate balance between promoting places and preserving them.

Does it help to have World Heritage status?
Yes...
* It brings extra funds to poor countries to help conserve places of universal value
* It draws attention to the world's most neglected treasures and places of historic interest or natural beauty
* It can save places from total destruction by natural or human forces

No...
* It brings in floods of extra tourists whose footprint can do more harm than good
* It can have the effect of preserving a living place in aspic and stifling innovation
* It can undermine a country's right to make decisions about its own heritage
Related Articles
Development puts Bath's UN heritage status at risk

Well its happening elsewhere, the blatent disregard for having World Heritage Status. The beautiful city of Bath is under threat of losing their status, at the hands of Property Developers Crest Nicolson whose PR firm appears to be none other than infamous PPS who are the spindoctors for Caltongate Developers, Mountgrange see PPSClientsRead the Icomosobjection to the Bath plans. It all sounds depressingly familiar doesn`t it? Unesco are the body responsible for World Heritage Sites. bathpreservationtrust and bathheritagewatchdog are doing their best to protect their citys` heritage.Here its the EdinburghWorldHeritageTrust and the CockburnAssociation along with concerned citizens.

Anti-Heritage Meeting as Caltongate Grinds to a Halt?

News has reached the Republic that a well known Edinburgh architect is to host an anti-world heritage conference when delegates from UNESCO visit the capital.

Caltongate Developer`s Myers and Chande

In The Scotsman today-

"Among projects facing delay are the long-awaited replacement for Meadowbank Stadium, an extension to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and the massive Caltongate development in the Old Town"

Could it be one of the two architects involved in Caltongate who is organising the anti-world heritage conference?

Architects Hit back in UNESCO Row

Malcolm Fraser?

This month, Fraser attended The Cockburn`s annual lecture with Prof. Herb Stovel, where he sat with his head in his hands, not looking his normal cheery self....but perhaps he was uncomfortable, hardly surprising when he has openly referred to The Cockburn Association as the Toxic Wing of the Heritage Lobby...

Allan Murray?

or could it be the Haymarket`s Richard Murphy ?

Murphy has spoken of UNESCO being the "Conservation Mafia"

"What is Unesco? Who is Unesco? My experience of Unesco is some brand, a conservation mafia. I’ve quickly come to the conclusion that conservation architects have an exceptionally limited view of the world and architecture within it."

Keeping the Faith in World Heritage

Above the Osbert Lancaster cartoon was signed off 29 years ago tomorrow, could have been today somewhere in an office in Edinburgh ...

Professor Stovel is one of the world's leading experts on conservation matters and assessed the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh for UNESCO World Heritage site status in 1995.

Tonight he is giving the The Cockburn Annual Lecture Keeping the Faith in World Heritage: Issues and Challenges
at the Edinburgh College of Art, Main Lecture Theatre 18:30 - 20:30
Cockburn Association

Listen to the Professor , one of the world’s leading authorities on conservation matters, in discussion with the EWH Chairman Professor Charles McKean last year on …What makes Edinburgh distinctive and how does it compare with other World Heritage cities?
Hear Listen to the Podcast

All cartoons are by Osbert Lancaster who is being currently celebrated in an exhibition in London see More here

Caltongate Developers Thank Council

The guy outside the City Chambers is saying

"They want to thank the people who made it all possible"

The banner to the left says "Stuff UNESCO" and the banner to the right says

"Cockburn Association - Bring it On"

This excellent cartoon by Frank Boyle in today`s Eve News 28 Aug 08 sums up the mood in Edinburgh yesterday so well

The Times 28 Aug 08 and Crowds Make it another Gold

Unlike the city council leader who doesn`t have a clue what the people of Edinburgh think...

"Councillor Andrew Burns, the city's labour leader, thinks most people in the city would find the research results odd.

He said: "This is very surprising. It is certainly not a description of Edinburgh I recognise."

see Edinburgh a Miserable Place to Live

SNP local councillor knows what`s what, though-

"local councillor David Beckett urged colleagues to take the opportunity to "correct their mistake" and refuse the application.

He said: "The Caltongate plans should have been refused by this council at the first opportunity. "The biggest concern is the effect this will have on the city's World Heritage Status, yet I was told at the last meeting on this subject that it was 'scaremongering' to suggest that this development could cost us that," he said.

He was backed up by Green councillor Steve Burgess, who said the development should at least be delayed until after the Unesco report – which is not expected to be until late next year.

Full article Eve News Article Today and the paper`s editor doesn`t seem to have his ear to the street either -Editorial Today

The Oracle Speaks

Architect Malcolm Fraser enjoying his Caltongate Masterpiece

Photo from SOOT Bloid see more at Cuboid.org

Nightmare on Jeffrey Street Pics

The following is from an article entitled Malcolm Fraser objects to Planners full piece here - ArchitectureScotland from 24 Jun 2008

The piece is very confusing, perhaps Malcolm is beginning to realise the errors of his ego but still cannot see he has been part of the problem, ach as Rabbie Burns would say "if only we could see ourselves as others see us"

He says -

"Usually traditional Planners get poor press; but my recent experience of them in Edinburgh, picking their way sure-footedly through the maelstrom of the "Caltongate" process, has left me with great respect for what they can achieve when they are properly-resourced and concentrate on their statutory role. However, where traditional amenity planning should lead, there is now a perception that it is only one of a four-headed monster, made up of often conflicting design leaders."

The only piece where he loves the city`s planners, perhaps because they love his Caltongate masterpiece???

"First, there is the Heritage Lobby: a diverse bunch, ranging from an increasingly-surefooted Historic Scotland through to the toxic wing, led by a desurgent Cockburn Association.

There are significant sections of the lobby that forget that it is architects and master-masons and not them that have led the conception and adornment of this breathtaking city, and believe that design leadership is now somehow theirs."

This is what Malcolm Fraser has said about Malcolm Cooper of Historic Scotland!

"Malcolm is great because he puts himself around, he comes and sees people and he is interested in listening as well as talking."Historic Scotland has changed. The understanding of the value of heritage is evolving, and I welcome their readiness to enjoy good modern work."

More here on Historic Scotland

And do remember -

Caltongate Developer Manish Chande is a Commissioner of English Heritage as well as being on their finance and business committees. Cooper moved from English Heritage in April 2005 to Historic Scotland. Mountgrange bought the New Street site "known as Caltongate" in late 2004

"New Urbanism is a very different disciple from traditional amenity planning. For all its faults the amenity agenda can be bent to support the things that I care about in building happy communities: sunshine, view, fresh air, gathering places etc." Have a look at your building above Malcolm!!

"The new Dundee waterfront is a New Urbanist "utopia", with its "joined-up" urbanist blocks a solid wall of mediocrity blocking most of the city from the sun glinting off the silty, silvery Tay." Again look at your own buildings!

Then its me, me, me -

"My practice has won the Edinburgh Architectural Association's "Building of the Year" five times in the last ten years and I lecture on the city, on behalf of the city, frequently. On what basis am I to understand that some architect who has - let's say Ð built a couple of hospitals abroad, taken a Planning course and been appointed as an Edinburgh Design Planner, should lord-it over me, secure in his superiority?"

"The last big issue is how the Council procures its own work. My practice regularly wins work from other authorities but has not, to date, been able to from our own city. Scotland's three Stirling finalists reside in Edinburgh, but we three have submitted maybe forty times for work and have never even been shortlisted. (On a project like the Grassmarket, which I was instrumental in initiating, and even raised finance for, the "reason" I was given for not making the OJEU second stage being the truly-numbing "...that we lacked experience in the historic built-environment of the Old Town".) "

Currently Allan "award winning architect" Murray gets all the jobs, why? see earlier postings on this wee man fae New Town Glenrothes.

"These are all reasons for Edinburgh to change its behaviour; but there are also reasons to believe that this might happen. What I would like to see (at both local and national level) is our Heads of Planning concentrating on doing their own job a bit better, and getting their tanks off our lawn."

Fighting talk Malcolm!

"We also need to rid ourselves of our planning obsession with what things look like, and care instead about how they work - concentrating on getting our infrastructure right before we start to think about how to form buildings and space to suit our aspirations, rather than making re-heated Victoriana our starting point." Well this says it all Malcolm!

And now he`s really getting cross -

"And somebody needs to audit the performance of Design Champions and identify the best model while, in Edinburgh, Farrell and Marini need to learn how to be useful. (I note that Council Leader, Jenny Dawe, has asked for better links to Planning in Farrell`s second term, but I believe that much more work is needed to cement that relationship)."

Now he gets excited...now Dave Anderson is a high flyer from the Oil Industry...just the man eh Malcolm!

The best news is that we have a new Director of City Development, Dave Anderson, and are soon to get a new Head of Planning, and we have to believe that they will bring a fresh perspective to bear: re-assert and resource traditional Planning, utilise our creative talent, bring the Design Champion into useful play, invest small sums wisely and create the framework necessary to reinvigorate our city.

Margo Questions Alex

Go to 18mins 58secs First Ministers Questions on Thursday 19th June 2008 to hear Independent Msp Margo Macdonald question the First Minister Alex Salmond on the Government`s decision this week not to call in the Caltongate Planning Applications, his answer was brief and he said the City Council are best placed to consider developments for the city....are they really, considering they entered into a questionable land deal ?

This is currently under investigation by the EU

Remember this? Developers Funded Labour from 21st Feb 2008 in The Times from the article

"Links between the Labour Party and the developer of the controversial Caltongate project in Edinburgh have come under renewed scrutiny following the disclosure that the company, Mountgrange, made a £4,000 donation for a champagne reception at a Scottish Labour Party fund-raising dinner."

Now if it had to go to ministers because of the financial interest why oh why did the First Minister brush it aside so quickly when questioned by Margo Macdonald? Saying the council were best placed, its obvious they are not, and the only thing that matters to them is the money promised....this tawdry development the means they believe the only way to get it.

And remember this?

"The scheme will have to go before the Scottish parliament in any event, as the city council has a stake in the scheme. Mountgrange bought some council-owned land around the site it owned, a former bus garage, which was due to be developed. The council will receive a small share of the profits from the site. ‘It was done to make sure the council didn’t sell us short,’ says Berry. ‘It only has a passive involvement.’ "

"In October, eyebrows were also raised over the appointment of Donald Anderson, former council leader, as Scottish director of PPS, the public relations agency that is promoting Caltongate on behalf of Mountgrange."

This appeared in Property Week on the 14th March Full Article Here

Really does the whole thing not stink as much as an American Tycoon`s Toupee??

And let us not forget that developer Manish Chande is friends with Malcolm Cooper of Historic Scotland, that Manish Chande is the Property Portfolio boss in Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.

"Ron Hewitt, chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "Meeting Malcolm and hearing his views has been a breath of fresh air.

and Caltongate Architect Malcolm Fraser even sings the praises of Malcolm Cooper "Malcolm is great because he puts himself around, he comes and sees people and he is interested in listening as well as talking."Historic Scotland has changed. The understanding of the value of heritage is evolving, and I welcome their readiness to enjoy good modern work." says Malcolm Fraser who is the architect of the controversial building for Jeffrey St, see below.

Full piece here Historic Scotland and Caltongate

My worries over Caltongate grow By MARGO MacDONALD

THE 2000 objections to the Caltongate development came from town planners, architects, people who live in the Old Town, elsewhere in the city and outside the Capital: a disparate group possibly only united in their pride in, and concern for, Edinburgh.

Full article here Evening News 20th Feb 2008

News Flash - St James Centre is an eye sore!

12 days to go to Planning Committee

Jings, crivvens and help ma boab - a news flash that took 40 years to reach us! St James Centre is an eyesore! Poor thing hasn't even reached it's 40th birthday and so monstously condemned and put on the shelf. Modern 1970s shopping doesn't suit anymore. More hotels to be built, more arcades, more of everything really. St James Centre was seen as essential to the development of modern Edinburgh in the 70s. Up until the 60s St James Square. Leith St and Greenside was a residential and busy shopping area but they were no longer seen as modern and were deemed "slums" so were knocked down to build the "brutish" St James Centre. Will Caltongate be called that one day. Will anyone care that we tried our very best not to allow the Canongate to become a 2nd rate 21st Century St James Centre?


Check out what St James Centre looked like before the wrecking ball here

And what guess who - yes Allan Murray is to be the architect and wants to build across the road too here

Are memories so short, are lessons never learnt? The cooncil's bammers, sorry I meant planners are recommending to pass ALL of the developers Planning Applications for Caltongate.

From the Evening News today
Replacement for St James eyesore unveiled in £850m galleria vision
By SHÂN ROSS
IT HAS been derided as an eyesore by conservationists, shoppers and architects since it was built in 1973.
Now, the St James centre in Edinburgh has revealed proposals for an £850 million transformation in what could be come the biggest city centre development for decades. Plans unveiled yesterday include a public square, roof-top garden, two hotels, shops, luxury flats and new streets.The original building, an example of "brutalist architecture", would be demolished to make way for a three-storey, crescent-shaped arcade.The ambitious plans, which could be completed by 2015, were welcomed last night by conservationists. Moira Tasker, director of the Cockburn Association, said: "It is an opportunity to rectify the mistakes of the past and create a legacy this generation can be proud of." Sebastian Tombs , chief executive of Architecture and Design Scotland, a body set up to champion good architecture, said: "The skyline is a very important aspect in thinking about the cityscape. "Now is the time to be thinking quite boldly, asking questions and exploring all the issues."However, Dr Miles Glendinning, of Docomomo Scotland, a pressure group that fights to preserve 20th-century buildings, said the plans would be "unforgivable" and quickly become out of date. But he conceded: "There is such a consensus among civic opinion that this postwar building should go that it would be impracticable and implausible to put up a fight to save it."His comments came on the first day of an eight-week public consultation on plans by the centre's owner, developer Henderson Global Investors, to demolish the existing centre.The centrepiece of the proposed St James Quarter in the heart of the Edinburgh World Heritage Site would be a crescent-shaped, glass-roofed multi-level galleria, inspired by the 19th-century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. The arcade will sweep from fashionable Multrees Walk to the centre's current Princes Street entrance.The John Lewis store alone, of all the current 50 retail outlets, would not be demolished but the other shops could be housed within the galleria.Chris Pyne, senior portfolio manager at Henderson Global Investors, said: "This redevelopment will provide a major boost to retail in the heart of the Scottish capital. We recognise the significant public interest in the St James area, and the importance it holds for … the city."Continental-style shopping - complete with roof gardenTHE new St James Quarter could replace the existing St James shopping centre.• At the heart of the proposed development is a crescent-shaped, glass-roofed, multi-level galleria with public-access roof garden. Existing shops, except John Lewis which will stay where it is, could move there.• Three
distinctive new buildings adjoining the galleria will house cafés and restaurants on their lower floors.• A series of continental-style public squares will be included to encourage shoppers to walk through the quarter from different directions.• The venture will involve the creation of a new street from Multrees Walk to the entrance to the present shopping centre in Princes Street. The crescent shape reflects the design of streets in the New Town.• There will be two hotels, one of them five-star. The Thistle Hotel may be the second one.• There will be office suites and the potential for a number of new homes on the galleria's upper levels.• There will be a cultural hub – an independent cinema, art gallery or festival venue.• A new public square, lined with cafés, restaurants and a hotel, is proposed for the area around St Mary's Cathedral.