{"id":9598,"date":"2013-07-21T10:51:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T10:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/?p=9598"},"modified":"2013-07-21T10:51:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T10:51:13","slug":"the-landscape-architecture-of-the-bbc-plaza-in-portland-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/the-landscape-architecture-of-the-bbc-plaza-in-portland-place\/","title":{"rendered":"The landscape architecture of the BBC Plaza in Portland Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2013\/jul\/02\/rein-top-pay-mps-poor-furious Simon Jenkins<\/p>\n

Most of us puzzle about how the BBC spends its money but a former editor of The Times (Simon Jenkins) explains the process in easy terms<\/a>: You are sitting with some friends round a table on which is stashed \u00a360m. It comes from a poll tax on television sets, free of Treasury control, and you can do with it what you like. You can use it for better television programmes, give it to low-paid staff or even return it to the taxpayer. No one will know, except a bunch of toothless trustees. So you smile nervously at one another, reach forward and pocket as much loot as you can grab<\/em>. With this guidance we can imagine how the BBC Plaza on Portland Place came to take its shape:
\nBBC Boss<\/em> Will the planners buy MJP’s design for the building?
\nMajordomo<\/em> Yeah. MJP say we shouldn\u2019t have any problems. The design is a re-conceptualised post-transmogrification of the 1928 Val Myer and McGrath design. It plays on the neo-classicism of Nash’s All Soul\u2019s Church and the Art Deco of Broadcasting House.
\nBBC Boss<\/em> OK. How about the plaza then?
\nMajordomo<\/em> We could have a great landscape design. But it would cost money.
\nBBC Boss<\/em> Yeah. Let’s slab it. Then use lettering to advertise all the lucky countries we broadcast to.
\nMajordomo<\/em> Yessir. It’ll cost some brass farthings but won’t dent our pension pot.<\/p>\n

Luckily, it is not too late to add an installation: a cloud canopy of glass sheets to make an outdoor-indoor space for people and plants. Image inspiration 1<\/a> Image inspiration 2<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2013\/jul\/02\/rein-top-pay-mps-poor-furious Simon Jenkins Most of us puzzle about how the BBC spends its money but a former editor of The Times (Simon Jenkins) explains the process in easy terms: You are sitting with some friends round a table on which is stashed \u00a360m. It comes from a poll tax on television sets, free of Treasury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}