Hugh's sense of place

Architecture critic Hugh Pearman re-works his RIBA journal piece on MediaCityUK for the Sunday Times Culture section today, and in parts, he's ruder about quality than before.

"It wouldn't have hurt to have hired a top-class architect to steer this through from first to last, instead of cobbling it all together with many hands.  Yet this doesn't seem to be how the world of British regional property developments thinks".

But he's soon back on course: "Despite my reservations, I wouldn't be in despair if I were a BBC evacuee about to be put on a train up north. Architecturally, it may have missed the boat, but the masterplan hangs together.  This is not a bit of window-dressing regeneration, but the real thing, with real jobs, big enough to make a difference across the whole northwestern economy.  Coming here used to feel like coming to the ends of the earth. It may still be far from perfect - one sighs at what it could have been  -  but it feels like a real fragment of city. It is a place".