| In the latest bulletin from the trust, while welcoming a trend away from the “porridge grey” cityscape of yesterday, Mr Searle says, “It is ironic the first building to bring new colour to the city was the truly awful Caledonian House, the office block alongside the railway station.
“This probably remains the best example in the city of how not to use colour.”
But the next building in his sights, the Apex Hotel at Victoria Dock, runs a close second to his first choice.
“The untreated cedar cladding which is perhaps seen at its worst on the hotel.
“One wonders why the lessons of the 1950s, that cedar boarding needs staining to avoid a shabby appearance, seems not to have been learned by modern designers.”
He notes that the pioneers of colour in the 90’s were the universities with the Hawkhill panorama showcasing the mathematics building, Wellcome laboratory blocks, new flats and the Queen Mother building.
The different approach taken by Abertay University, he says, is exemplified by the restrained use of warm colour in its library building, surely one of the best in Dundee in recent years and a stark contrast to what he describes as the Stalinist precast concrete block further along Bell Street.
The changes he notes contrast with the Dundee in the 1960s, when the stone of most of the buildings was grey, the granite setts on the roads were grey, smoke from the factory chimneys was grey and so, all too often, was the sky.
Even the new Dundee which rose from the rubble of the old town in the 60s and 70s was grey, including the Overgate shopping centre, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and the Tay Bridge.
Since then, he says, the use of colour has blossomed to the point where one could be forgiven for thinking one was on holiday in some continental resort. |
