黑洞社区

Missing the gravy train

Now that Crossrail has awarded its major contracts to a variety of American firms, one interesting question is what happens to the rather impressive teams of people assembled by the losing British teams. To take one example, Laing O鈥橰ourke lured two big hitters to its team: the massively experienced Charlie Ball from Network Rail, and Carl Devlin, BAA鈥檚 project leader at Heathrow Terminal 5. And not on miserly salaries, either, so we hear. Of course, the firm says the pair will be involved in plenty of other projects 鈥� in the current environment you certainly can鈥檛 afford to have senior people twiddling their thumbs 鈥� but some gossips are wondering if there鈥檒l be enough for them to do. 鈥淭here鈥檒l be blood on the carpet, mark my words,鈥� said one source 鈥�

But what do you really think?

In architectural circles, criticising your rivals鈥� buildings is simply not done. Thank God, then, for the world wide web, which is doing it for them. A new blog, , written by the anonymous 鈥淕host of Nairn鈥�, is making waves among designers thanks to its less-than-flattering reviews of developments by architects such as Assael, EPR and HKR. However, for some reason the author reserves most of his/her bile for Archial, the company formerly known as SMC 鈥� might the author be a victim of the design conglomerate鈥檚 somewhat chequered commercial history?

What's for pudding?

I hear that Michael Thirkettle, the boss of McBains Cooper, had an interesting experience in the Algarve recently. Apparently a newly made Portuguese chum invited him to dinner with some friends. The problem was the main course, which was sheep鈥檚 head. As the English guest of honour he felt obliged to tuck in with feigned gusto. In fact he was so convincing that when he finished, he was given an encore plate of brains and eyeballs. Thirkettle thanked him and began gamely choking down his seconds. After a while he looked across to find that his Portuguese friend wasn鈥檛 eating any. 鈥淎ren鈥檛 you having any?鈥� 鈥淣o, it makes me feel sick,鈥� he replied.

McBrains jokes to the usual address, please.

We was robbed

Much controversy during the music round of 黑洞社区 Design Partnership鈥檚 construction pub quiz last week. There was no doubt about what structure was named in the classic track that was played, 鈥�(Sittin鈥� On) The Dock of the Bay,鈥� but who was that singing an unusual cover of the well-known song? It turned out to be Percy Sledge, much to the bafflement of most. But there was general outrage when, during scoring, those who had written 鈥淥tis Redding鈥� were awarded the two points because 鈥渉e sang it originally鈥�. 黑洞社区 would like it to be known that, had fairness and natural justice prevailed, it might have achieved a better position than third. Not that we鈥檙e bitter, of course 鈥�

Streets of London

We know architects are always after extra fees, but we鈥檝e come across some who deserve at least a little bit of your money. Four young staff members from YRM Architects will be among those lining up to run this year鈥檚 London Marathon. 鈥淭eam YRM鈥� will be pounding the streets for homeless charity Alone in London, and a peek at their fundraising page shows they have already solicited 拢1,400 in donations from colleagues at Price & Myers, Aon, PIP Electrics, Cyrill Sweett and Gardiner & Theobald, among others. You too can join the distinguished list of sponsors and help vulnerable young homeless people at .