More news of the BBC and its laudable plans to champion cutting-edge architecture. As you may know, the corporation recruited a panel of good eggs to pick the winner of its White City music centre. They include Sir Stuart Lipton, Bob Allies, David Chipperfield and BBC bigwigs Alan Yentob and Gavyn Davies. It seems their latest triumph is to delay the project further (it's already three months behind schedule). According to a Beeb spokesperson, the panelists are unlikely to meet again until October because they all have such busy diaries "and some of them haven't yet had their holidays".
The camera loves him
If you read last week's issue, you will be aware that Kevin Arnold, the charismatic boss of quantity surveyor Franklin + Andrews, is to transfer to his former rival Gardiner & Theobald. And if you read this column on 11 July, you may recall that Arnold has a penchant for painting large-breasted nudes. Anyway, the move prompted a search for pictures of Mr Arnold, but the only one we turned up was the above shot of Mr Arnold enjoying F+A's recent day out at the Henley Regatta, which will no doubt amuse his new employers. Arnold has now provided a more sober shot (inset), although he tells me that he has been unable to get it "professionally air-brushed to make me look more like Leonardo DiCaprio". Come now, Kevin 鈥� there's no need for false modesty.
The Les and Trisha Show
No, it's not Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, or even Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler but 鈥� Les Sparks and Trisha Gupta. Gupta, the top architect at housebuilder Countryside Properties, and Sparks, who is the former director of planning and architecture at Birmingham council, are to be guest speakers at Bath-based architect Aaron Evans' celebration of its 25th birthday in next month. As you may have guessed from the invitation, the practice chose the silver screen as the theme for the event.
Yes, Virginia 鈥�
"I've been wondering where today's great concrete buildings are," mused Tory doyenne Virginia Bottomley in her speech at the launch of the Concrete Centre, which took place at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington. "Then I went to the Scottish parliament building," she gushed. Yes, of course, if you had to pick one project, an exemplar, an apotheosis, nay a pole star whose light all other projects should seek to emulate it would definitely be the Scottish parliament. Oh yes. No question about it.
What a banker
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