Concrete has a history extending back at least 2,000 years. Rome has been called the Eternal City, but it wouldn’t have lasted long without concrete. It’s the reason why the Coliseum and the Pantheon are still largely intact, not to mention thousands of miles of Roman roads.
When Centre Point was Grade II listed in 1995, it joined a family of remarkable buildings and structures – from telephone boxes to tube stations – that tell the story of how central London has developed. Here is a quick guided tour.
In late 2011, I went to interview Dr Wilem Frischmann, the engineer who built Centre Point. This is the third and final part of our conversation – see earlier posts for part one and part two.
In late 2011, I interviewed Dr Wilem Frischmann, the engineer responsible for making Centre Point a reality. The story behind the building’s construction is remarkable in many ways, not least when it came to laying the foundations – a process in which Dr Frischmann took a close personal interest, which almost proved his downfall.
This is the second part of our conversation – you can read the first part here.
The three-metre neon letters at the top of Centre Point must constitute one of the most frequently read pieces of text in London, visible day and night for miles around.
We asked typographer Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag to examine the lettering from a professional point of view. Here, he gives us his thinking on the choice of type and what it adds to the building.
In late 2011, I interviewed Dr Wilem Frischmann, the engineer behind the construction of Centre Point. (For fans of Britpop trivia, he is also the father of Justine Frischmann, former lead singer in Elastica.)
If you don’t know Richard Seifert, the architect behind Centre Point, the chances are you know some of his buildings. Over the course of a distinguished career, he designed more buildings in London than Sir Christopher Wren. Here are a few of them.
It’s a strange irony that Centre Point – one of the biggest and most talked-about developments of its time – is the work of an unusually private man who has always gone to great lengths to maintain a low profile.
He’s been called ‘an awe-inspiring figure in the world of commercial development’ and his legacy has been compared to that of Sir Christopher Wren. Yet Colonel Richard Seifert, the architect behind Centre Point, has never exactly been a household name.
Think of Centre Point and you naturally think of the tower itself. But there is more to the building than that. Walk down New Oxford Street and you'll see a broad glazed bridge connecting the main tower with another substantial building on the other side of Andrew Borde Street: Centre Point House.
