Why do so many buildings catch fire during renovations?

You’d have to double the estimation.

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Triple it, you mean. He’s got amps to build before that.

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Just seen some renders of the proposed reconstruction of Notre Dame…

I think it looks fantastic. Respectful yet forward looking. 10/10 from me.

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It’s a no from me.

A Yes from me, too.

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I really like that.

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I think it looks nice, as well.

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Knock it down and build a homeless shelter

I wonder if it’ll be finished in my lifetime.

Don’t forget to factor in the strikes.

The palace of Versailles exists already, we don’t need a new one.

yes from me, looks amazing

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'Fraid not. There were no curves-to-points like that in Gothic roofs. Someone has tried to blend a mini Eiffel tower onto the top of it. Why ? They’ve already got one perfectly good Eiffel tower. They’ve also got three quarters of one of the best Gothic buildings in existence. It doesn’t need to be tarted up. The previous (19th century) pointy thing was questionable IMHO.

VB

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St Albans cathedral has partly fallen down a few times (it’s almost a thousand years old), and you can spot the times it was rebuilt by the different fashions of architecture. I imagine that Notre Dame is similar.

I have a friend who is doing up a grade 2 listed place. What to do with the 60s conservatory that is falling down, but has no architectural merit whatsoever?

There is no “original” left with really old places, there is a long history, and the buildings are often best if you continue that history, not reproduce a period of your preference from it.

We’re going to have to disagree about that. I reckon there’s a very great deal of original left with many old buildings - ecclesiastical ones in particular since the mass of their structures tends to mean you can’t ‘knock through’ or otherwise cut them about without the whole lot falling down, never mind just parts. And I’m guessing that with St Albans cathedral the new bits weren’t grossly out of keeping with the old - they didn’t fill the holes with half-timbering, or Jacobean sculpted brickwork, or Regency stucco, or whatever the fashion of the time was.

To be fair, right now Notre Dame has no roof. So we’re not talking about architects destroying something original. Whatever goes on top of it is going to be a ‘reproduction [or new production] of a period of [someone’s] preference’. Clearly whoever cooked the above scheme up prefers the modern period. IMHO a better basis for choice though would be to ask what works harmoniously with the original, what would cause people to look at it and say “Yes, that really makes it ‘whole’ again”. The word ‘integrity’ comes to mind, in its simplest sense.

But at least with a new roof if people eventually decide it’s an abomination then they can ditch it later without destroying something that really was original.

My answer to your question about the 60’s conservatory is that your friend should get a couple of other opinions about whether it really has no merit and, if everyone thinks it doesn’t, should apply to remove it. I see that listings occasionally explicitly exclude more recent parts of structures which whoever did the assessment reckoned were worthless.

VB

As long as the stone vaults are restored then there will be little or no impact on the interior of the Cathedral. I absolutely love the interior of these buildings and the stone vaults in particular. As they are vital to the integrity of the building as originally constructed, I hope they are restored. In that case the question of whether the proposed roof is appropriate or not is a matter of individual taste. I’m not greatly impressed with the proposal, but then I was not greatly impressed at the plans for the Reichstag Dome in Berlin and look at how that turned out:

In short, it should be up to the good folk of Paris to decide what they want.

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Not really. Each rebuild was done with the current architectural fashion, so the arches and amount of ‘flourishes’ is entirely out of keeping with the original. And that’s not taking account of the very substantial rebuild a century ago, where the main sponsor and architect Baron Grimthorpe gave English a new word! Grimthorpe Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Every* modern architecture style is loathed for a while until it is loved.

*E&OE

Counter example 1: High-rise housing was loved briefly. Then people who actually moved there to live started to find out how it really was, and it quickly became loathed. Some of it is now gaining re-acceptance as workable in certain locations for people with certain types of requirements.

Counter example 2: Brutalism was popular. Then, and to a large extent still now, it wasn’t. Actually I think some of it’s not that bad (South Bank, for example) and it has gained some acceptance simply because of the utter disapproval expressed by the man who gave us Poundbury - “You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe. When it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble.”

VB

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Poundbury looking more & more like Las Vegas (architecturally) each time I pass it. Utterly hideous.

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Garage door controller?

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