THE caption over your illustration of the proposed extension to the library at the University of York (August 18) would surely be more apt if it read 1920s revisited.
While this pathetic reworking of 1920s styling maintains the university's deplorable record of architectural ineptitude, it surely also illustrates the current desperate state of British architectural design.
I have some sympathy for the architect in charge, when he explains... "we had to establish a new development which fitted in with the architectural character and framework of the existing campus."
As there are so many conflicting architectural styles it was, perhaps, inevitable the resulting design would fail to achieve the impossible.
Far more sensible, surely, is to design a building that would be aesthetically pleasing and at ease with the original J B Morrell Library building.
The same approach should also have been taken for the recently-completed ugly computer department block to the left of the present library.
Come on University of York, show you can secure the same high standards in architectural design as you have achieved in academic excellence.
Derek R Wortley,
Turner's Croft,
York.
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