Norman Foster’s cast glass design to honour Queen Elizabeth II will see a perfectly decent bridge destroyed and vast sums squandered at great ecological cost. And how will it stay sparkly?
• Translucent bridge to form centrepiece of national memorial to Elizabeth II
Is a £46m glass tiara the right way to remember the UK’s late queen? The Elizabeth II memorial selection committee certainly think so, in their choice of a glitzy glass bridge designed by Norman Foster for her permanent memorial in St James’s Park, announced on Tuesday.
As architects go, the 90-year-old Foster is perhaps the closest we have to a national treasure, so he might seem like a fitting choice – an establishment figure and safe pair of hands, who knew the queen personally. It could be an apt final project for the architect lord, although he shows no signs of slowing down.
His personal connection might have clinched the deal. Lord Foster of Thames Bank, who quit his seat in the House of Lords in 2010 in order to retain his non-dom tax status, says he met the queen on both formal and informal occasions, and it was this dual acquaintance that informed his design.
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