#US25 - “A roller-coaster 25 years of high design...but of course it will never work!”
As part of our 25th anniversary exhibition, It Will Never Work, in collaboration with RIBA North, the last eight presidents of the RIBA have reflected on the contribution that Urban Splash have made to architecture, regeneration and the built environment over the last 25 years.
The third in the series comes from Ferguson Mann founder and former Bristol Mayor George Ferguson.
"Of course, it will never work.
“A couple of mad-hat dreamers building a mould breaking design-led property empire, ignoring all good advice from surveyors and agents?
“What a farcical notion that they can change the way we live in our cities by gutting and stuffing old industrial buildings and sites that no-one else would touch - and in our challenged Northern cities too.
“If anything makes one believe in the art of the impossible it is the improbable story of these two rock stars of urban regeneration who then had the cheek to invade the South!
“It has been a roller-coaster 25 years of high design, demonstrating that dogged determination, and wild imagination, combined with some of the best architecture in the UK, is a very potent mix - but of course it will never work!”
The position of RIBA President was established in 1835 and has been previously held by significant architects including Sir George Gilbert Scott, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Alfred Waterhouse and Sir Basil Spence.
'It Will Never Work' exhibition dates
20 June - 12 September Glenn Howells Architects, 321 Bradford Street, Birmingham, B5 6ET
17 - 28 September RIBA London, 66 Portland Place, Marylebone, London, W1B 1NT
