Books

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Books

Are you telling me that you actually get SUN in London

And are you sure it was Oxford and not Bond Street James Bond ...

The building itself is in Fenchurch Street. I thought the car fires were in Oxford Street but I could be wrong on this, so don't quote me.

I presume the problem has been resolved now (I think they developers were going to fit non-reflective glass), as I haven't heard anything more about it.

[jdal]

Re: Books

And back to libraries, Newcastle's (UK version!) new Central Library is very similar, a marvellous modern building and pulling in the people as it's just a really nice place to be.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Books

And back to libraries, Newcastle's (UK version!) new Central Library is very similar, a marvellous modern building and pulling in the people as it's just a really nice place to be.

Yes; I must pay a visit there some time.

Manchester (UK) also has a splendid library.

[Guest]

Re: Books

The building itself is in Fenchurch Street. I thought the car fires were in Oxford Street but I could be wrong on this, so don't quote me.

I presume the problem has been resolved now (I think they developers were going to fit non-reflective glass), as I haven't heard anything more about it.

A truly freaky and unpredictable outcome ... I bet the architect's face went fifty shades of bright red!
Presumably it was determined that the cause of the fire was reflected sun on the car and pavement, and not an electrical fault in the car itself.

[Bikie John]

Re: Books

Not the fault of the architect, I gather. He realised that if you have a concave reflecting surface facing the sun you are likely to set fire to things, and designed in features that would stop it happening. Somewhere between the plan and the execution a bean-counter decided to cut costs and those features were among the bits that got left out.

John

[Phill D]

Re: Books

It was setting fire and melting the paint on local shops too Mark. I didn't appreciate the bean counter influence John. Another successful cost saving exercise then

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Books

It was setting fire and melting the paint on local shops too Mark. I didn't appreciate the bean counter influence John. Another successful cost saving exercise then

..... And the road surface itself I believe!

The Jaguar suffered the worst damage, but other cars were damaged to a lesser extent on other days - presumably when the sun was not as bright.

Thankfully the double yellow 'no waiting' lines weren't burnt so council revenue collection wasn't affected.

[Bikie John]

Re: Books

It seems I may have been a bit too kind to the architect. The Wiki entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street has a bit about the "Solar glare problem", saying that the original spec included "horizontal sun louvers" on the south side but they had been removed at some point during the planning process.

He went on to agree with the developers in saying that the sun was too high on the day that caused the problems. "[I] didn't realise it was going to be so hot," he said, suggesting that global warming was at fault. "When I first came to London years ago, it wasn't like this ... Now you have all these sunny days."

Apologies to any bean-counters who may have been offended

John

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Books

It seems I may have been a bit too kind to the architect. The Wiki entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street has a bit about the "Solar glare problem", saying that the original spec included "horizontal sun louvers" on the south side but they had been removed at some point during the planning process.

He went on to agree with the developers in saying that the sun was too high on the day that caused the problems. "[I] didn't realise it was going to be so hot," he said, suggesting that global warming was at fault. "When I first came to London years ago, it wasn't like this ... Now you have all these sunny days."
John

I didn't think the position of the sun in the sky had anything to do with global warming? And don't you design buildings for the worst foreseeable conditions? That is how ships are designed; especially passenger vessels.

Apologies to any bean-counters who may have been offended

Bean Counters; offended?

I think they're all too thick skinned for that.

[Bikie John]

Re: Books

I didn't think the position of the sun in the sky had anything to do with global warming? And don't you design buildings for the worst foreseeable conditions? That is how ships are designed; especially passenger vessels.

Exactly. x 2.

John