Turn full beams off!

February 13, 2006

Dear Sir,

I am quite attached to my eyeballs. And I'd like to keep them functional for a little while longer. So to the obnoxious drivers who recklessly keep burning my retinas with their uber-powerful full beam halogen car lights, may I make the following suggestion?

If you are trying to maximise driver distractions (as if the encroaching stone walls, speeding scooter punks and drivers on the phone wasn't enough) perhaps you should consider adding a pulsating strobe light and a rotating neon beacon on top of your monstrosity. That way you can be sure to endanger as many people as possible as you speed your way back home.

Please Bermuda, wise up. Turn your full beams off.

I-BALL

Paget

‘Good architecture'

February 10, 2006

Dear Sir,

The erection of a new HSBC building on the former Trimingham's site constitutes more than another construction project. The execution of such a project carries with it symbolic force. One might look at the development and comment that an essential piece of Bermuda's history, formerly one of Front Street's defining characteristics, Trimingham's, is being, literally and figuratively, displaced. The question that, I believe, has not been addressed is one of aesthetics, but this term needs qualifying. It is not purely the appearance of the new building that is concerning, but rather how the appearance will be reflective of change within Bermudian society.

The removal of Trimingham's need not be a bad thing. Every society must cope with change. It is how we cope with this change that is important. The approach that needs to be taken, I believe, is one where typical Bermudian architecture is amplified. Not in such a manner that distorts and reduces the pictorial dignity of Front Street to grotesque. Such amplification is deplorable. Instead the ideals of Bermudian architecture, its colour and elegance, might find expression in a grander medium. HSBC are welcome to a large building, so long as it does not impose and challenge its environment. Let them build Trimingham's on a larger scale; let them update Bermudian architecture in a manner that exemplifies our continued progress in the 21st Century: allow international companies a measure of deign freedom, but ensure this freedom operates within certain parameters - parameters that respect our architectural heritage. In this way the desires of the company and the dictates of Bermudian culture cooperate - a (hopefully) happy compromise whereby Bermuda's architectural character is maintained, yet augmented by the assistance of foreign capital. This has long been the tradition in Bermuda: our lifestyle develops in tandem with the prosperity of international companies. Why should this not hold true for architecture?

The recent revision of the site's blueprints are an admirable aspiration to this ideal. Yet HSBC's intentions for this historic area of Front Street must remain open to public criticism. For only when we all agree upon the inviolable aesthetic of Front Street will the new building be “good architecture”. To borrow the words of John Ruskin: “All good architecture is the expression of national life and character; and it is produced by a prevalent and eager national taste, or desire for, beauty.”

EDWARD RANCE

Cambridge, UK