Re: Erections: go to 'London (and Lord Foster and sidekick!)

We Brits aren't natural tower-erectors, cathedrals apart. We build them 
with bad grace. Until Norman Foster and his then sidekick Ken 
Shuttleworth produced the unexpectedly lovable 590-foot "Gherkin" at the 
heart of the City of London in 2004, we were bumping along in the wake 
of the Americans. They, obviously, knew how to build tall, from 
Manhattan to Chicago. In contrast we produced amateurish, lumpen, 
ill-proportioned things. Manhattan had the Empire State and the Chrysler 
buildings by the start of the 1930s: in contrast we weren't allowed to 
build taller than 100 feet in London until the end of the 1950s, on the 
principle that firemen's ladders wouldn't go any higher. It didn't help 
that London is built on squishy clay rather than the solid bedrock of 
Manhattan.

cont'd....
http://www.hughpearman.com/2007/05.html