Good fool(ING)
Not to be out-trumped in the April Fools stakes this year, ING chairman Tony Danaher managed to convince half of his staff that they were going to be handling Donald Trump’s UK PR. The property guru called his team into the boardroom to announce the news, leaving his more gullible employees lost for words. A lucky escape after Trump’s poor performance in the Wisconsin primaries this week.
The word on the tweet
If there is one thing Diary loves, it is a fresh batch of new terminology. Current buzzwords in the real estate industry seem to involve the “isation” and “ication” of things. We all know about urbanisation, but what about “suburbanisation” – where talent moves out of the centre to the ‘burbs – or “domestification”, a new workplace design principle where we want our offices to have more home comforts. Diary wonders what the next “isation/ication” could be. Tweet your suggestions to @estatesgazette #diary.
Once more unto the breach…
Developers are faced with all sorts of challenges when bringing their schemes to fruition, some more unusual than others. Rob Allan, development director at Cain Hoy, who is leading the redevelopment of The Stage, EC2, the original site of Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre, has had to brush up on his knowledge of the Bard’s work. The site is set to include a viewing gallery of the stage once excavated and it will have associated visitor attractions. “I have not fully read Henry V,” which debuted at the site, Allan confides. “But I am up to speed with Romeo and Juliet,” which was also staged there during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Allan may rue not studying English literature rather than his “old-fashioned surveying degree” after all.
Grave mistake?
Diary is proud to admit that it went through its goth phase in the 1980s. What’s not to love about over-the-top graveyard chic? But there is a time and a place. And a 2016 planning application is not it, on either count. Why Berkeley Homes and EPR Architects decided to include the neighbouring cemetery in CGIs for their proposed 30-home redevelopment of a BMW Garage on Lee Terrace, Blackheath, SE13, we just can’t fathom. It certainly takes cradle-to-grave development to a whole new level.
