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'Hotchpotch' extension to Tate will be approved
By Ross Lydall, Evening Standard 27.03.07
An artist's impression of Tate Modern Two, described variously as ‘well adapted’ and a ‘disfigurement’
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This dramatic extension to Tate Modern is set to be approved despite concerns about the "hotchpotch" scheme disfiguring one of London's most distinctive buildings.
The £215 million proposal takes the form of a collection of glass boxes stacked in a pyramid shape.
It would stand 250 feet tall compared with the 317 feet of Tate Modern's central chimney. Planners at Southwark have recommended that councillors grant approval tonight.
The extension would increase space by 60 per cent at the gallery which attracted more than five million visitors in the past 12 months, making it the world's most popular modern art gallery.
The annexe, known as Tate Modern Two, has been designed by Herzog and de Meuron, the Swiss architects responsible for the transformation of the former Bankside power station into Tate Modern in 2000.
It has been praised for its daring form but also criticised for destroying the symmetry of the original design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, whose other work includes Battersea power station.
The annexe would be built at the south-west corner of the building and have 12 levels. There would be three terraces, one offering a panorama of London, one a view of the new "Tate Square" piazza and the third a bird's-eye view of the turbine hall.
Work could begin next year and be completed by 2012 but private sponsorship and Lottery funding has yet to be secured.
Tate Modern project director Vivienne Bennett said: "I think it's an extraordinarily welladapted vision of how you can take the existing building and add to it in a way that is still in keeping with the palate of materials and proportions of the existing building."
Ken Livingstone has endorsed the extension and donated £7million of London Development Agency cash.
However, David Lunts, head of policy at the Greater London Authority, said the existing building's silhouette would be "significantly interrupted".
Architectural historian Professor Gavin Stamp described the new building's entrance as a "gratuitous disfigurement" that would remove more than half the fine brickwork of the power station's southern facade.
The Twentieth Century Society said the " hotchpotch" design will spoil the symmetry of the Tate as approached from the Millennium bridge.
Neighbours said the extension-will "stick out like a sore thumb" and glow at night. But government advisers the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment "applaud its ambition" and said it and the original buildings will be "strong, distinct characters".
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