'It makes me want to cry'. City dignitary slams latest 'carbuncle' tower block building planned for Central Milton Keynes
A city Alderman has spoken out in no uncertain terms about the designs of tower blocks being built in CMK, labelling them ‘carbuncles’ on the landscape.
Alderman Paul Bartlett, former Milton Keynes Councillor for Stony Stratford, slammed the latest plan as an insult to the city and admitted: “It makes one want to cry.”
He said: "Enough is enough and as yet another abomination is planned for our city...Why is the Council allowing this nonsense when it has the opportunity to approve something spectacular?”
The plan that prompted his outburst is an artists’ impression of how the former Argos HQ building in Avebury Boulevard is to be converted into 350 build to rent flats.
There will be three blocks of 10, 13 and 18-storeys respectively, built in a U-shaped layout in a style, according to Alderman Bartlett, that is “boringly reminiscent” of the 1960s and 1970s.
"Our city's skyline should be leading the way in architecture and sustainability but instead it is going backwards to the sixties and seventies,” he said.
"Cities around the world are building spectacularly wonderful iconic offices and flats yet Milton Keynes Council allows absolute rubbish… Many of us saw The Point and Xscape rise into the sky and it is so so sad to have a council guided by architects and the architecturally illiterate that do not care what they throw up".
The Argos building project is one of many new apartment-building schemes planned for the city centre. The biggest will be Saxon Court, the former council housing offices that will soon house a massive 33-storey high tower block.
Alderman Bartlett said: "Saxon Court will become another example of architectural boredom. And we already have the Hub which is about as architecturally interesting as now-demolished Mellish Court in Bletchley, and the new theatre car park flats will be even worse...”
He added: "I have just come back from Ukraine. The latest plans for CMK are reminiscent of Communist Odesa, Lviv and Kyiv, and the modern post Warsaw Pact Ukraine is transforming itself into a modern world full of imagination and hope. Just as Albania is.
“It is similar in Lublin, Prague and Vilnius...Yet in Milton Keynes the whole planning process is regressive, self serving and illiterate.”
He concluded: "Four decades ago, I was inspired to be move here from Leeds. Now, our council is insulting its residents with blandness beyond anything I and the 200,000 newcomers to north Buckinghamshire could ever have imagined and none of us thought possible.
“Is this the wonderful future promised for Milton Keynes by those in power? I really cannot understand what is going on in Milton Keynes City Council to even consider this horror show.”
Meanwhile, the architects for the Argos conversion scheme, AHR, have defended their design for the new apartments.
They state: “Creating visual interest, the blocks are of differing height, contributing to a sculptural composition that responds to its urban context. This massing strategy also ensures that the generous public realm is at the heart of the development.”