Comments on: Forth Road Bridge Toll – Reiach and Hall, Edinburgh

By: Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:55:16 +0000

Puts me in mind of this:

http://badbritisharchitecture.blogspot.com/2009/07/pier-head-ferry-terminal-liverpool-by.html

By: René W

René W — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:35:42 +0000

All these modern “steel-glass” buildings with much plastic and cold colors that are mainly build today are ugly and become much more ugly within some years….. The Scottish people have so nice old buildings, made with real big stones.. These buildings should still be made! They are looking phenomenal and after some years they even look better in some cases.
I mean who would visit a ruin of a 200 years old rotten glass-steel building?? Answer: Nobody. Who visits castels and old (real ones) houses? Answer: Everybody likes it! We even like to go and visit ruins! Check out Athen! Its a collection of rotten stones but we love it!
So,.. dear architects… Please give us buildings that our grandchilds can visit for their vacations! We dont like this glass shit.
Sorry for the spelling..and all the mistakes… Im wasting my workingtime for this and have no time left to proofread.

By: alex splode

alex splode — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:32:43 +0000

A distoreted crystal ?
How about a rectangle on legs with a wee bit shaved off !

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:27:03 +0000

This was a fascinating structure- it will be missed.

By: Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:15:23 +0000

I remember visiting Reich and Hall’s offices as part of a Architecture night-school course at Edinburgh Uni and being excited by the sketches of the toll booths.

Subsequently, I’ve been exiled to Somerset and trips home have become occassional – I only ever saw the erected canopy once but I picture it in my head every time I approach the Kingdom from the south – and probably always will.

By: Stuart Swanston

Stuart Swanston — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:48:42 +0000

On clear anti-cyclonic nights Neil Gillespie’s crystalline structure focussed stellar energy on ma baldy heid and helped me feel at one with the universe as I parted with the coins required to visit or pass through the Kingdom of Fife. Had it been built some years earlier it might have become a ‘must see” site for the UFO-logists who come up to see Rosewell and the Lang Whang for themselves tho I doubt Tam Dalyell MP would have changed his favoured TV interview backdrop from the Rail Bridge to the Toll Plaza. (He started using the former when he realised that constituents would tell him that they’d seen him on the tele tho they could seldom recall what he’s said. He resolved to have that iconic structure in the background of TV interviews and he continued to use it even when it was no longer in his constituency.)

By: The Colonel

The Colonel — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:53:41 +0000

Won’t be long before its deemed we need tolls on it afterall, and then another Toll building is commisioned at the publics expense. Why do they pull these buildings down? Is it not cheaper to keep them there? Will the young vandals just attack it if its empty? Why not turn it into giant bird sanctuary? Something, anything is better than pulling it down.

I never even knew that building (had) existed…short time lived right enough. Looks smart from the photos.

By: Iain

Iain — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:56:29 +0000

Jimbob
Posted June 11, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Whilst modern architecture has the capacity to both infuriate and inspire, I feel sorry for this website that BBC has brought so many talkative non-architects here

Quick stop them! The plebs who actually use our buildings actually have the audacity to give their opinions! Shock Horror!

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:22:18 +0000

Why do you have to make a statement in such a location? Is it not enough to let the location and the existing structures do the talking. Is it not sufficiently fashionable to design something diminutive which does not attempt to boost your own ego by trying to live vicariously off the glory of other buildings?
It appears that the architect in question was more concerned at saying “look at me look at me look at me” than designing something which was a) functional and b) sympathetic.
And as a result of the architect’s lack of sympathy, they can scarcely expect the public to provide theirs when natural selection takes place.

By: Magnus Wake

Magnus Wake — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:58:28 +0000

Sorry to say it but as someone who drove under each day of its existence I never noticed its architectural merit. The photo makes it look wonderful but from the approach by a driver I never saw anything special. Take note architects remember to look at it from the view point of the users not just from the kindest perspective.