It is set to be the first casualty of a demolition plan for the north side of Renfrew Street that will sweep away existing buildings in preparation for Steven Holl’s vision.

It is to make way for a £1.5bn redevelopment, one of the largest in Europe, to provide a higher density mix of social and private accommodation.

Demolition is planned to begin in late 2010 but the estate will not be fully demolished until 2015.

Jon-Marc Creaney said: “I liked this building. In it’s industrial backland setting, it reflected the purpose and function of the building rather than being a simple cheap industrial shed, as simple as that!”

It is also now the earliest surviving example of the type nationally as the Castrol Building in London has been altered and re-faced. But it’s more than just an office block, it’s an integrated newspaper production facility with the podiumGlossary Term and slab offices linked to a separately treated but very fine attached printing works.

Information from Looking at Buildings

Nice kitty

Demolition has commenced on Top Gear presenter James May’s recently constructed Lego villa after a bill of £50k was quoted to dismantle and reassemble the plastic pile.

James' telephone

Legoland had been lined up to assign a plot for the unusual home, gauging it to be a star attraction for the home of all things Lego. But the building block theme park now say it is too expensive to move.

Around 1,000 volunteers assembled the two storey home in Denbies Wine Estate, Surrey, but the vineyard needs the land back to harvest grapes.

A facebook page had been set up by the TV personality in a last ditch bid to stave off the wrecking crews, ultimately to no avail.

Unusual amongst their catalogue however was this Edinburgh Hospital constructed between 1960 and 1968. It was arguably one of the most influential designs for a hospital pavilion but was sadly lost through fire in 2002.

It’s design continues to inspire however and Malcolm Fraser adopted its style for a new housing development within the hospital grounds.

Leslie remarks: “This was a Ferranti factory building and EAA Medal winner in 1988. It lasted about 12 years. Going…. Going….. Gone.”

“The projects were built immediately on a rush basis, including diversion of a burn, and much midnight oil was consumed. BL was however as sick as the proverbial parrot and failed and to the best of my knowledge the buildings were never used for the purpose for which they were intended. They have been demolished and replaced with stereotypical residential Noddy boxes. A monument to the frequent futility of political intervention! Alas I have no photographs; maybe somebody else does?

I had never done a steel framed building before and learnt quickly!”

Image taken by maniceye of flickr.

Film fans the world over were wowed by Michael Cain’s antics in the unfinished monster, which was to have included a rooftop restaurant, if rather less impressed by the surroundings.

Now after lingering on the skyline for decades the cinematic relic of the sixties is to be consigned to celluloid.

Despite some interest in preserving the brutalist structure, recently lent some muscle by Sylvester Stallone, the monolith was regarded as a white elephant locally.

It’s replacement is however unlikely to reach such levels of iconicity, featuring a mixed-use development for Tesco designed by 3DReid.

Image taken by loodealer at flickr.