Not an Exit

THIS IS A VERY STRANGE SCENE INDEED. We are grateful to have been sent this photograph; it shows very well that there are two main ways to approach a change of plan, namely: (i) that the original signs be removed, covered or replaced in favour of a new sign, or (ii) that a new, contradictory, sign be added to create utter confusion.

The option is also known as (a) sensible versus (b) daft. My, how things are getting worse!

Guttered

THE COUNCIL ARE SPENDING MILLIONS INSULATING COUNCIL HOUSES.

The trouble is that they are not doing a very good job where the council property meets a privately owned property as shown in the picture to the right.

As ever, double left click on pictures to enlarge.

The above picture shows that it is not confined to new meeting old — even when dealing with a new-new interface, they have screwed this up! What you are looking at are two examples of stupidity.  The rainwater gutter could have been trimmed shorter to allow a full and proper rendering, but instead, the full original length was allowed to remain unchanged, and the insulation and new rendering cut around it!

This is completely unbelievable, it creates a heat bridge and one of the most likely sources of damp in a building I have ever seen. Things are certainly getting worse!

Good For Nothing

I SPOTTED THIS WEIRD CONSTRUCTION IN THE CITY CENTRE RECENTLY, AND WONDERED WHAT IT MIGHT BE (FOR).

Please double click on the pictures to enlarge for better viewing.

Look at it! There is a flight of stairs and a platform with a steel mesh surface.  There are safety handrails all round too — but what is it for?

Can you work it out? We can’t see the point of this thing.  It is sort of like a fire escape or access way, but as it does not connect to anything, these have to be ruled out. There is no swimming pool, so it cannot be an ugly diving board!

Such things are expensive, so things must be getting worse when this becomes a requirement!

Modern Architecture Summed Up

THERE’S A NEW BUILDING IN GLASGOW WITH A STRANGE ENTRANCE.

Please click on the images to enlarge.

First of all, the architect designed a grand entrance — including a revolving door, mirrored tiles, lots of glass and shiny tiled flooring.  Lovely.

However, in practice, there is a permanent plastic yellow warning cone about the slip danger on the shiny floor tiles.  How attractive!  Also – - because people prefer to walk in through a normal door (as opposed to a revolving door), they have had to Sellotape a notice to the glazed frontage.  Deary me!

Is this the architect’s vision?  How grand is this entrance now?  Why can’t the architect understand that shiny floor tiles are slippery, that yellow plastic cones are unattractive, and that notices ruin the clean straight lines, and glazed surfaces?

Isn’t it weird that there are TWO yellow slip warning cones IN the revolving door — making it impossible to use this door, but the Sellotaped notice on the window stops you using the “normal” door — so how exactly is one supposed to enter this office block? Is this MI5 or the HQ of the IQ?

Things are certainly getting worse when people cannot enter a building without warnings!

Funnily enough the biggest danger is right outside — and there is NO WARNING… it is a wall of glass!  Yes; an almost invisible obstruction to the pedestrian, to the drunk of a night.

What possessed the architect to put a square metre of thick glass on the pavement outside this building’s entrance?  It is as bizarre as it is amazing!

One has to wonder at the thought processes employed when designs are drawn up! Getting Worse? You Bet! Modern Architecture? Summed Up!

The Anderston Hippo Family

MANY THINGS MIGHT SPRING TO MIND WHEN ONE THINKS ABOUT THE ANDERSTON AREA OF GLASGOW, but I would wager that Hippopotamuses is not chief among them.

Nevertheless, when Anderston was deemed to require civic or public art, sculpture of a wee hippo family was thought fitting.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but the hippopotamus is neither native nor representative of the area in question.  I thought it best just to mention that lest readers of this blog jump to the wrong conclusion.

Things are getting worse when this sort of thing can happen, and when this sort of thing barely raises a quizzical eyebrow!

Rain Drain

TRAFFIC CALMING MEANS NARROW ROADS. Narrow roads mean widened pavements, which in turn mean new drains that do not work. Drains that do not work mean puddles, and this makes for even more traffic calming. Genius!

Click on the picture to enlarge — can you see the new drain under the puddle? You may also see where the new pavement widening starts (along with new but redundant double yellow lines). Parking there might require a pair of Wellington boots or a good sense of balance and a deftness in the skipping department. No wonder people prefer to keep their brakes dry and park on the pavement – it’s safer all round.

Sometimes, the drain is sited in a random daft location. What is the point of a drain that is NOT at the lowest point?

For such a rain-soaked country, I am amazed at the inconsistencies in managing rainwater. Just look at this picture of TWO drains, side-by-side, on a pavement (not even on the road), that is next to rain-absorbing grass! At the very least, you have to ask why there are two.

However, then you may notice the paranoia the designers clearly faced on the ill-fated “squinty bridge” or Clyde Arc . I have taken the trouble to number the drains on the picture — just click on it to enlarge for a better view. You will note the closeness of each drain to the others, but note too that the entire bridge is sloped in every possible way — is this not drain overkill? Could they not have just used holes to let water through and down to the river below?

Yep. Things are getting worse!

Better Parking Spaces!

AT LAST!

A good idea that helps ordinary people everyday: the Silverburn shopping centre’s multi-storey car park has a great system. Each car parking bay has a sensor and two lights (one green and one red). The default is an empty space, so a green light will show at every bay when the car park is empty. It simply senses a car is parked and changes the light to red.

Simple — and so, because the indicators are located high above each bay, cars driving into the car park can simply look around to see if there are any green spaces anywhere.

This ought to be the minimum service provided by all multi-storey car parks. It is nice to see something worthwhile, we’re all excited here at Getting Worse as this is the first new idea that is not rubbish. Even the red-green colour-blind criticism doesn’t count here because traffic lights use these colours (and for almost the same meaning)!

The Slippery Slope

SLIPPING SEEMS TO BE A WIDESPREAD PROBLEM – so why don’t shops have better floors?

I saw a daft notice on a shop window today. It states:

‘PLEASE NOTE

During wet conditions, excess water from prams
and umbrellas can make this floor very slippy,
whist (sic) every effort is being made to keep this
as dry as possible please wipe your feet, leave
umbrellas in the container provided and

PROCEED WITH CARE

Thank You’

Apart from the bad grammar and the typo on ‘whilst’, I could not find an umbrella container! The floor was polished glossy shiny tiles and looked slippery when dry. They actually were ‘wet look’ tiles!

The question is: why? — and ‘why should we put up with this silliness?’

Leaving the shop, it didn’t take me long to come across a ‘CAUTION – WET FLOOR’ board, because — let’s face it — we live in a country with high rainfall!

Maybe I am slow on the uptake, or a “bit thick”, but is it good enough to simply put up a sign? Does that mean the responsibility for slipping is transferred onto the victim? Should a person who slips be responsible as a result of being told about the risk or hazard? Perhaps I am supposed to change my footwear to something suitable to the conditions posted in signs?

Why is the floor wet? If we are talking about cleaning, could that not be done out of hours? If it is cleaning up an incident, then would it not be better to rope off the area or to actually DRY IT?

Architects ought to be taken out and shot for specifying such insane floor surfaces anyway — and things are getting worse because every shopping mall is filled with hi-gloss tiled finishes and these caution boards (what an eyesore), yet not everyone wears rubber-soled trainers. The entire floor of the new Silverburn shopping centre mall and shops (for example) make it difficult and exhausting to walk about!

Ugly Houses Wanted

THERE’S STILL HOPE FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE BOUGHT AN UGLY FLAT OR HOUSE. According to a poster seen in the city centre, “ugly Houses” are wanted for cash! It is nice to see such openness and frankness about the subject! Although I doubt that estate agents will come around to using the word “ugly” in their speils. Click on picture to enlarge.

The Most Horrible Building In Glasgow

JUST LOOK AT THIS HORRIBLE BUILDING … (click on pic. on the right to enlarge)

Can this be The Most Horrible Building In Glasgow? I would say it certainly is. The building (if it can be called that) is two blue boxes. It is NOT a temporary structure – even though it looks like building site portacabins or portaloos. This monstrosity has been there for a great many years, and now I think it is time to get rid of it.

Let’s consider for a moment the context of these blue boxes…

You may be on Sauchiehall Street or visiting the King’s Theatre, and you may well decide to take a stroll around the streets to admire the grand buildings from the time when Glasgow was proud and boastful as the second city of the biggest empire in history.

A stroll along Elmbank Street would show some lovely Grand Victorian Classical architecture, such as the old High School building — and you might notice, at the end of the road, the modern skyscraper mirroring the neighbouring buildings. This is a standard way to solve the problem of how to put a modern building into a classical context — just make it mirrored and it will reflect the old architecture beautifully! However, as you walk, you might notice something blue being reflected in the skyscraper down low at the trees — what can this be? You walk past the classical facade of the High School (where the Pitt Street Police Office can be seen through the arch), eager to see what is around the corner…

Now, I ask you — seriously — what on earth were they thinking? How could the planning department have allowed this to happen? Why BLUE? These two blue boxes are on Holland Street — but this is their best side, you actually see far more of them from Elmbank Street and reflected in the skyscraper.

Is it so that the building could be found by the public? Nope, this is not a public building — this is the building where the CITRAC traffic cameras are controlled!

In my opinion, I can just about live with the mirrored skyscraper, I am not really a fan of the 1960s tower block on Holland and West George (seen behind the blue boxes in the picture above) , but these blue boxes are definitely bad — they fail to enhance the environment, they create despair and bewilderment and they never can look good in any season or weather. These blue boxes upset passers-by and I can only wonder how the occupants must feel. The building is ugly in itself and even uglier in its context.

Things are getting worse when this sort of thing can happen! It is an insult to the people of this city. Pure and simple.