Aspects of the City

Because the Lord Mayor is by background and training a Civil Engineer and property developer he has a deep interest in the City not just from a development point of view but also from an historical and architectural point of view. With this in mind he instituted this year a series of three talks/presentations on different aspects of the City of London in the context of urban design . I went to the first one where the speaker was the erudite Simon Thurley CEO of English Heritage and a superb speaker, about which I blogged earlier; last week I went to the third and last of these talks having been unable to attend the second one.This third and final talk was about the City of the Future and consisted of a panel chaired by Peter Rees, the City Planning Officer; Francis Salway, the Chief Executive of the property company Land Securities; and Lee Polisano, President of PLP Architecture. They made a formidable team. The talks ranged, unsurprisingly, over inter city global competition and what this meant for infra structure and high speed links, particularly to airports; sustainability in urban planning; the management of resources; the continued growth of all cities and the practical implications. All this and much more but surprisingly no mention of of the impact of technology in its many guises.

This evening's event at the Mansion House, introduced by the Lord Mayor, came the day after a book launch at Mansion House also introduced by the Lord Mayor, and one which I attended and which launched a magnificent tome on the architecture, both ancient and modern, of the City. The City past, present and future all in two days. What more could a Master interested in the City ask.