Waverley Steps, Edinburgh, 28th January 2012
The bottom section of the newly-roofed Waverley steps opened yesterday, with the full thing going live on Monday.
It’s most unusual, a sort of architectural frivolity, looking more like a swimming pool flume than a sub-urban walkway connecting some of Edinburgh’s layers. Is it visually striking? Yes. Is it practical useful? Certainly. Does it look suspiciously like it’s been landscaped to suit the horrendous shopping mall rather than the Balmoral Hotel? Yes. Does it suit the genius loci? Not in the slightest.
Do I like it? It’s bold as brass, and sleek, and isn’t there to invite aesthetic criticism - it doesn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks about it. I can’t, though, get beyond viewing it as a technical structure, fulfilling it’s prescribed function well, blissfully unaware of how it might have complemented the particularly wonderful building on one side, so the answer has to be no, not really.
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