Wonders & blunders

I carry a torch for London’s Gherkin on St Mary Axe, although its winning feature for me is the view from the top floors, which trounces the London Eye panoramas! But the romantic in me votes for the Chrysler building in Manhattan. It was pipped in its phallo-vertical ambitions within a year of its completion in 1930 by the Empire State building, but it wins hands down on style, bravura, elegance and modernity. It’s an iconic building that keeps New York in the world’s top 10 skylines.

Bravura New York’s Chrysler Building was designed by William Van Alen and completed in 1930

I could easily have made my home town Edinburgh, in its entirety, my architectural wonder but eschewed such chauvinism.

However, since even diamonds have their scuffed facets, I nominate Powderhall Waste Transfer Station there as my active eyesore.

It challenges the architectural community to design urban waste-disposal units that are not landscape-blotters. So it’s an instructive blunder – my typically Presbyterian assessment is: could do better.

Blot Powderhall Waste Transfer Station was built in 1970. It compacts 150,000 tonnes of waste from Edinburgh’s businesses and households each year, which is then transferred to landfill.