Pimlico school was architectural jewel | Letters
Ian Wilson’s complaint about the environmental weaknesses of Pimlico school (Letters, 18 January) brings to mind the client’s response to roof leaks and complaints of overheating at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Shalom Temple outside Philadelphia.
Designed barely a decade before Pimlico school, the glass pyramid pushed contemporary technology to the limits. The commissioning rabbi, Mortimer Cohen, and his successors have tolerated the inconveniences in the knowledge that they were guardians of an architectural treasure. How different the petty, visionless attitude of the “guardians” of Pimlico school, an architectural triumph that attracted international critical acclaim and huge numbers of admiring visitors from around the world.
This is not to dismiss the technical issues but to recognise that technology advances and that the problems could now be resolved, as they are currently being addressed at Beth Shalom.
The demolition of Pimlico school is arguably the most philistine architectural destruction since the demolition of the Euston Arch.
Bob Giles
Eastbourne, East Sussex
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