Keating’s influence on architecture likened to Taliban bombings, “facadism” at work in Germany and the Philippines’ “obsolete” planning model...
“In a particularly perverse gesture of ‘facadism’ - a favorite tactic of bureaucrats and developers in which a few architectural elements are preserved while the rest of a structure is bulldozed - it would leave the station’s main hall and tower standing like some architectural amputee.”
New York Times
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“Keating's argument is an inside-the-tent-pissing-out one. In truth, though, he has long hated Sydney's industrial heritage. First he wanted to demolish Woolloomooloo Wharf, then ‘clean up’ Goat Island, Garden Island, Balls Head and Ballast Point. Now he's eyeing the Millers Point escarpments that are among our most exhilarating heritage remnants. Man-made or god-made, destroying them for a hollow, car-filled pastiche of a 1788 headland is only marginally less heinous than the Taliban's bombing of the buddhas.”
Sydney Morning Herald
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“Our country’s urban planning model is obsolete. We have obsolete laws, standards, subdivision rules, building codes. Those may have been the causes of the calamity, plus, the problems of garbage and illegal logging. And we have the tendency to blame God. This is not an act of God but an act of omission of man.”
Inquirer
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“If it were up to me, I wouldn't touch Asia House. But powerful forces are at work here. Politics and money. If I don't agree, they will find someone else who will destroy this work of art. Who knows what they'd do to it.”
Haaretz
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“Incentives and new ways to ‘engage with the community’ are not going to solve this problem. The public may distrust house builders, but who can blame them when the planning system is programmed to accept the very worst design and is unable to defend the very best. Unless a future government is prepared to tackle this, the nimbys will thrive, and good luck to them.”
BD Online
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