"Almost three tons of concrete are produced every year for each man, woman and child on the planet. It is now second only to water in terms of human consumption. Yet how has the astonishing take-up of this new medium within little over a century been accommodated into our mental universe?" A lecture at UCL's Bartlett School tomorrow.

"Tucker, who designs stone-faced architecture sets for Lego in his Arlington Heights studio and has created 11 kits so far -- from a 546-piece replica of Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Plano to a relatively modest, 208-piece Guggenheim Museum -- had delivered, as promised, another retail-friendly Lego interpretation of iconic architecture. In fact, it was his biggest, most ambitious set yet.

A Lego map of Europe, complete with notable buildings in the style of the Architecture series. Impressive.

"Mitchell Taylor Workshop director Piers Taylor said it had recently received a letter from British Land confirming it had won the Leadenhall site competition but also giving reasons why the developer was now putting its temporary plans on hold. Taylor added: “I think it’s all about [developers] being seeing to be doing rather than actually doing.”

Lovely stuff. Maybe I should set up an account for 30 St Mary Axe...

"The mania for recladding post-war high-rise office or council blocks is more pronounced in some places than others, but it extends all over Europe. It was very popular in the eighties and nineties with municipal towers, where it was (rather bafflingly) thought that encasing the buildings in plastic would remove the stigma of poverty." I miss the old concrete Stock Exchange Tower.

'Like most of Oobject's baffling complaint about the Highline, this attack on Beech Street is stunningly wrongheaded. The Highwalk gets plenty of use and is anything but a "sad and lonely" place. Beech Street isn't some Trumptonesque New Urbanist Quality Street, but it's not "hostile to pedestrians", either' Must write about highwalks. In the meantime, this is good.

Makes similar points to my (less articulate, more ranty) post about Robin Hood Gardens, at greater length and with lots of photos. A good post, anyway. (Apologies for mangling the title.)

Alice Yates, Wiltons' conservation and development director, admits you could walk past it and not know it was there. "It was originally five Georgian terrace houses. Most people have no idea there is an auditorium inside."