Modernist Olympic Backdrop
by catherine croft
I went to watch the Olympic cycling at the weekend. The bikes were quite exciting for a few seconds, but seeing Richmond Park full of people, all streaming across the grass in one direction was almost more impressive. I was also struck once more by just how fantastic and other worldly the Alton Estate looks from the park. There are great video clips of the architects for Alton East (Oliver Cox, 1958) and Alton West (John Partridge, 1959) on the Utopia London website–both were part of LCC teams.
Both emphasis the importance of keeping the mature trees on the site, and John Partridge recalls just how critical having an excellent, lavishly purpose built model was to positioning the blocks in relation to the landscape features and to each other. Is this going to be the only Olympic event where you can simultaneously admire great C20 architecture? or has anyone spotted any others?
http://www.utopialondon.com/alton-east
http://www.utopialondon.com/alton-west/