Design
Now Threatening Edinburgh’s World Heritage Status: A Building That Looks Like a Turd
UNESCO is sending inspectors to examine plans for the “Ribbon Hotel” and its stool-like swirl.
Edinburgh is so obviously Great Britain’s most beautiful major city that it’s not really worth holding a contest. Spread over a terrain of rocky volcanic bulges, cliffs and ravine-like dips, the Scottish capital’s old grey, yellow, and red sandstone buildings have a sober elegance that makes them look like some natural extension of the landscape. Now this beauty is in serious jeopardy—or, at least some claim it is.
The new menace comes in the form of an approved building that, despite being marketed as an architectural icon in the making, apparently poses such a visual threat to the city that UNESCO is sending inspectors to reappraise Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site listing. The problem with the new building? It looks like a turd.