These days, architects are expected to put a lot of effort into producing environmentally-friendly buildings. It's a pity that they can't seem to incorporate the existing local built environment into the overall concept of 'environment'.

There is no longer a sense of "local" community - at least not one recognised by the globalist corporate world. As a result, corporations and their architects drop gigantic, intrusive, eccentric, visually disruptive (and too often, garish) objects into classic and often beloved cityscapes. They are producing buildings whose only acknowledgement of 'community' lies in their globally competitive relation to each other.

Corporations come and go. It is the city and its citizens who will have to deal with the long-term consequences of the current craze for ever more monumental buildings. One has to hope, assuming structural integrity, that these buildings don't become the equivalent of an embarrassing photo from the past. You know the kind I mean - the picture of the oh-so fashionable hairstyle or clothing that is now so cringe-worthy. A photo can be hidden away - these buildings will be on display for many years.

OK. That's enough harrumphing. Another couple of photos and then back to the good stuff.