Lord's reveals the nautical eye in the sky (28 April 1999)
The work of a Czech architect driven from the streets of Prague by Russian tanks a generation ago and the Cornish-based Dutch boat-builder who turned his design into reality was unveiled at Lord's yesterday to an appreciative audience of journalists
28-Apr-1999
28 April 1999
Lord's reveals the nautical eye in the sky
Christopher Martin-Jenkins
The work of a Czech architect driven from the streets of Prague by
Russian tanks a generation ago and the Cornish-based Dutch
boat-builder who turned his design into reality was unveiled at
Lord's yesterday to an appreciative audience of journalists and
officials.
The new NatWest Media Centre, a giant glass and aluminium eye
hovering 50 feet above the grass between the Compton and Edrich
Stands, and looking straight over the square to the old pavilion
opposite, is a far cry from the ill-placed tent from which a small
group of cricket writers once reported the major matches.
Whatever the view of the aesthetic quality of the first single-shell
aluminium building constructed, it is a vast improvement as a press
facility on anything that has gone before at the game's headquarters
and it is equalled for size, view and quality only by the impressive
new Radcliffe Road Centre at Nottingham.
There is a nautical feel to this spectacular building, which is
appropriate. When the MCC committee selected the futuristic design by
Jan Kaplicky, of Future Systems, the Pendennis shipyard in Falmouth
was asked to create the structure.
It was prefabricated in 26 pieces, transported on lorries and lifted
into place by cranes. The completed capsule, which cost 5.8 million
pound sterling, spans 42 metres and contains 26 km of computer and
television cable, plus 500 outlets for telephones and computers. That
should be just about enough for the demands of the World Cup final on
June 20.
Tony Lewis, president of MCC, said as he launched the 'ship' with
champagne: "As a journalist and broadcaster, I am thrilled by the
facilities and vision of the new NatWest Media Centre. In this
project, MCC proves that it embraces innovative ideas and images."
This is the fourth major new building to be opened at Lord's in four
years. Together with the grandstand, the indoor school and the new
nursery pavilion, it completes an extraordinary series of
architecturally adventurous structures.
It says much for the quality of the old pavilion itself that it has
lost none of its original majesty and seems to look at all this
modernity with approving eyes.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)