June 2018
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News
Aztec West office block granted listed status
M
otorists queuing to get out of the Aztec West Business Park during the afternoon peak certainly have plenty of time to take in their surroundings, but how many of them realise that they are crawling past an architectural gem recently given protected status by Historic England? An office block at 210 to 290 Park Avenue, visible on the left of the internal roundabout when driving into the park from the A38, is one of 17 bold, playful, 250 Park Avenue, Aztec West: Granted grade 2 listed status by Historic England brightly coloured postmodern buildings of the late 1970s to marked a revival of interest in elements of Art Deco design 1990s to have recently been postmodernism. such as the over-scaled building ‘listed’ by the public body. The units at Aztec West, numbers used as canopies over Postmodern architecture designed by the architects the main doors (now removed, emerged in the 1970s as a critical CZWG, have forecourts that but soon to be replaced). reaction to modernism. In follow the turning circle of a car, The buildings have high, Britain it was closely associated celebrating the form of transport continuous parapets that hide the with the economic boom of the that enabled the development of mono-pitch roofs into the internal 1980s. After a period out of out-of-town workplaces. They courtyards. Beneath the parapets, favour, the 2011 exhibition ‘Style lend the buildings a Hollywood double-height windows give a BSJSubversion’ gromit ad.qxp_Layout 15:04 Page 1 by and at the V&A 1 24/05/2018 glamour, accentuated sense of scale and grandeur, and
act as classical columns around the building. The two-storey buildings have banded cladding of red and buff brick. Completed in 1987-1988, the commission represents a key project by CZWG that combines bold geometries, colours and traditional materials to dynamic effect. Piers Gough of GZWG, who worked on the design of the Aztec West building, told BBC Radio Bristol he was “completely thrilled” to hear of the listing, describing it as a “wonderful accolade” and a “fantastic retrospective appreciation”. Speaking about the 17 new listings, Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “Postmodern architecture brought fun and colour to our streets. These are scarce survivals of a really influential period of British architecture and these buildings deserve the protection that listing gives them.”
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