Historic England’s new focus on protecting department stores is most timely and necessary (More department stores in England may be given protected status, 23 August). The just-listed Cole Brothers store in Sheffield was John Lewis’s 1963 response to modern rebuilding by blitzed competitors in Sheffield, of which the architectural critic Nikolaus Pevsner had recently written: “Hardly another city of similar
Highland bling: the blockbuster castle with a gold-lined
It’s a sunny evening on the bonny banks of Loch Awe, deep in the Scottish Highlands, and something is sparkling behind the trees. Up a winding dirt track, past acres of densely planted pines, we come to a clearing where a huddle of chiselled grey blocks rise out of the landscape like a rocky outcrop, their abrasive sides glittering
How to stay competitive with specialty mortgage products
The mortgage industry is changing rapidly and originators are focused on adapting to a shifting market in order to stay competitive. HousingWire recently spoke with Lee Smith and John Gibson at Flagstar Bank about what originators can do to align their mortgage products and services with the ebb and flow of the housing market and what Flagstar is doing to
Tuinen Torens Wonderwoods, Jaarbeursplein, Utrecht by
More than 350,000 people live in Utrecht and the population continues to grow. The city council mainly wants to solve this growth in the inner city and strives for a healthy, sustainable, and livable future for the city. The Healthy Urban Quarter – located near the Convention Center ‘Jaarbeurs’ – is the first zoning plan in which the city’s ambition
The Lebanese House; Shattered Glass of Beirut; Maurice
In August 2020, some 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate carelessly stored in Beirut’s ancient port suddenly exploded. The blast, one of the worst in world history, released a fireball miles into the air. In the briefest of moments before the whiteout, it was possible to see silver sparks flying – fireworks, lethally stored in the same depot – through