Letter: The vision of the Crystal Palace
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Your support makes all the difference.From Mr Owen Luder
Sir: The proposal to build a replica Crystal Palace would be a great mistake and a major misuse of lottery funds. However, this magnificent site has been neglected for far too long. What is required is a new, breathtaking, imaginative building that will echo in modern terms the vision and progressive technology of the original Crystal Palace.
Here is an opportunity for an international competition for a new building designed for modern needs that will be as outstanding an architectural landmark as Paxton's creation was in 1851.
We do not need a tired, unconvincing pastiche replica of a past era that cannot be resurrected. Let's celebrate the future at the millennium, not the past.
Yours sincerely,
Owen Luder
President
Royal Institute of British
Architects
London, W1
23 October
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