Shell HQ Aberdeen The Tullos Campus (1973-92) by McInnes Gardner &Partners Source:Used by kind permission of DC Thomson & Co LtdBrutalist former headquarters of Shell for more than 50 years, comprising four interlinked buildings. Demolition began early this year after Shell relocated its HQ to central Aberdeen. The company is understood to be exploring options for the now-empty site alongside the city council.Aberdeen is not blessed with much great, even good, contemporary architecture. But the Shell building in the Tullos Campus was certainly worth a visit. It had an honesty and integrity in its robust, concrete finishes and ziggurat form. It was easily one of the most distinctive and interesting buildings in the city. Alan Dunlop, founder, Alan Dunlop ArchitectsFiddlers Ferry Cooling Towers, Merseyside (1967-71) by Gordon Graham Source:ShutterstockDecommissioned coal-fired power station, in operation until 2020. Phased demolition began in 2023, with the dramatic detonation of four out of eight iconic cooling towers. Site-owner Peel NRE is behind plans for its residential-led regeneration.AdvertisementCascading to the ground like a quartet of dissipated drunks, the 114m-high towers were there one minute and gone the next. Demolitions of unloved or obsolete structures cooling towers, chimney stacks, council estates have become the modern equivalent of public executions. We feel a visceral thrill as the dynamite does its work.Catherine Slessor, architecture critic, writing in the AJBohemian cottage, Oxford (1923) by Clough Williams-EllisCommissioned by early-20th-century feminist Lily Dougall and her same-sex partner Sophie Earp. Lost to a demolition and rebuild scheme put forward by new owners in 2022 following a failed listing attempt by The Twentieth Century Society.In this case the architect, the client and the building itself all had clear historic interest, so it was enormously frustrating to see it turned down for listing and the bulldozers roll in. Farewell quaint interwar cottage. Hello generic suburban new-build. Sometimes you just despair. Coco Whittaker, head of casework at The Twentieth Century SocietyFrench Railways House, Piccadilly (1960-62) by Shaw & Lloyd with signage by Ern Goldfinger and interiors by Charlotte Perriand Source:LoopNetFormer British headquarters for Frances state railway, SNCF. The building is being dismantled the steel structure set for a new life elsewhere and replaced with new offices designed by Make for Great Portland Estates and The Crown Estate.I feel real pain every time I walk past this site. The taut, confident, cosmopolitan design of French Railways House expressed the best of mid-century Modernism, and its streetfront signage was triumphant and joyous. Tim Waterman, professor at the Bartlett School of ArchitectureAdvertisementInterior of City Hall, Southwark (2000-02), by Foster + Partners Source:ShutterstockPurpose-built to house the newly-formed Greater London Authority and Mayor of Londons office in 2000. Vacant since 2020 when the GLA moved to new premises in the Royal Docks, the building has been gutted ready for an office-led overhaul by Gensler.As the mayors office, Fosters City Hall had heft. As a gutted hulk repurposed for a mixed-use office and sandwich mall, it has none. Edwin Heathcote, architecture and design critic at the Financial TimesPortsmouth News Centre, Hilsea (1966-67) by AE Cogswell & Sons Source:ShutterstockThe former headquarters and printing hall of the Portsmouth Evening News is being replaced with a bus depot for First Bus under permitted development rights.On the face of it, the News Building was obsolete and the proposals to create a bus depot capable of housing up to 90 electric vehicles can only be welcomed. So a win for green transport, right? Not quite. The distinctive curved office building that fronted the site, with space-age mosaic NEWS signage and landscaped ornamental pond, could so easily have been retained as part of the new bus depot to the rear. Once again, a failure of imagination and a boon for landfill. Oli Marshall, campaigns director at The Twentieth Century SocietyGlasgow ABC cinema, Glasgow (1875 and 1929) by CJ McNair Source:Will IngArt Deco cinema consisting of a renovated main structure dating back to 1875 when it was a diorama theatre, and a 1929 entrance portico by cinema architect Charles J McNair. Declared unsafe by Glasgow City Council following a 2018 fire, it will be replaced by student housing for Vita by architecture practice HAUS Collective.The much-loved cinema sat in the heart of the new Sauchiehall Street Culture and Heritage District. Charles McNairs grand Classical entrance was an authentic symbol of the golden age of cinema, and could have been retained and repurposed for the civic good. Niall Murphy, conservation architect and Glasgow City Heritage Trust director2024-12-17Anna Highfieldcomment and share