Landmark designs lack visual impact

9:31am Thursday 4th September 2008

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I totally agree with Catherine Burrows (Let Public Dream up Angel Ideas, News Shopper, August 6).

It's the public who will be looking at the Ebbsfleet Landmark.

The designers will have collected their fees and be long gone. They will not be the least bit interested in their creations. Richard Deacon's monstrosity looks like a pile of scrap metal and evokes strong memories of 9/11 and the Twin Towers. Wallinger's horse looks like an old nag and really fed up with life.

How many of us have actually seen a horse wearing just a bridle?

As for the two abstracts by Buren and Le Brun, they have absolutely nothing to say about our country and I am amazed they should have even been considered for inclusion in the competition.

At least Whiteread suggests she was inspired by the landscape of the nearby quarries and wants to use concrete to remind us of the strong connection between the cement industry which developed in this part of north Kent.

Who could forget the layers of cement dust which covered the whole area for decades?

And do those young enough not to remember really care?

The quarries will not be with us much longer either. None of the proposals are as dramatic or dynamic, or have anywhere near the instant visual impact of the Angel of the North.

None of the designers seem to understand that is what is really missing from their creations.

I do like the idea of a horse. The Bluewater logo is a good starting point and even the old Kent County Council white horse is better than anything produced so far.

It's true the horse is the long- standing symbol of Kent.

Phil Crane
Windsor Drive
Dartford