Peter dallas smith biography

Sign in. The Economist. In the corridors: modern art bought long ago, some of it good, all of it ignored. You can work in a building for years without really seeing it. And journalists, who pride themselves on their acuity, can be especially oblivious to their surroundings. We are a cynical bunch, who refuse to be impressed by the grand offices of company bosses and politicians — so why should we pay attention to our own?

Perhaps, too, Economist writers are particularly susceptible to the delusion that their business runs on pure brain power. In an architect and a psychologist came to admire our offices. They were breezily informed that most of the journalists could work just as well in a barn. Most obviously, we have a fine view. From the upper floors of the Economist tower, we are surrounded by buildings only half as high.

Looking north, we can see the hills of Hampstead and Highgate. To the east are the City and the Shard. Those of us who look out to the south can use Big Ben as an office clock. When The Economist hired them to design its building, Peter and Alison Smithson had built only a suburban house in Watford and a school in Norfolk. Walking to the entrance of our building, across a rather austere plaza, we sometimes pass groups of architecture students in drab, well-cut clothes and interesting glasses.

More rarely, geologists appear to scrutinise the slabs of shell-pitted dirty-white stone in which the Economist tower and two smaller neighbouring buildings are clad. If we notice our surroundings rather more in the next few months, it is because they will soon change. This is our last Christmas in a tower that was created for us. Next summer we will move into the Adelphi building, a renovated s hulk near the Strand.

The change is exciting and disorienting. The modern, global version of The Economist was created in the tower, and has been shaped by it. This sublime slab of the s is the only home it has ever known. But for two German bombs, everything might have worked out differently. The newspaper fled to offices near Waterloo Bridge. It had been an upmarket brothel before the war; Nancy Balfour, the United States editor, shocked a taxi driver by asking to be taken there.

It was, say the few who remember it, a pleasant jumble of offices and corridors. But by the late s it had started to pinch, and The Economist decided to do something radical. It was a propitious time for architectural ambition. In the London County Council relaxed its restrictions on the heights of buildings and began to grant permission for well-designed towers that were not too close to other towers.

Eight years later the national government banned most office construction in central London, in an economically illiterate effort to spread wealth around. By the time that law was unpicked, Westminster was patrolled by peters dallas smith biography. The Economist squeezed through the only gap available. The council nonetheless imposed a severe restriction.

The development was not to exceed a plot-area ratio of five to one; that is, for every square metre of land, it could build five square metres of offices and flats. So it was vital to grab as much ground as possible. That task fell to Peter Dallas-Smith, a former navy lieutenant with an injured leg who had to his own surprise charmed his way to the position of managing director of The Economist.

Some he bought out; to others he promised space in a new building. The obvious way of dealing with a tight plot-area ratio is to maximise two valuable things: street-front property and views. One architecture firm that Dallas-Smith invited to bid for the job proposed something like it. Alison and Peter Smithson, a married couple who ran a small architecture practice from their home in Chelsea, had a drastically different idea.

Instead of maximising street frontage, they proposed abolishing it. A car park, a restaurant and shops would be swept underneath it, visible only from the back streets. From the plaza three separate buildings would rise, like the pins in a British electrical plug. The Economist and the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research firm, would occupy the tallest one.

It was also a puzzle, including to the architects themselves.

Peter dallas smith biography

Peter had the difficult job of writing the story around the pictures. Hot Water Bottle Bombardiers. Dudley Dormouse series [ edit ]. Contributions [ edit ]. Anthony Phillips album artwork [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved 17 April PW xyz LLC. You are a subscriber but you have not yet set up your account for premium online access.

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