New Landmark or New White Elephant?

Peninsula Square in Greenwich, London was completed in July 2007 to welcome the visitors to the Millennium Dome (now renamed 02 and transformed into a major concert arena).

This L-shaped open space, equal in size to Leicester Square, used to be an unattractive, windswept and featureless esplanade covered in red, but it is now a vibrant space that is attracting thousands of people from all over London. Most of them looking for the casino that never was.

The paving design is inspired by the earth meridian lines in the form of wide stripes of granite and slate - there is obviously a reference here to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, just along the river.

The square layout was designed to accommodate mixed use buildings planned to be built around it in the next few years: the concrete, steel and glass canopy follows the curved facade of one of them (which is not there yet). Or is it the other way around? Are you still following?

A 45m tall mast made out of stainless steel provides a visually striking vertical feature as in many historical public open spaces. However, very little room for perching pigeons, unless they are yoga practitioners.

Another interesting piece of design is the performance wall: its blue glass translucent facade conceals some 6000 colour-changing led cells that light up at night and provide a suitable backdrop for open air concerts and events. I may stand there one day and sing some operatic arias in front of befuddled passers-by (or maybe not).