Let's give street a look to smile about - Scottish Architecture News

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Let's give street a look to smile about

Archiseek / UK / Scotland / News / 2004 / November 29

Edinburgh's architecture is renowned and celebrated, but Princes Street is its real Achilles' heel. Everyone agrees it's a mess. What could, should and perhaps one day will be a world-class shopping promenade is now a miserable sight, only saved from being branded an outright disgrace by its grand surroundings. From the quality of the paving to the blandness of some of its architecture, we have as a city and country failed badly in maintaining what in the 19th century was described as Europe's finest street. Yet much could be done imminently by the city council to improve on the street without radical infrastructure change. The Cockburn Association has long promoted the concept of enlarging Princes Street Gardens. By reducing the number of traffic lanes on Princes Street, a large section of the gardens could be rolled back on to the street, restoring lost green space that was carved away in the 19th century to accommodate traffic.

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