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James, if anything it's a 'happy young building' that probably anticipated a much longer future when born, contemporarily so among its older relatives. A young star meeting an early fate!

In Glasgow, the local Greek Revival was allowed to flourish a few more decades beyond the norm for the rest of the UK. The best examples of the styling are amongst the very youngest (latest) instances.

It appears to me –even as an outsider - that the Jessop Edwardian wing is a young star of Sheffield’s own dialect. That’s by doing a quick Google Streetview around the centre.

Anyone, please say if I’m wrong!

Here’re some updated site perspectives, which reveal the potential urban quality to be lost in addition to a very strong architectural set-piece.

http://goo.gl/maps/Nv23b

http://goo.gl/maps/Y1F44

http://goo.gl/maps/Id312

But, a solution to keep all happy – Happy urban conservation/development side by side:

Okay, there’s plenty of space for this brute, let’s add a storey to it if necessary and set it back behind the historical fabric, but joined to the rear of the fated Edwardian wing – that’ll give it 3 main street elevations (let’s not be greedy with that). In turn, a more discreet lane/court set back elevation can be introduced from behind the historic fabric to the new pedestrian space by bringing some of that sculptural outer layer [steel metaphor] stuff – not necessarily with accommodation as it will already have enough of this – through to the court from between the existing buildings. This would allow a 4th face to be more subtlety discovered rather than rammed down our throats from within the presently intimate court space: voilà.

Again, the Edwardian wing is most probably (and proudly) part of that same industrialism that the Engineering Faculty want to celebrate using the said visual metaphor/notion of ‘steel’ as a replacement of the real thing - the unmanufactured heritage of the former hospital wing. Co-existence of both of these very powerful ‘development & conservation’ themes can work together as the solution for this particular urban situation (perhaps architecture thesis) as per my previous notes.

This site (urban block) looks like it can quite easily accommodate iconic architecture due to its size, but it would have failed if it can’t support the strong urban conservation element too, in full (not half) measure.

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A gripe now:

Maybe I’m a frustrated planning consultant at heart, but getting the urbanism right is something my school of architecture equipped me with, and I’m sure every other RIBA validated course in the UK.

If the above all goes to plan without taking stock of the lessons learnt, in this saga, then the architects would do well to forgo chartered status. The last thing architects need in this climate is the continuum of a bad name, which no number of award winners are going to compensate for.

If not, then perhaps I should consider joining RIRBA – the middle standing for ‘real’, as in getting-real. The profession can’t stand/tolerate such a mess when it’s trying to argue for ‘quality first’ in government policy. RIBA are planning to set up more urban design review panels I believe, which might help.

As architecture graduates, we ought to be steering the client towards better places/urbanism; or away from easy anti-urbanism/anti-placemaking. What’s the point in producing all of those architectural theses in vain to graduate towards becoming architects, if we can’t enact such wisdom in the real world afterwards? Can we do it all before the RIBA ensures an adequate nationwide compliment of design review panels; and/or has to reinstate more public/social/environs protection in its Code of Conduct rather than the customer focus angle, which the ARB already oversees; etc. etc. etc..

sorry unedited