"Someone has told the bouncers to be nice. It is now standard for architectural anoraks like myself to find ourselves challenged by smile-less security as we go about our blameless business – no loitering, no photography, no looking, as if al-Qaida scouts would do their dastardly work in this way or as if, years after the invention of the camera phone, photography can be controlled as it could in the age of the tripod. But not at the base of the Cheesegrater. Here, you can ride the escalators, take snaps and engage the wardrobe-shouldered gentlemen in conversations about architecture.
"Which is just as well, as much of the Cheesegrater's claim to be special, to be more than just another commercial tower, rests on the zone beneath its overhanging mass, described as a 'public space'. Accuracy requires it to be pointed out that it is not in fact public space, being controlled by the developers British Land and Oxford Properties, but privately owned, publicly accessible space, which might now be called Popas for short. Still, it is something most skyscrapers don't offer, and a few arsey guards would wreck the positivity generated by this gift of valuable cubic metres and its expensive landscaping.
"... You certainly know that this is Popas, not public space. The switch in paving on the boundary line tells you so, as do the interesting species of tree, the ultra-green of the grass and the patrolling (friendly) security. But Popas, as long as you are clear in your terms, does not have to be a bad thing. The Cheesegrater's version avoids the common Popas habit of being a shopping mall in disguise [where COULD he have been thinking of?] – the signs are up announcing opportunities for buying macaroons and smoothies, all pastel against the grey steel, but they don't dominate."
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