"For anyone interested in attracting lottery money, or concerned
with the tragicomedy of arts funding and public building in Britain,
this is both an instructive read and a source of innocent
merriment""For anyone interested in attracting lottery money, or concerned
with the tragicomedy of arts funding and public building in Britain,
this is both an instructive read and a source of innocent
merriment"
. . . so said the RIBA Journal about Lord Crickhowell's new book - a devastating account of the Cardiff Opera House fiasco.
But this is no dry, desiccated account:
"Lord Crickhowell tells a story which . . . grips like a thriller . . .'" (Architects' Journal)
"What he has written is a detailed account of blindness and bungling, indifference and ignorance, cowardice and croneyism . . . " (RIBA Journal)
"Who would want to read a book by one of a vanishing breed of old-style Tory peers about a building that never happened, designed by an architect who has never managed to get anything built in the UK? In the case of Opera House Lottery, the devastating tale of the failed attempt to build Zaha Hadid's competition-wining design by Nicholas Crickhowell, former chairman of the Cardiff Bay Opera House Trust, the answer should be "everybody".' (Architects' Journal)
When Zaha Hadid's exciting and controversial design for the Cardiff Bay Opera House won an international competition, but the project was turned down by the Millennium Commission, the news created a sensation that hit the front pages on both sides of the Atlantic. The story of how this came about tells us as much about politicians, about the way the National Lottery is run, and about the role of the popular press in shaping public opinion and public policy, as it does about the design of the building.
' . . . a riveting if depressing read . . . Three cheers for Crickhowell for breaking ranks and exposing the shabby saga of the greatest unbuilt masterpiece of the late twentieth century.' (Architects' Journal)
This is the story, told from the inside, of a dream that was shattered; of controversial decisions involving Michael Heseltine and Virginia Bottomley; of attitudes in the Welsh Office under five Conservative Secretaries of State; of in-fighting across political boundaries by MPs and local politicians; of a campaign by the Sun against élitism; of the way in which large international architectural competitions are managed and mismanaged; of the manoeuvring of celebrated architects; and of the betrayal of those most closely involved by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation.
The intricacies of this truly operatic plot are unravelled by the former cabinet minister who was at its centre.
Lord Crickhowell, once a member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet, was formerly Chairman of the Cardiff Bay Opera House Trust, Secretary of State for Wales, and Chairman of the National Rivers Authority. He is President of the University of Wales, Cardiff, a director of Associated British Ports, and Chairman of HTV.