Plans to make the Grade I (GI)-listed museum wing of London’s National Gallery (NGL) more accessible and sustainable – described by some as ‘ill-judged’ and ‘insensitive’ – have been approved by Westminster planning committee, reports The Art Newspaper.
image: for illustration – By Morio – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Commons Wikimedia
…councillors yesterday unanimously backed a resolution to grant a full planning and listed building application…
The Art Newspaper writes:
Westminster city councillors yesterday unanimously backed a resolution to grant a full planning and listed building application from the National Gallery. The decision allows the museum’s leadership to forge ahead with a controversial £35m proposal to radically remodel the entrance of the Sainsbury Wing of the museum in Trafalgar Square… The proposals were granted during a council sub-committee with just four local councillors in attendance….
The current proposals, critics say, could result in damaging losses to the unique architecture of the Sainsbury Wing….
The resolution was passed despite the intervention of eight past presidents of the Royal Institute for British Architecture (RIBA)…
Writing in The Art Newspaper, the architecture critic Hugh Pearman said the planned new entrance to the Sainsbury Wing would result in ‘drastic and irreversible changes’ to the building…
In a statement, The National Gallery said the new plans “will foster sustainability and provide a more inspiring experience for our millions of visitors every year…”
