I think that in the light of the recent controversy about the place possibly known as the Cordoba Center near Ground Zero, the real cause for annoyance on the part of any New Yorker, surely, is why it has taken so long to get going with any serious construction down there. This Wikipedia entry on the Empire State Building, for example, suggests that the building in Midtown was erected in a space o...

A CONTROVERSIAL body established to raise funds for civic building projects has delivered £111 million in savings and benefits, it has been claimed.

A couple’s plans to build a £700,000 solar powered home in the Cotswolds have been left in ruins after developers built new houses which blocked out their sunlight. You can build green housing or you can build dense housing: but you cannot build both. Indeed, one of the few ways to get a release from the standard

Are designer eco-homes more environmentally friendly than not building them? As Scott Adams says: The greenest home is the one you don't build. If you really want to save the Earth, move in with another family and share a house that's already built. Better yet, live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don't want. Don't brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lo...

EUobserver reports that the EU is in talks to lease the so-called ‘Triangle building’ in Brussels for its new diplomatic service, with EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton’s new office likely to look over the Commission and Council buildings. The Commission is expected to lease 50,000 square metres of the 60,000 square metre block for at least 15 years at a cost of around €1...

The pending sale of the Istanbul home where Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky spent part of his time in exile has drawn criticism from prominent historians, who say the building should be turned into a museum instead. The Istanbul Adalar Municipality says it does not have the funds to buy the waterside residence, which has a sale price of 5 million euros. “A figure who helped shap...

This morning I heard John Kay talking about Obliquity – how our goals are best pursued indirectly. I'd heard Kay speak in Edinburgh a couple of times before and this was a fascinating session.Kay had once served as a director of the Halifax Building Society who voted in favour of demutualisation. This resulted in Kay's receiving an e-mail saying: "Now we know who caused the financial crisis"!

Utterly incredible. Over at ConHome, Alex Deane has highlighted something that is just utterly incredible – Team David Miliband's guide to hosting a "house meeting" in his honour. You really have to read the 6-page pdf to take in the full, fastidious horror of it all. But this tip for, erm, "building accountability" into the guest-list deserves pulling out: "Rem...

As someone who has consistently been in favor of in-your-face attempts to offend Muslims (e.g., "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day"), I can't very well advocate any governmental effort (or any violent effort by other parties) to prevent the building of this in-your-face attempt to offend non-Muslim Americans. But to suggest that this center is not provocative, and that Americans should not see it a...

I’m a neo-conservative, a hawk in the war against Islamist extremism, which is why I’m so worried by the opposition to the building of a mosque near Ground Zero. A new poll shows that 61 percent of Americans oppose its construction and Howard Dean, the tribune of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, and Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader, have joined many leading...