BAA have announced that Runway 3, as the project is unsubtly known, will be overseen by Nicholas Grimshaw's eponymous architectural practice. Grimshaw is no stranger to major transportation infrastructure projects in the capital — the firm was responsible for designing parts of Terminals 1 and 2, and the Eurostar platforms at Waterloo — yet their best known work in England remains the Eden Project.
Yes, the same Cornish eco-dome that, upon opening, was singled out as a panacea for all modern ills, and a fine example of modern construction's holistic embrace of 21st-century environmental concerns. Grimshaw's practice was hailed at the time as the cynosure of sustainable virtue; that reputation is unlikely to survive should Runway 3 go ahead.
