SIR - The news that Jacob’s Well is to be flattened and replaced brings with it a rare opportunity to develop a striking building that could help Bradford’s perceived image problem.
Most proposals for new office developments in the city are speculative and rely on attracting tenants first, which has traditionally meant that they never get off the drawing board – no matter how easy on the eye or ambitious.
Bradford also has a more recent precedent of ensuring new developments are low-key and in keeping with the traditional built environment to avoid the mistakes of the 60s and 70s.
Yet here is an opportunity for a development which already has tenants and is well-funded, plus occupies a key gateway site set apart from the city’s heritage streets.
To replace Jacob’s Well with something bland and low key would be a terrible waste, such has been the case with the new Westfield development.
Give Bradford a striking piece of modern architecture to be proud of; a skyscraper to rival other cities; a symbol of re-evaluation for our own.
Si Cunningham, Steep Hill, Croydon, London
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