Pour One Out for Another 1960s New Town, Soon To Be Replaced By More Of The Same

Longtime readers and/or aficionados of brutalist concrete abutments may recall that one of Reston's contemporaries, the Glasgow, Scotland "new town" of Cumbernauld, has a fancy concrete Town Center that rivaled any of the feverish dreams of Reston's own planners. It was... something. Somehow, it managed to mix the concrete starkness of Lake Anne with the desolate post-apocalyptic feel of Hunters Woods, all while resembling an inverted Terraset pointing upwards to the sky in a defiant act of concrete hubris. And it inspired the first vision of what our own plastic fantastic Fake Downtown might look like, replacing tree-lined streets with weird, windswept concrete boulevards overseen by giant lookout perches (presumably to watch for those who overstay the 15-minute parking limit).

What could have been.

Alas, that vision wasn't meant to be in Reston, and in Scotland, the dream is coming to an end. Apparently Old Blighty's constant rain and bog-ick has done a number on the poured concrete nirvana. Half of it had already been torn down, and the rest is now slated to be demolished. Soon, cheerful, inspiring vistas like this will be a thing of the past:

Predictably, people are upset about this unique piece of architectural heritage being demolished, which sounds oddly familiar. But fear not! Plans are in the works to replace it with something just as distinct and responsive to Cumbernauld's distinct landscape and culture:

As a wise man once said, no matter where you go, there you are,

So pour a flat, room-temperature ale out for our friends across the pond and give your nearest baffling concrete abutment a hug, the end.