Say what you will about Boris Johnson, he unquestionably left a mark on London.
As a new book from British architecture writer Douglas Murphy makes clear, during his tenure as London mayor the city became scattered with major building projects that Johnson played an active personal role in bringing to life. There was Emirates Air Line cross-river gondola, the Olympic observation tower known as the Arcelor Mittal Orbit and—chugging along the city’s streets—the toy-like Boris Bus designed by Thomas Heatherwick. Never-realized works under his watch include Garden Bridge (also designed by Heatherwick) and a proposed reconstruction of Joseph Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace.
