Surprising news came this week from the office of London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan: Norman Foster’s Tulip, a 1,000-foot-high observation tower, is not coming to the city. The project’s approval was unexpectedly overruled earlier this week after being “called in” by the mayor.
It’s not the tower’s unpopularity that’s a surprise. The flashy but essentially functionless concept has largely been greeted with public ridicule since being unveiled last year. It’s that the mayor has used his discretionary powers to cancel it.
