Architect Steve Logan has just finished an epic drawing of Norwich, after more than a decade of working on it. Here, the expat Scot likens the process to painting the Forth Bridge!
Architecture, masterplanning and urban design fill both my heart and my bank account! I’m from Scotland, a wee town called Galashiels. You might have heard of it from the recent film “I Swear”. If you have, I’m actually related to John Davidson – his sister is married to my cousin! Many great tales in there! I’ve designed quite a lot of well-known buildings and masterplans in the area: Wymondham College sixth form block, lots of the newer UEA stuff, INTO building, Health Centre etc. A great love has always been music and had a little bit of history in that as well (record deal things). I’m lucky, and I appreciate that. I love my work, and I love my hobbies. Nothing feels like “work”. That is a rare thing in life.
What brought you to Norwich/Norfolk in the first place? What do you love about living and working here?
I moved down south from Leith in Edinburgh 25 years ago, as my then wife, Sally was expecting our child, Lily and she wanted to be with her family down here, and that kind of fitted in with me wanting some new adventures. From the moment I arrived, I loved Norwich. It’s a fantastic city. Having just left Edinburgh where crime was pretty rampant back then, the first thing I remembered when arriving was seeing the morning EDP and the front-page headline was “House burgled”. A simple house burglary making front page news was a pretty good assurance that this was a safe place to be! Hasn’t actually changed that much. It’s still a good, safe city when compared to the rest of the UK. It has everything you might want in any city: great gigs, comedy, culture, and a good diverse population, who get along with each other. Funnily enough, my daughter Lily, having been brought up her whole life in Norwich and went to uni in Nottingham, has now, completely coincidentally, moved up to Leith where she has just bought a flat next my old office, and which I designed 30 years ago! Life is weird! I live in Suffolk now, in a 600-year-old Tudor house, with a huge garden. It’s very beautiful, but I miss living in Norwich. Plans are afoot!
What led you to creating The Fine City drawing? What is your background?
I started it in 2012 I think (I forget the exact time). It wasn’t any kind of a thing. I was just bored one night and thought “I’m going to draw Norwich centre; should fill a couple of weeks”. It began as a wee sketch of the Anglia TV studios up to the castle, and just kind of grew and grew; firstly, on paper, but as it outgrew the paper, I scanned it and then started drawing it digitally which had a limitless boundary. Unfortunately. And then I drew and drew and drew. And drew. You get the idea.
My Background? I’m a wee working-class Scottish boy from a very poor background who made good, thanks to a more egalitarian society back in the 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s. Another me, today, wouldn’t stand a chance. We’ve gone very wrong over the past 30 years, politically and societally. We’ve forgotten about kindness to those less fortunate. Which is sad.
How long did it take you to do? Would you describe it as a labour of love?
It took 14 years, and a labour of love? Not really. Calmly relaxing in the winter evenings when I first started, then, a short period of “yes this is good”. Then the slow decline into despair when I looked at the vast acres of whiteness which needed to be filled to complete it. By then it was a sunk cost. It had to be done. I despaired yet kept drawing. And drawing. And drawing.
How can people get hold of a copy of it?
It is on Amazon – just type Fine City Drawing in their search bar and it will appear, or use this link: amazon.co.uk.
What are you going to draw next?!
The city has actually moved on quite a bit as I have been drawing it, so I have quite a lot of sites in the city to redraw to bring it up to date. It’s like painting the Forth Bridge!
You can find Steve Logan’s Fine City Drawing on Amazon.
Featured image of Steve Logan – supplied
What a moving story and an incredible piece of art.