ACCORDING to your report on the proposed Blavatnik School of Government in Walton Street (April 26), the school and its patron are hoping to make a bold statement, a modern counterpart of the Radcliffe Camera, and if the city’s planning committee makes the mistake of approving it, they will definitely get it.

This site certainly requires a modern solution, yet one that recognises the principles of urban design.

While its round form could work well within the Infirmary site, it is out of place on the street frontage.

St Paul’s Church and St Paul’s School already stand as ‘object buildings’ either side of it and yet another in-between would leave the street lacking cohesion. What is needed is a modern frontage between them that serves as a good neighbour.

This might not suit the egos of those involved, but it would represent good urban design.

More disturbing than the form of the present proposal is its size, for it would be more than twice the height of the church and, even though its top storey is stepped back, it will completely dwarf the church.

Judging by the model that was displayed at a recent public meeting, the building would be 50 per cent larger than that shown in the perspective drawings and no amount of spin about ‘verified views’, such as offered at that meeting, will alter this fact.

With this in mind, members of the planning committee would be well advised to pay greater heed to the model than to the graphics, especially considering how catastrophically they were misled by the proposal for the University’s Castle Mill flats.

NIGEL HISCOCK, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford