Geograph - photograph every grid square

Dubbed the “Dallas of Hampshire” in the late 1970s, because of the concentration of high rise buildings, Basing View grew to become a symbol of the new growth of specialist business districts in the UK.
It is Basingstoke's principal central office location covering approximately 65 acres of land lying directly east of the town centre. At the time of writing Basing View has about 1.3 million square feet of office accommodation employing in the region of 5000 people. Major companies located in Basing View include the AA, Thales, Shoosmiths, Sun Life, Unum Provident, Penningtons Solicitors and Clydesdale Bank.
In 2011 the local council have started on an ambitious plan for regenerating Basing View. The first phase involves the demolition of two vacant 1970s 10 storey office blocks - City Wall House and Loddon House. To quote the council “They are now beyond their economic life and have come to symbolise the pressing need to improve the areas image”.
Perhaps if they had tenants it would not have been an issue. What I fail to understand is why the council think that this will help the area. At present there are at least seven other vacant office blocks. Are these “now beyond their economic life” and also ready for demolition?

UPDATE: late in 2014 work started at the town centre end on building a new John Lewis and landscaping an area once occupied by a pub known as The Castle.

UPDATE: 2021, many offices have been refurbished, another knocked down, as well as a new hotel built, but there are still few new tenants.

The majority of these photographs documenting the construction were taken from the Bunnian Place (station car park) which overlooks the site, a few were taken from within the Eastrop roundabout to the south and some on Basing View next to Matrix House.
In July 2014 Contractors Bowmer and Kirkland started work on building a new Waitrose and John Lewis at Home store in Basingstoke. The original schedule was for a 68-week construction process, the planned opening date was set in September 2015 for the 12 November 2015.
The total investment by John Lewis has been estimated at £6 million. During the construction phase the John Lewis Partnership website stated that the “‘at home’ format focuses exclusively on the home sector including home and electrical and home technology assortments, and with no fashion assortment.”
The new store was expected to create 330 extra jobs. John Lewis at Home Basingstoke shop planned to feature a 47,500 square foot over two floors with 16,000 product lines. The branch would focus on furniture, furnishing accessories, electrical and home technology and nursery goods.
The new Waitrose Basingstoke shop was expected to feature 25,500 square foot of selling space, including a customer café, juice bar, and a wine and beer bar where customers can also enjoy tapas and deli platters.