two years ago he had been in london , first designing and then overseeing the construction of the new bbc communications center-a building that was still hotly debated pro and con in the british press ( the guardian : `` perhaps the most beautiful building to be constructed in london over the last twenty years ' ; the mirror : `` other than the face of my mother-in-law after a pub-crawl , the ugliest thing i have ever seen ' ) .