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Marischal College


Guest B. Arthur

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Guest B. Arthur

Starting to take shape quite nicely. I walked past last night and noticed the statue of Robert The Bruce is finally up. Looks crackin'.

Once they knock down St Nicholas House, it's gonna be so much nicer around there. A real...civic square, some would say.

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Guest B. Arthur

Yeah, its because it needs to be taken down bit by bit due to its location. Definitely a nightmare, especially as the council spent all their money on a statue of Robert the Bruce.

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St Nicks will be up for longer than intended also, since there's not enough space for everyone in St Nick's to move to Marischal. We're still here til October, until we can find somewhere to be sandwiched into.

Nice building, but a pointlessly expensive venture if it can't even fit everyone inside.

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St Nicks will be up for longer than intended also, since there's not enough space for everyone in St Nick's to move to Marischal. We're still here til October, until we can find somewhere to be sandwiched into.

Nice building, but a pointlessly expensive venture if it can't even fit everyone inside.

Oh jesus christ...ACC showing once again how bloody stupid they really are.

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Ah, you work in St Nicholas House do you?! When is the first 'wave' of movement going on?!

Some departments are moving over as early as first week of June.

It looks incredible inside, in a futuristic sort of way. Like a scene from the Demolition Man. We are 100% definitely not getting to move in though. Most likely Kittybrewster or the Town House. if there's room. I can't see how there will be.

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St Nicks will be up for longer than intended also, since there's not enough space for everyone in St Nick's to move to Marischal. We're still here til October, until we can find somewhere to be sandwiched into.

Nice building, but a pointlessly expensive venture if it can't even fit everyone inside.

The council should just pay off the staff who can't fit into the Marischal college, problem solved. A great money saver too.

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The city's Common Good Fund was developed as a direct result of a charter issued by Robert the Bruce in 1319.

People living in Aberdeen still benefit from the fund' date=' which is separate from other council accounts and funds and must be used solely for the benefit of the community. [/quote']Slightly different I suppose.

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Guest Gladstone

With regards to St Nic House, a chartered surveyor told me a couple of years ago that places like St Nic House were going to have to be taken down because the cost of making them compliant with energy efficiency regulations - Energy Performance Certificates and all that bollocks - would be more than to simply rip them down.

For example, the space between each floor isn't big enough to install the necessary insulation to make it compliant. If you put the insulation in, the ceilings won't be high enough for some other health and safety bullshit. The windows all let out far too much heat etc etc. Basically, to make it comply, you'd pretty much have to take out everything inside it and build it again from the inside out, replace all the windows etc etc so it becomes so enormously expensive that it would just be cheaper to flatten it.

Now - I assume that Marischal College wasn't exactly energy efficient, so all that stuff would have had to happen there, but then it was a complete shell when they started working on it this time around - and it looks a shite sight better than St Nic House.

(How much of that is true, I have no idea)

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Is 'at him symbolically holding up the Royal Burgh charter, ta for the photo, any of the architectural details of redevelopment, and does it sustain the mighty character of the building. Was it not paid for from the Common Good Fund, created by the charter itself, for a nice bit of completion of the tale.

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With regards to St Nic House, a chartered surveyor told me a couple of years ago that places like St Nic House were going to have to be taken down because the cost of making them compliant with energy efficiency regulations - Energy Performance Certificates and all that bollocks - would be more than to simply rip them down.

For example, the space between each floor isn't big enough to install the necessary insulation to make it compliant. If you put the insulation in, the ceilings won't be high enough for some other health and safety bullshit. The windows all let out far too much heat etc etc. Basically, to make it comply, you'd pretty much have to take out everything inside it and build it again from the inside out, replace all the windows etc etc so it becomes so enormously expensive that it would just be cheaper to flatten it.

Now - I assume that Marischal College wasn't exactly energy efficient, so all that stuff would have had to happen there, but then it was a complete shell when they started working on it this time around - and it looks a shite sight better than St Nic House.

(How much of that is true, I have no idea)

Pretty much. A couple of years ago the land was worth more than the cost of taking down the building, so hopefully in a couple more years - when things pick up a bit (crosses fingers) - someone will invest some money and take the fucker down and build something great; like a rollercoaster or a giant trampoline. It will cause fucking mayhem in the city centre as its literally a matter of taking it down brick by brick. Its proximity with other buildings and health and safety regulations regarding the amount of "stoor" that will be produced in a highly populated area means it will basically take ages as well. Wouldn't be surprised if Broad Street was shut down for a while in fact. It wont do places like Illiscit Still and shopes along Upper Kirkgate any favours too.

The sooner its down the better though IMO. Worse case scenario is its left derelict and no fucker does anything about it. Imagine that: a ruddy great ugly building right in the centre of the city with NOTHING IN IT.

Speaking of buildings, do people like the look of the new ABZ uni library? Its pretty fucking wacky, and it will look out of date in about 5 years. They should just make buildings that look awesome, like the Sagrada Familia or the Taj Mahal. Less of this modren bullshit.

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With regards to St Nic House, a chartered surveyor told me a couple of years ago that places like St Nic House were going to have to be taken down because the cost of making them compliant with energy efficiency regulations - Energy Performance Certificates and all that bollocks - would be more than to simply rip them down.

For example, the space between each floor isn't big enough to install the necessary insulation to make it compliant. If you put the insulation in, the ceilings won't be high enough for some other health and safety bullshit. The windows all let out far too much heat etc etc. Basically, to make it comply, you'd pretty much have to take out everything inside it and build it again from the inside out, replace all the windows etc etc so it becomes so enormously expensive that it would just be cheaper to flatten it.

Now - I assume that Marischal College wasn't exactly energy efficient, so all that stuff would have had to happen there, but then it was a complete shell when they started working on it this time around - and it looks a shite sight better than St Nic House.

(How much of that is true, I have no idea)

Sounds about right. We've got duct tape around most of the window frames because of howling draughts coming through the cracks in the building. I bet its riddled with asbestos too.

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The new Uni library would look better if they take that funny looking tape (?) off it, I've looked at photos of the site, and I only went there for 5 years, but I still can't understand where exactly the thing is, is it in the bit between Meston and the Engineering building, and how the fuck does it fit in there? I'll have a look next time I'm up whenever that is. I want to like it though, and it looks a damn sight nicer than the 12 floor academic library I work in, although it has its own brutalist majesty, and awsome views.

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brucepic.jpg

I liked the other design better. I don't think Alan Beattie Herriot's work is of the same standard as Benjamin Victor. Something about the horse's back legs in the piece just doesn't seem right to me. I understand why people went for the one of him holding up a bit of paper but I think it's odd.

Sadly I can't find a good picture of the much better sculpture.

SDC11329.JPG

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The new Uni library would look better if they take that funny looking tape (?) off it, I've looked at photos of the site, and I only went there for 5 years, but I still can't understand where exactly the thing is, is it in the bit between Meston and the Engineering building, and how the fuck does it fit in there? I'll have a look next time I'm up whenever that is. I want to like it though, and it looks a damn sight nicer than the 12 floor academic library I work in, although it has its own brutalist majesty, and awsome views.

Just right next to the old library. If you opened a window on the north wall of QML, you could spit on it. It is where the entrance to the car park between engineering and Meston used to be. God knows how it fits there, but it does. I just can't decide if i like it or not.

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The council should just pay off the staff who can't fit into the Marischal college, problem solved. A great money saver too.

Sadly that is probably the way that Aberdeen Council would solve a matter of gross ineptitude. Surely one of the key factors in moving a load of personnel to a new building is ensuring the new building can hold the same amount of people?

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Sadly that is probably the way that Aberdeen Council would solve a matter of gross ineptitude. Surely one of the key factors in moving a load of personnel to a new building is ensuring the new building can hold the same amount of people?

It's more likely: "Ermmm, we appear to have less space in the new building. We'll be passing round a pack for voluntary redundancies and those of you who decide to stay will have to re-apply for their old jobs where they'll get more responsibilities but less pay."

Problem solved.

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