Saturday 13 October 2012

V&A at Dundee site changes

The revised site proposal
There has been much comment on the proposal to move the proposed V&A at Dundee building away from the river and north to the waterfront itself. 

As I  indicated in today's CourierI sought an assurance from the City Council's Director of City Development that the integrity of the design will remain intact. 

What would concern me would be if the change had been made purely to save money and if the visionary elements of the design had been lost.

Kengo Kuma's design was an inspired choice and I want to make sure none of the vision is lost.

The Director of City Development has advised me that:


"The budget for the project is £45m and we are absolutely committed to that. Costings for some aspects of the work were proving to be subject to considerable risk. This new option reduces that risk substantially.  We are looking to build an extremely notable building, to good time, and on budget. I am confident we are approaching that task sensibly.

The design of the building itself is completely unchanged by the change in site.

At no stage in this project's design has it ever been above the £45m budget."