New costings for a proposed Victoria & Albert museum in Dundee are running at £45 million £2 million lower than initially envisaged.
Dundee City Council’s city development director Mike Galloway addressed building industry insiders and pledged that a firm hand is being kept on the budget.
“This is no Scottish Parliament,” he added, referring to the huge overspend on the Holyrood building.
Mr Galloway addressed the launch of the Tayside Construction Forum (TCF) in the Dalhousie Building at Dundee University on Tuesday.
A design brief for the V&A in Dundee will be sent to six short-listed architects in the next fortnight.
They will be asked to submit models of their design concepts, to be displayed in Dundee before going on show at the V&A in London.
After presenting an overview of the Central Waterfront project, Mr Galloway focused on the V&A and his vision for a £9 million upgrade of the concourse at Dundee railway station.
He said the V&A project has made a virtue out of a necessity, and the need to find a suitable waterfront site to deliver the completed museum by the end of 2014 led to the decision to build out into the river.
How that is to be done, on a decked pier or landfill, is to be included in the building’s design.”Blockbuster exhibitions”The completed V&A will house “big blockbuster exhibitions that go around the world” and feature the best of modern Scottish design and areas for “knowledge exchange.”
Mr Galloway said, “It is about the relation between art and design and I feel that is the niche that we can exploit in Dundee, particularly with the work being done at Duncan of Jordanstone.”
He added that it was important for the building to attract the same “public acclaim” that accompanied the opening of DCA.
Mr Galloway said he had been working for some years “behind the scenes” on a plan to develop the railway station and felt the £9 million proposal could be delivered.
The need to replace a number of old Victorian bridges around the station gave the opportunity to extend the work to replace the concourse and provide better facilities, including shops and a first-class waiting room.
The drive was on to deliver the new station at the same time as the V&A but, he accepted, there is still a “funding gap” to be resolved.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Galloway was asked what the V&A project and associated works could mean for the construction industry in Tayside.”Tacky” streetsHe replied that the assessment of potential developers to work on the site would include their plans to use local contractors or sub-contractors, and to provide training.
It was also suggested to Mr Galloway that the streets leading from the city centre to the new museum are “tacky”.
He agreed that the area would have to be “lifted” to complement the new building.
However, he said it was something of a “chicken and egg” situation.
Mr Galloway suggested that once the museum attracts greater footfall, better business opportunities will open up.
Council contract services director Ken Laing, the new TCF chairman, said the forum is a “self-help group” to help the industry through the recession by sharing best practice and innovation.
The forum has been set up with the support of the Scottish Construction Centre, Dundee University and Dundee, Angus and Perth colleges.