Merry Christmas

Disappointingly, Heery didn't manage to get the obligatory Christmas tree on top of the crane and we were missing a bit of festive bling. OK, it's huge and I am sure there are Health and Safety laws about that sort of thing, but all of us at the Usher Hall would like to wish our blog readers and customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Alfred Brendel set to retire in 2008

Well, there goes one idea for the re-opening season! Here's a link to the Reuters article, plus a blog writer from Lithuania who says some nice things about the Usher Hall.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN2061381320071120

http://violainvilnius.blogspot.com/2007/11/alfred-brendel-is-retiring.html

Of course, we all wish Alfred Brendel a happy retirement and are thankful for the many superb performances he gave here. I don't know if he's at next year's festival, but you can catch him at City Halls in Glasgow next year, if there are any tickets left.

The Usher Hall Crane

'nosy_neighbours' had asked what the big white tower was for (see comment on last photo). I presume the reference was to our crane. This is (mainly) for taking out materials from the internal demolition work and it will then be used for lowering the sections of the new circular stairwell and lift into the interior of the building. I had to go up to Edinburgh Castle to get a decent view of it. I knew my Historic Scotland membership card would come in handy!

You will notice two similar sized cranes in the background. We can't use the traditional T-shaped crane in the city centre because it would overhang surrounding buildings when it swings around (and you wouldn't want that!).

I did notice from up at the castle viewing platforms that there are a lot of cranes across the Edinburgh skyline at the moment.

Underpinning

Just a couple of pictures to show the level of underpinning that is needed to hold the new wing to the side of the existing building.

Festival over, work resumes

I am delighted to say that the 2007 Edinburgh International Festival (Usher Hall programme)not only happened, but happened in style. A monumental effort by our staff, the festival and the contractor went into getting the hall ready. With just a day to turn things around we managed to get to opening night on Friday 10th August and celebrate with a full house!

The Festival programme was amazing. My personal highlights were the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (for their sheer exuberance and love of playing) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (for sheer musical brilliance). We welcomed the best part of 40,000 people through the hall. To be honest, the hall was really showing it's age and we tried to make it look as nice as we could. The festival got in floral arrangements and went to town on posters outside. The St Petersburg Brass Quintet added to the party atmosphere as always. However, the toilets caused us more problems than usual - I found out during the festival that a while back we had our water supply pipe downgraded as part of a Council utility saving excercise. This meant we had a 20mm (yes millimetre) pipe supplying the building instead our old 65mm one. Hence, problem with water pressure and cisterns not refilling quickly enough. The efforts by our staff to make the programme work under difficult circumstances was incredible.

With the Royal Scottish National Orchestra rounding off the Festival, we then had 1 day to clear everything out of the hall to allow the contractor back in on Monday 3rd September. Which, if you ignore an old freezer stuck in the basement and half-ton marble bust of Beethoven, we did.

Work now resumes with more piling (see previous entries) and the continued dig of the basement area around the outside of the hall. The above photo is taken looking towards what was the box office entrance last week.

When you're in a hole...

...in our case, we keep digging. Here is the extent of the dig to provide the foundations and basement area for the new wing. Something like 300 tonnes of steel have been put into the ground to support the new structure, which are now hidden from view.

The internal backstage area on this (Grindley Street) side of the hall has now been demolished to make way for the new facilities - better dressing rooms for musicians, a dedicated education space and floors that actually connect at the right levels with the main public part of the building for better access!

A busy site compound

This photo was take a few weeks ago by John Neilson, Project Liaison Manager for Heery. It's a good illustration of the volume of equipment needed in a relatively small area

Walers, Dyvidags and Rubber Ducks

The piling works are complete which will result in a lot less of the continuous noise experienced in the area. Thanks to our neighbours for their patience while this took place. New words continue to be thrown at me but at least they're more entertaining than my usual diet of arts and local governmnet acronyms!

This week we are continuing to dig out the first part of the new basement area for the glass wing extension by the Lyceum Theatre. The process has been explained to me a number of times but I still end up feeling like I am back at school having logarithms explained to me.

John Neilson, our Site Liaison Manager can explain it better: "The limit of the excavation works is bounded by the previously completed piling works, which as the ground is dug away exposes the buried steel H-section columns or 'kingposts' spaced at approximate 2.0 metre centres. As the steel columns are initially exposed to a depth of approximately 1.2 metres, plywood shutters are then erected between the adjacent kingposts to form a retaining wall, on an install one, skip one basis which facilitates the pouring sequence. The internal shutters are strengthened by timber members called 'walers' or 'strongbacks' and are clamped to the steel sections by special clamps called 'dyvidags' (many of which are sacrificed in the pours) to prevent the plywood shutters from moving when the concrete is poured. As the external side of the retaining wall is against the existing ground which it is to hold back, no shutters are required and the concrete can be poured directly against this ground. Once the concrete is poured and the concrete hardened, the first set of shutters are stripped, and the process is repeated for the skipped sections of the retaining wall.

Once the adjacent retaining wall sections in one area of the basement are poured and the concrete is strong enough to retain the ground behind it, excavation will commence once again to a depth of approximately 2.0 metres to 2.4 metres deep, and the shuttering process repeated using a slightly modified method which allows the concrete to be poured behind the shutter by means of a method similar to the way the postman inserts letters into your letterbox. This method is then repeated over and over in approximate 1.0 metre depths until the full depth of the Basement is achieved and the full height retaining wall completed. Any excess concrete from the 'letterbox' pours is carefully removed as works progress to give a fairly smooth finished surface to the retaining wall. It should be noted that as the excavation works for the basement get deeper, the more likely the chances of striking rock which will require the use of the 'pecker' or pneumatic drill mounted on the front end of the rubber wheeled excavator (or as the machine is known in the construction trade 'a rubber duck'). This operation is what may cause the noise and/or some minor vibration that you may hear or experience.

Piling works underway

The piling works are now well underway. This picture shows the steel supports that are being inserted into the ground. Each hole is half a metre in diameter and 9 metres in depth. That's about the same height as the main elevation of the hall. In total, around 300 tons of steel will be put into the ground to support the structure of the new glass wing.

The work is noisy, and, because of the clay soil base, very dusty. Our neighbours are being very patient so thank you. The piling work is due to stop at the end of next week.

Piling - a short introduction

The photograph shows the foundation layout for our (soon-to-be) fabulous, new glass wing. The contractor has cleared the paving away and this week will begin 'piling'. A lot of the construction industry language is new to me. I had a rough idea of what piling meant but a bit of investigation has thrown up lots of interesting information.

The basics: "A pile driver or piledriver is a mechanical device used to drive piles into soil to provide foundations support for buildings or other structures." It is likely to be very noisy, especially if it hits hard rock.

Some history: Scotland can make a very good claim to have invented the process. Among the people who are said to have invented piling is James Nasmyth, son of the Edinburgh born landscape painter Alexander Nasmyth. Even better, the earliest example of piling is a 5,000 year old, iron age Crannog, and is to be found at Loch Tay.

If you want to find out more, have a browse through these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pile_driver

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Nasmyth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crannog

Protecting the existing fabric

A major refurbishment of a beautiful, grade A listed Edwardian concert hall obviously presents many challenges. One of these is how to protect the fabric of the existing building. This week the contractor and architect have been telling me that they will install protection for the marble pillars. I must admit I scratched my head when I saw this - cellophane and wood? I was expecting thick woollen blankets and sentry guards, or something.

However, a conversation with our project liaison manager and all was explained. The wood protects the pillar from knocks and holds the cellophane down. The cellophane is wrapped around to allow visible checks to reveal if the vibrations are causing any damage. Clever, eh.

Week 3

The first 2 weeks of the project have seen the completion of the construction site around the hall. I think you'll agree it's a bit of a change. Audiences seem to be coping with navigating the area better than I am. We have started putting our front of house ushers right out into the streets before each concert to ensure that we can direct as many people around the area and into the hall and other theatres/resturants. Poster sites are being erected on the hoardings today and these will display local map information. Poster sites for the theatres and restaurants are currently being made.

Parking and traffic management continues to exercise many, especially our neighbours. Access to Cambridge Street is restricted and the road around the hall is closed. Audiences are advised to allow extra time to get to the hall in case of problems. Our advice, and that of the Lyceum and Traverse Theatres is to park in the NCP on Castle Terrace and walk over. Spaces for Blue Badge holders are on Grindlay Street, accessible from Cornwall Street. Traffic Wardens, or whatever their current title is, are being asked to provide extra cover in the area and the NCP is cheaper than a fine!