Edinburgh International Festival 2008

One of the most challenging tasks we have faced on this project (and believe me, we have faced a few) was delivering the hall in a fit state for the Edinburgh International Festival. The photos were taken in May, about 10 weeks before the Festival was due to occupy the hall. I didn't want to show these prior to the Festival as they may have put some people off attending! Apart from the desire to have a sparklingly clean auditorium and good facilities for audiences, you have to get a Public Entertainment Licence, and to get that you have to pass stringent safety inspections. As a venue manager you get a bit concerned about things like missing stairwells, no electricity or running water, incomplete air conditioning systems, blocked doors, dust, and all sorts of other hazards. Anyway, I'll cut a very long story short and say that with well co-ordinated team approach we did it.

As ever with building projects it ran to the wire and contractors were still scampering around the hall with a couple of hours to go on the opening night. And to round it off, 2 fire officers turned up at 7pm on the dot (the time that the concert was due to start) for a spot check safety inspection. I think they got the message from the rather stessed look on my face and agreed to come back 15 minutes later once the concert was underway.

Contractors to work non-stop until May 2009

Today we announced that contractors will work without interruption to complete the Usher Hall project once this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is over. Here's the link to the national news piece:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7444321.stm

The Usher Hall project team made the decision to press ahead in collaboration with the RSNO and the SCO. we all thought it best that the contractor gets on and completes the job. Both organisations have been able to make alternative arrangements for their forthcoming seasons in order to allow the Usher Hall project to move ahead as fast as possible to completion. More details are available from their websites:

http://www.rsno.org.uk/cms/
http://www.sco.org.uk/

Over the past six months contractors have focused attention on the new wing, the basement and the podium. This has required considerable intrusion into the building’s structure which revealed unexpected deficiencies in the fabric of the building. As a result, there have been a number of time consuming changes to plans and additional investigatory work which has compounded delays.

You can see in the photo's above that the wing is now starting to take shape with the yellow shutters providing the support for the pouring of concrete. You can also see the amount of steel work that has had to be fitted to the the walls where the new staircase will be situated. This has been one of the challenges for us, as without the steel 'brace' the walls were proving too weak to support the new staircase structure. Another delay has been brought about by having to extend the basement corridor away from it's intended path - the foundations of the hall made this a near impossible task. This redesign will take until December to be constructed.

The focus now is on preparing the venue for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.

Thank you for your patience while we complete the improvement of the hall.

The Basement

Here are three images of the works on the Cambridge Street side of the Usher Hall. They show very well how deep the excavation has gone down in order to achieve the new basement, which will provide a big increase in toilet and cloakroom provision. It was interesting to see the stone laid down by Queen Mary in 1911 so exposed against the construction works.

Our Vision

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page there are some fabulous computer generated images of the final building from LDN Architects. I've had them for a few years now but have only just worked how to put them on as a slideshow! I'll leave them here for a while until I work out how to embed them on the left hand side without appearing as the size of a fingernail or falling off screen altogether. These are the images that remind me it's all worth it in the end...

Project Update

Since the information outlined in the previous media articles was published we have been working through some of the operational implications with the Project Manager. As of last week the two national orchestras - RSNO and SCO - were both at the stage of publicising their respective seasons. However, at this point there was information that we could not get from the contractor relating to public facilities for the pre-Christmas period. The RSNO is waiting for this information prior to releasing tickets and the SCO has arranged for it's 3 pre-January concerts to play at alternative venues. Here is a news link from today's Scotsman:

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Delays-to-20m-Usher-Hall.3980687.jp

The move of the SCO to other venues has freed up valuable construction time as there will still be a substantial amount of work to be be continued after this year's Edinburgh International Festival. We will do all we can to help them with the last minute switch and audiences can still buy tickets for the concerts from January 29th 2009 onwards. We are expecting information from the contractor at the end of April which will help the RSNO with it's planning and ticket sales.

Project Update

There were some interesting articles in today's media - The Herald newspaper, radio, Evening News - about the delays that I mentioned in my last blog update so I thought it would be useful to provide links to a couple of the pieces. They say it as well as I can so it's worth having a read!

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2100480.0.More_delays_hit_Usher_Hall_revamp_as_problems_discovered.php

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2100415.0.What_lies_beneath_foundations_of_Usher_Hall_lead_to_setbacks.php

As you will see from previous photos the upgrading of the Usher Hall is progressing, and many areas are coming along well. After last year's festival the contractor took full control of the Hall - we are currently renting office accommodation from our neighbours, the Lyceum Theatre, as a temporary base. The contractor discovered the need to reinforce the foundations of the building with more underpinning (see previous posts) and provide additional support to some internal structures such as the circular stairwell (last post). This work means that the full project will take longer to fully complete but there is no concern at this stage over the use of the venue for this coming winter season by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. It will push back our 'official' opening, most likely to be Spring 2009. There are a lot of operational factors to take into account here and I'll keep you posted.

It will probably be the case that some temporary public facilities such as toilets and box office are put on site for the period of the Festival the Autumn season but we expect the hall itself to be operational. A planning team is being set up to ensure that the needs of the artists, orchestras and audiences are satisfied. The team that is managing and delivering the project is working through the implications of the revised programme of construction work.

Working on a iconic, Grade A listed concert hall was always going to present challenges and in the long run you will find it worth the effort!

Fixing a hole where the rain gets in...

...and stops my mind from wandering. Here are 2 pictures taken from what used to be the ladies toilet at stalls level on the south side of the hall (Grindlay Street). They show the demolition of the old triangular stairwell that took people to and from the Upper Circle, and is where we will have a new circular staircase to connect all three levels of the hall. This was always one of the key aims of the project as the old stairwell was designed to keep the masses separate from the glitterati of Edinburgh's Edwardian society. I don't think any survive now so we can all mix more freely.

The partial view of the yellow machine is a robotic demolition tool. It can be controlled to go into tight/awkward areas and blast away so that humans don't have to.

This area of the project has caused many headaches. The interior concrete wall proved to be in poor condition and would not support the structure of the new stairwell. A large amount of steel reinforcement has had to go in to the walls to provide the necessary strength and support, which has been costly and caused some time delays.

Views from the inside

Two views looking across the Upper Circle foyer area. There will be 2 new bars and cloakrooms in these spaces. We all think this is one of the best public spaces in the Hall and hope to use it for more functions and talks when we re-open.

Views from the inside

I said a few weeks ago that we were having a tour of the building. Well, we all got booted and suited and I now have some shots of what's happening inside the building. There is still a lot of demolition work going on to the stairwells. They are concrete walling the basement, and installing a lot of pipes and ducting to upgrade our terrible air-handling system (for those of you at Festival concerts prior to 2007 will know what I mean!).

The first one is taken looking down the Grand Circle corridor from the backstage access door on the Cambridge St (north) side of the hall. The second is looking down the Grand Circle corridor from the Grindlay Suite side. The workman is breaking through the wall to create the opening for the lift.

The Basement

This excellent photo was taken by John Neilson of Heery International. It was taken looking down from the roof on Grindlay Street and illustrates how the basement of the new wing is progressing. This areas will house spaces for food and drink storage, staff changing, plant equipment and IT/phone system. The basement has been dug all the way around the perimeter of the building now to create the space for all the new public toilets and cloakroom.

We are due to go on a site visit in a couple of weeks and I plan to get some photos of the work inside the hall to show you.