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.