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!