View Full Version : have your say...
...on what you think of the new Highland Council offices in Wick....... http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/News/Offices-plan-critics-are-slammed-as-shallow-06032012.htm ..... it's £8.5 million of our hard earned tax money, we should be heard!
It doesnt fit right with the rest of the buildings and I dont like the way it seems to be made out of square boxes, and I dont like the clock feature.
But I suppose they are trying to make it modern looking and I think the aesthetics fail on every level.
Especially as its placed between a lot of buildings with character and age.
Has anybody seen any other designs that where submitted but not chosen?
As has been said, "There was an exhibition in Wick last July showing pictures of what the building would look like once completed. However, only 11 people turned up to see the plans." Obviously the population of Wick didn't give a tinker's cuss. We all know the planning process is long and often arduous so there would have been plenty of opportunity to raise concerns, question the plans, etc.
IMO the building is an ugly monstrosity but I don't spend any time in Wick so it doesn't bother me.
demac-artist
08-Mar-12, 00:29
Sorry but i totally agree with Dadie is ugly as sin and doesn't go with anything. I agree it could with an upgrade but you can tell its been done by someone in a city and has no idea about the building around the town
Well on the up side you won't miss where it is ....
"I have just moved to the area could you tell me where the Council buildings are?"
Wicker response "Oh Yes look for the ugly sore thumb of a building, you can't miss it!!"
Not really the kind of rep the highland Council nor the locals want!
Bobinovich
08-Mar-12, 00:54
Were artists impression(s) of the designs published in the Groat before the decision was taken? It seems to me that if they had been then a great deal more people might have made the effort to go to the exhibition &/or make their voices heard. However I imagine most people would expect their elected leaders to choose a design which would fit well within the surrounding area, not something so out of place as has been selected.
I imagine most people would expect their elected leaders to choose a design which would fit well within the surrounding area, not something so out of place as has been selected.
You're joking, right?
Our elected 'leaders' are not elected for their artistc tastes or architectural acumen. One of the jobs they are elected to do is to act as facilitators. In this case efforts were made to enable the population of Wick to see the proposed plans and have their say, but only eleven people turned up! Looks to me as if Wick is half-a-dollar short and half-a-day late as usual, :eek:;)
if you tried to build a private house in a modern style like this the planners would slam it
i remember a few years back someone wanted to build a round house in a field somewhere and was told it was out of character. because it was round.
John Little
08-Mar-12, 09:09
"what is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend."
Charlie had the right of it.
But the councillors are right; if people have a chance to have a say but don't, then you get what you get.
That's the rule in Politics ain't it?
Reminds me of a passage from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy...
Mr Prosser said: "You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time you know."
"Appropriate time?" hooted Arthur. "Appropriate time? The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday. I asked him if he'd come to clean the windows and he said no he'd come to demolish the house. He didn't tell me straight away of course. Oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver. Then he told me."
"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine month."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a torch."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."
John Little
08-Mar-12, 09:25
Maybe - but not really applicable to this case;
"But it was raised by the Highland councillors that there was an exhibition in Wick last July showing pictures of what the building would look like once completed. However, only 11 people turned up to see the plans.Mr Fernie echoed Mr Smith’s views, saying the opportunity was there for people to give their opinions. He said it is too late to back out now.
"Given that there was quite a lot of opportunity for people to give their opinion on the matter as well as the public display being heavily advertised through various media sources, there was only one member of the public who raised an issue to the plans," he said."
It does look like as fine a piece of Eastern European brutalism as I have ever seen, and completely out of place in so lovely a town as Wick- but it does seem to have been through due process.
I like it! Particularly if the Wicksters start dressing like those in the pictures. If the world is to progress, you have to have new things. There is no point in building new stuff just to look like old stuff.
I wonder what the reaction to the new Hospital was like. :eek:
looks great, certianly nicer than boards up windows and burned out cars found elsewhere in that hole of a town
John Little
08-Mar-12, 11:21
I think I will leave it mostly to Weekers to comment, but it's well said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Last October I visited Wick several times, in rain and shine. I noticed no boarded up shops and not one burned out car.
Maybe I was in the wrong part of town?
The view up Bridge Street struck me as fine elegant old stone buildings after a sweep down the hill. The High Street was pleasant. The Harbour area and especially the streets round the museum were atmospheric, well laid out, and easy on the eye. The view across the harbour is splendid; and from Pultneytown is grand.
Maybe there are areas to avoid? :eek:
It's the £8.5M that it's going to cost to cobble it together that concerns me.
It's all very well screaming after the process has been carried out, but the reality is that to try and build anything that matches externally the historic buildings surrounding the current offices would cost several times more, be a far more complex build process and still look shite at the end because they never really match or fit in.
The only answer is to go for something bold, striking and modern that stands out.
The only problem is that architects don't really think beyond the completed building, it'll look nice and bonny for a few months but will probably look shite and grubby after a year or so because it will not get maintained to the architects expectations.
What is wrong with re-furbishing at a fraction of the cost? They are always banging on about essential cuts to be made but always plenty to spend on themselves. £8m seems to be their unit of currency for wasting/losing on failed or inappropriate projects.
'cos refurbishing old knackered buildings costs far more!
The biggest concern is that its got Councillor G Smith's support ,the last thing he throw his weight behind was the Dreaded CHaP Project and look how that turned out .
No one in their right mind would have picked this , for god's sake it aint a looker .It would have been better if they had moved to the old Glass Factory and they could have saved at least £4 million of taxpayers money
having lived in big cities for fair part of my life its just the "usual" look to me. The way i see it now is people might start moaning that the "nice new council building" makes all the surrounding shops & buildings look old and scruffy. Cue a council effort to bulldoze and rebuild Wick town centre! i've seen it happen before and much to the dismay of local people but they didn't care when it all started, only when it started to affect them. It wouldn't surprise me if something else was on the plans for the town centre and at the far end of the high street
What is wrong with re-furbishing at a fraction of the cost? They are always banging on about essential cuts to be made but always plenty to spend on themselves. £8m seems to be their unit of currency for wasting/losing on failed or inappropriate projects.
Saving money by doing a refurb is a fallacy. Any architect, builder or surveyor will tell you it's better to knock the thing down and start again from the ground up. A modern building will be better insulated, cheaper to heat and will have easier access for everyone who works or visits the building.
Lots of people were fearful of the extension to the Scottish Museum in Chambers Street in Edinburgh but the architects used a curtain wall method and the building looks grand. The same with the new buildings in Edinburgh's Morrison Street, not to everyone's taste but much nicer than the prefab concrete monstrosities of the 60s and 70s.
not to everyone's taste but much nicer than the prefab concrete monstrosities of the 60s and 70s.
It IS a 60s 70s prefab concrete monstrosity. I would have gone to the meeting had I known about it, I'm sure it would have been advertised but sometimes I miss things.
I'm not surprised that nobody likes it and that is because it is a fine example of Bauhaus architecture. The design has been inspired from the output of those German designers of the late 1920s whose major contribution to architecture in general was a move away from aesthetics to a more functional approach. The reason why this was popular was that in post WW1 Germany, reparations were being made and so these designs were supposed to be cheap to facilitate economic growth. £8 million eh? At least something on the lines of Charles Rennie Mackintosh would have been Scottish.
1. I think it's hideous. 2. What is the point of the clock when almost everyone has a mobile phone or watch to check the time? Do away with it and save some money. 3. It'll be over budget and late opening, which seems to be on a par with almost everything else that's been built in this country over the last couple of decades. If I were a Caithness resident I'd be seriously pee'd off at the waste of my taxes. You have my sympathy.
I can remember many of the same comments like, “concrete monstrosity” and “looks like a prison” being levelled at the new hospital whilst it was being built, over two decades ago. Did anyone leave the county in disgust, never to return, or have their lifestyle changed for ever, I don't suspect so? The lovely old Henderson Home was a hard act to follow,but they managed.
Today we all accept the building for what it is and, I'm sure appreciate all the improvements and upgrades made inside over the intervening years. We now have a fantastic facility despite it still looking a wee bit like a prison.
I really hope that sooner rather than later, the long suffering council workers, who for years have put up with cramped conditions in a rabbit warren now falling down around them, will be able to enjoy the luxury of a modern airy workplace as we did all these years ago. They certainly deserve it!
Love the clock, wonder if it will chime on the hour...........
It looks like it was designed out of duplo blocks ...the clear ones with a surround..even the clock reminds me of the duplo block clock....
I hope all the glass will be kept clean and intact...
But I wonder if the employees will feel a bit like they are in a fishbowl looking out!
I can remember many of the same comments like, “concrete monstrosity” and “looks like a prison” being levelled at the new hospital whilst it was being built, over two decades ago. Did anyone leave the county in disgust, never to return, or have their lifestyle changed for ever, I don't suspect so? The lovely old Henderson Home was a hard act to follow,but they managed.
Today we all accept the building for what it is and, I'm sure appreciate all the improvements and upgrades made inside over the intervening years. We now have a fantastic facility despite it still looking a wee bit like a prison.
I really hope that sooner rather than later, the long suffering council workers, who for years have put up with cramped conditions in a rabbit warren now falling down around them, will be able to enjoy the luxury of a modern airy workplace as we did all these years ago. They certainly deserve it!
Love the clock, wonder if it will chime on the hour...........
The hospital is hideous, unfortunately the general public get little say in these sorts of decisions just because everyone id still here doesn't mean they like it. It seems that most people don't raise their voices in opposition to these things as "what the point, it'll just happen anyway"
Kevin Milkins
10-Mar-12, 11:01
I think the proposed new building looks alright and sure it will be built "fit for purpose", but I would have liked to see a "fit for purpose" market stall holders facility incorporated into the new build.
I have heard many times that the market could be improved for the stall holders and public alike and this would have been an ideal opportunity to achieve this.
Even Chance
12-Mar-12, 12:26
I think the proposed new building looks alright and sure it will be built "fit for purpose", but I would have liked to see a "fit for purpose" market stall holders facility incorporated into the new build.
I have heard many times that the market could be improved for the stall holders and public alike and this would have been an ideal opportunity to achieve this.
I believe that a storage facility for the stall holders is to be included.
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