Douglas Marr
Civic vandalism
During a recent visit to central Budapest I was impressed by the sensitive reconstruction of the city that is taking account of its history, culture and rich architectural heritage. Central Budapest’s continued vibrancy provides a stark contrast to the Scottish experience. The once thriving hearts of our towns and cities appear to be terminally diseased, stripped of life and individuality.
From Kirkcudbright to Kirkwall our towns and cities are increasingly characterised by boarded windows and fly-by-night outlets. It is not hard to see why. People are attracted to the shiny, out-of-town malls with their wide range of stores, easy access and abundant parking. The Gyle, Ocean Terminal, Braehead and Silverburn have impacted severely on even our largest cities.
Where city centre development takes place it is usually featureless, dominated by ubiquitous glass and concrete constructions which, to paraphrase Pete Seeger, ‘look just the same’. This presumption for blandness is being demonstrated in Aberdeen where battle lines have been drawn over the ‘revitalisation’ of Union Terrace Gardens, a green oasis that lies at the very heart of the city.
There is little doubt that something requires to be done about central Aberdeen. Union Street was once among the finest shopping, religious and cultural centres in Scotland. It boasted a volume of bookshops and half a dozen cinemas. As with so many of Scotland’s fine streets, it is now a pale shadow of its former self. Networks of phone shops and jumbles of charity shops have replaced its fine department stores. The local licensing board has contributed to the street’s decline through excessive licensing of a torrent of pubs and clubs. From early evening most people find the heart of the city a threatening no-go area.
Union Terrace Gardens lie at the mid point of Union Street and have suffered a similar decline. Photographs from the 1950s through to the 1980s show the gardens alive with families relaxing in the very heart of the city. As a boy I recall playing draughts with my father on the giant boards that were available for public use. For a variety of reasons, including systemic neglect, the gardens have fallen on hard times. Enter Sir Ian Wood, local multi-millionaire and one of Scotland’s richest men.
Sir Ian has offered to provide £50m towards the cost of a new ‘civic square’ that will raise and totally concrete over the gardens together with the adjoining railway line and dual carriageway. The square will incorporate subterranean car parking, shops, cafes and pubs. Artists’ impressions show shirt-sleeved Aberdonians basking in Mediterranean-like sunshine. Proponents argue that the square will create an Italianate piazza where the neo-Latins of the north will take their ease.
However the scheme threatens one of the city’s few remaining unique features and is fatally flawed in several respects. Despite Sir Ian’s generosity there is a funding shortfall of around £90m. At a time of local and national retrenchment it is not clear where the balance will be found. Public and private subscription may be an option, but one is reminded of the steadfast reluctance of the citizens of 19th-century Edinburgh to put their hands in their pockets to complete the national monument on Calton Hill.
Architects and engineers have pointed out the design and structural challenges arising from the civic square proposal. Meritorious 19th-century architecture, buildings and statuary surround the gardens and it is unclear how they will be incorporated. Many fear that the character of the area will be neutralised and replaced by another anonymous and neo-Stalinist open space.
Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Forum (ACSEF), which pompously describes itself as the body that ‘brings together the public and private sectors to realise the ambition for the future of the region’, has emerged as the main proponents of the development. ACSEF, while not entirely objective, is conducting an extensive consultation exercise. Curiously the consultation totally neglects an inconvenient truth – there is another, more fully developed proposal on the table.
Peacock Visual Arts, a centre for contemporary arts, has full planning permission to relocate to the gardens. Its new centre, designed by the highly respected Brisac Gonzalez, is widely accepted as being sympathetic to the natural amphitheatre of the gardens and could make a significant contribution to their regeneration.
Peacock Visual Arts has secured around three-quarters of the £9.5m required to develop the centre, including a grant of £4.3m from the Scottish Arts Council (SAC). The delay arising from Sir Ian Wood’s counter-proposal may be fatal to Peacock’s plans. The offer of SAC funding, already having been extended for 12 months, expires in March. It may just be coincidence, but that is also the end date for ACSEF’s unduly prolonged consultation exercise. The Peacock proposal is in imminent danger of being gazumped.
The increasingly polarised and acrimonious debate over the future of the gardens provides a fascinating insight into the shaping of public opinion in the north-east. ACSEF constantly puts forward the view that business knows best, despite ample evidence to the contrary over the last 18 months. Claptrap arguments include the highly dubious claim that the civic square will demonstrate that the north-east ‘is open for business’. The forum fails to recognise that, no matter how well meaning and successful the business community may be, it does not necessarily have a balanced perspective of civic development.
The civic square proposal is more akin to civic vandalism. It means the concreting over of the entire gardens and the loss of around 100 mature trees. It threatens the irreversible loss of one of Aberdeen’s most unique and valuable features. The future of the Peacock Visual Arts centre hangs by a thread. There is of course an obvious compromise to create the paved area and preserve the unique heart of one of our major cities.
Sir Ian’s generosity could be used to cover the adjoining railway and dual carriageway. This would improve access to the gardens and ensure that there is room for the arts centre development within the revitalised area. Whether that compromise is sufficiently grandiose for the promoters of the civic square remains to be seen. Everything in the gardens may not be lovely but, surely, the answer does not lie in their total destruction.
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