The V&A should be built on time and on budget to avoid becoming an embarrassment to Dundee, according to the organisation that seeks to promote the city’s urban heritage.
Dundee Civic Trust chairman Dr Nutan Subedi said there are pros and cons to the updated proposal to build most of the iconic £45 million design centre on shore with only the prow extending over the River Tay.
However, he believes the priority is to deliver the project on time and on budget to prevent the scheme from becoming Dundee’s version of the Edinburgh tram debacle.
V&A Dundee announced earlier this month their intention to change the setting of Kengo Kuma’s building so that most of it would be constructed on the site of the Olympia Centre, leaving only a small prow jutting over the river.
The original plan, agreed after a competition that attracted architects from around the world, was to build half of it onshore and have the other half extend over the river to capitalise on the waterfront location.
The change is to ensure the centre is ready to open in 2015 and does not cost more than the £45 budget, following the discovery that the original concept was going to be more difficult and costly than first estimated.
The chairman of West End Community Council Andrew McBride thinks the issue raised by the proposed change of site is so significant that the original design competition should be re-run with other architects invited to apply.
Dr Subedi did not want to comment on that aspect as it was not an issue about which he or the trust felt qualified to speak. He thought the proposal to move the building mainly on to land at Dundee Waterfront had advantages and disadvantages.
”One of our comments about the original proposal was that it was quite exposed to the elements in being out over the river,” he said. ”This might be a problem for people visiting in the wet and cold weather and it might also be a problem in terms of the maintenance of the building.
”Building it mainly onshore would give it more shelter as it would be integrated more with the other buildings on the waterfront and would make it easier to service as well as to access.
”On the other side of the coin, the V&A is supposed to stand out as a building. It is supposed to present a grand vista for people approaching from the city with open space in front of it, and it would have that effect if it was built out over the river.”
However, for Dr Subedi the prioroty is clear: ”The building has to materialise on time and on budget for the people to enjoy and become the huge asset for Dundee that we want it to be.”