Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Senedd - Value for Money?

Looks as if the (not so) new Assembly Building is back in the news tomorrow. I think there's an Auditor's Report due out. There could be an embargo on it, so I'd best not post on the content. But I can express an opinion about what I think of the Senedd today.

Now, I was perhaps the most fierce opponent of the decision to build the new 'Senedd', and I did my best to stop Assembly Members taking the decision to go ahead. I was very critical of the timing. Just didn't think that building a new debating chamber should have been the first big decision we took after being elected. I was particularly scathing about the ludicrous alternative than Rhodri Morgan made his entire Cabinet vote for, as he sought to give the impression that he was personally against it. He'd probably been listening to the conversation down the Dog and Duck. He just made himself look ridiculous. As it happens no other AM supported him.

So what do I think now. Well, since there was no turning back on the project, I've taken the view that we should extract as much value out of it as possible. I used to compare it to that Kyffin oil that we should never have bought - but having bought it, and spent the money, there was no sense in not fully 'appreciating' it. The Senedd is a superb building - modern, yes - but certainly no carbuncle. Streets better than the Scottish Parliament, which already looks dated. Today, I just laud the Senedd as an architectural masterpiece which, along with the Wales Millennium Centre, the Wales Millennium Stadium, the National Botanic Garden, is one of the great newly built icons of Wales. I try not to give any thought to value-for-money.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

isn't there some merit in not always going for the cheapest option Glyn? such as buying the mor expensive local product and the local benefits that has? think the senedd is the same, we could have stayed in the horrid building that is crickhowell house, but th senedd is superb, may be costly but has anyone valued the benefits? the pink pictures in the committee rooms very poor as is the need for electric lights in so many places in a green building.

Anonymous said...

The building may look great from the outside but there are so many things wrong on the inside. The roof still leaks – fortunately not so often in the public areas – but blue cleaners buckets have been seen sat on the glass above the Chamber catching the water dripping down from above. The roof above the Committee rooms is still suffering from flat roof syndrome – they know the water is coming but can’t work out from where. The roof has been completely redone but I suspect it will still leak. The design might be great but the build is not so hot!

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

‘The WAG experiment may have looked, by some external observers, as a great idea – but there are many problems on the inside. WAG drips common sense, often into public areas. Buckets are often used to stop the drips turning into brain-tissue-grey puddles. So much is leaking that the WAG is developing a flat roof … as most people know it is difficult to get insurance on flat roof properties and so the WAG building may have to be rebuilt. The WAG building design might be great, but the WAG was built up into something it clearly wasn’t meant to be: a common-sense free zone.’

Anonymous said...

The roof is still covered by the Contractor's maintenance period and can be solved. It is an iconic structure and one we should all be very proud of. I am glad the your party's wish to have no such building for our nation, did not win the day.

Glyn Davies said...

I agree that the cheapest option is not always the best. My case in the beginning was that we shouldn't be going for it all - then. It was just about the first big decision that we took. But I do think it is a striking building, which will remain striking for decades. I agree about the so-called works of art on the Committee Room walls. I hope that nobody tells Dafydd El that I said this, but I thought this purerile daubing was awful.

As with all new iconis buildings there will be faults in the design. The buckets catching the dripping water caused great mirth when it happened - but I hope that its fixed before the contract is signed off. The Auditor seemed fairly confident on this score.

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

Glyn: there is a Welsh giant of an architect: Franklin Lloyd Wright - hardly known in Wales but in the USA he is HUGE. His designs were/are just FANTASTIC! I've dragged mum (not that she had to be dragged, mum has become a Frank Lloyd Wright fan too) to see FLW's Falling Waters near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And truth be told, some of FLW's designs did leak, but he was such a clever Welshman he actually designed a leak in the Falling Waters residence (FLW turned the intentional leak into an exhibit piece that added character to the home; he realized that the hydrostatic pressure acting against part of the building structure needed a "Welsh Leek".

Glyn Davies said...

Christopher - Perhaps Richard Rogers had the same idea! Simon and Garfunkel did a great song about Frank Lloyd Wright - but he's not greatly appreciated in Wales.

Anonymous said...

why do they have to give it a pompous name like senedd? and isn't senedd a parliament, which this place isn't?

and why does this pain in the butt woods think we have never heard of frank lloyd wright? patronising buffoon!

Glyn Davies said...

anon - I'm not sure when a governing body actually becomes a 'Parliament'. I thought Senedd was ok,(its easy to say in English and Welsh) - but I was never willing to use 'Siambr' unless I was actually speaking Welsh.