UCL’S BUILDING works are as old as UCL itself; there may well turn out to be a stuffed skeleton of UCL’s first building contractor with a wax head in a Regency Portakabin somewhere on site. But despite the experience of so many building projects in such a small area, recent works have seen problem after unnecessary problem dog the lives of staff and students.
The noise, delays and obstacles to teaching at SSEES have been noted recently in London Student. Further down the road, the construction of the new Anthropology building has proved a headache for those around it, and for some, far worse.
Despite planning going back to 2003, construction of the building under project managers Turner & Townsend has bristled with problems. The trouble is, the building has been thrown up back-to-back with the Greek and Latin, Chemistry and Archaeology departments. Had this been a residential development, Camden Council would undoubtedly have struck it down for destroying natural light access. For UCL, no such restrictions apply.
Although the building occupies the former site of a car park, it sits atop the basement of the Institute of Archaeology (IoA), containing laboratories and students’ research rooms. Did the Estates and Facilities Division (EFD) realise this when they decided to site the building there? One member of staff believes they did not. Indeed, Angela Clemo, who oversaw the project for UCL’s Capital Projects Management department, told The Cheese Grater that the initial feasibility study (undertaken by the same person as problem-ridden SSEES) was “from the ground up”.
In any case, it soon became clear that neither College nor the contractors knew what to do with the awkward presence of the IoA. The students were moved into a temporary space and told they would be there for one year, while the basement became a building site. It ended up being two years. But that wasn’t known at the outset. Instead, as one person involved recalls, “as the project developed we were given extensions, another 3 months, and another 3 weeks, and yet another 3 months and at the end of the day it was two years”. Forward planning became a fond memory. “It’s affected teaching,” one student complained. “I’m annoyed for the research students”. Angela Clemo said that students were kept out of the building for as long as possible to avoid making them work in difficult conditions.
A member of the Institute of Archaeology also blames the contractor, Mansells, for damage to facilities. An air extraction system was ruined, allowing damaging dust into the electron microscope room and forcing the contractors to make an insurance claim for hundreds of thousands of pounds, and research rooms were flooded, destroying countless photocopies of field notes, leading to even more delays. Mansells are to be invoiced for the lost paperwork and books.
The noise, on the other hand, was something all departments had to put up with. Apart from incessant drilling, there was the builders’ irrepressible banter. No-one expects builders to speak like Jane Austen, but when they are working immediately outside classrooms and central administration refuse to pay for double glazing despite the noise, they should keep instances of shouting “Suck my fucking nob” vel sim. to a minimum. Nor, when asked to stop singing, should they continue to do so, only louder. Complaints about the workmen had no effect; this, Clemo said, was due to the layers of subcontractors and their elusiveness of responsibility. The noise continues to this day, including noise emanating from the Archaeology basement, although students were told at the beginning of term that it would last 2-3 weeks. By a twist of fate, although anthropology students have yet to move into their new building the noise already affects those who attend lectures taught in an Archaeology lecture theatre.
Opinion varies on how well College management have handled the project. While Angela Clemo insists that her dep-ertment kept meeting with Mansells and they repeatedly ignored the results of the meetings, staff question whether much useful communication with and management of the contractors was had.
The next time EFD wish to send in builders, they should choose a team with at least a fig leaf of social responsibility; they should help departments to fit double glazing (thus helping both heating bills and the environment) and they should make departments feel like their opinions matter. The Cheese Grater advises you not to hold your breath.