Compare The Square

Compare the facts

comparethesquare — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:29:32 +0000

Union Terrace Gardens + new Art Centre	The City Square

Total costs: £13 million	Total costs: £140 million +
Cost to the taxpayer £5.2m (already committed)	Cost to the taxpayer: £70m + (still to be found)
Impact on gardens: limited	Impact on gardens: eradication
Funding gap: £3.5m	Funding gap: £90million
Revenue costs to city: neutral	Revenue costs to city: unknown
Economic benefit to city: £5m p/year	Economic benefit to city: unknown
Planning stage: full planning permission	Planning stage: pre-design, no application lodged
Number of mature trees lost: 13	Number of mature trees lost: 78
Content: café/bar, galleries, printmaking studios, film/television and dance studios, education facilities, workshops and spaces for live music, screenings and other arts events. Lifts to enable disabled access to all levels of the gardens. Public toilets and baby-changing facilites. 24-hour lighting increasing security for gardens	Content: undecided for upper deck. 490 space car park suggested for lower deckc in ACSEF feasibility study.
Land rights: awaiting lease from City Council	Land rights: requires lease from city council, air rights from Network Rail. In addtion compulsory purchase orders may be required for properties on Belmont Street
Total building site: 3,200 m2 = 0.75 acres	Total building site: 24,281. 1385 m2= 6 acres (bigger than the Red Square in Moscow)
Green Space: Gardens remain largely untouched, comprehensive replanting to replace felled trees.	Green Space: Concrete platform will not be able to support mature trees as there is no where for their root system.
Gardens remain largely untouched, as building site is limited to area of Art Centre.	Gardens eradicated and replaced by 3 floors of concrete construction
Completion date: 2012	Completion date: Unknown

The design for the New Art Centre

comparethesquare — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:14:06 +0000

The design for the Art Centre in the existing Union Terrace Gardens

This is Brisac Gonzalez’ design for a new centre for the Contemporary Arts in Union Terrace Gardens, housing Peacock Visual Arts and the city council’s Arts Education and Arts Development teams and Citymoves dance agency. The Art Centre sits against the existing slopes of the gardens, leaving the historic gardens mostly intact and reviving them at the same time.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW A SLIDE SHOW

more about “The design for the New Art Centre“, posted with vodpod

The City Square project

comparethesquare — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:17:33 +0000

Artist's impression of the City Square, replacing Union Terrace Gardens

Another artist's impression

The City Square Project proposes radical transformation of the area of Union Terrace Gardens and the Denburn Valley. The civic square would fill in the gardens to create five acres of space at street level and a further two and half acres underground real estate.

Compare city squares around the world

comparethesquare — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:04:51 +0000

Square	Area	Inhabitants
*City Square,* *Aberdeen*	*24,281 m²*	*200,000*
Red Square, Moscow	23,100 m²	10.5 million
St. Peter’s Square, Rome	22,783 m²	2.7 million
Dam Square, Amsterdam	20,000 m²	738.000
Place des Vosges, Paris	19,600 m²	2 million
Trafalgar Square, London	12,100 m²	7.5 million
George Square, Glasgow	11,250 m²	580,690