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State Of The Art Uni Building - Now You See It, Now You Don'!

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14 hours ago, geared said:

 

Depends:

 

Who did the survey

Who did the engineering calculations

Who drove the piles in

 

If the construction company were working off dodgy plans that had been provided to them it's not their fault the structure has turned out to be inadequate.

Although if the original plans called for more piles and the construction company suggested it would be alrite to leave a few out to save money then they could well be on the hook. 

I asked cause you see so many government contracts where costs overun and the tab is picked up by us the taxpayer so I am pleased that UofS have covered themselves in the procurement

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BAM UK  were the main contractor and have already allowed for £17 million losses  on the project.

Mott Macdonald  are/ were the structural engineers.

Cementation Skanska are/were the piling contracto

 

Kier is again the main contractor.

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Oh dear.

The Star are reporting the whole lot has to come down

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I've worked out how this happened:
A local firm of architects with no experience in the design and construction of a building like this but who had previously designed one of Mott Macdonald's 'workspaces'...   ...concrete supplied by a firm with a history of supplying substandard materials (Mater Dei Hospital, Malta etc) , were somehow given the opportunity to design and build a totally inappropriate structure that dominates rather than responds sensitively to a challenging, high profile site
It's very difficult to get things this badly wrong  -  I kind of admire this level of misadventure - it's what I like about Sheffield: it sets us apart

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1 hour ago, edensor said:

I've worked out how this happened:
A local firm of architects with no experience in the design and construction of a building like this but who had previously designed one of Mott Macdonald's 'workspaces'...   ...concrete supplied by a firm with a history of supplying substandard materials (Mater Dei Hospital, Malta etc) , were somehow given the opportunity to design and build a totally inappropriate structure that dominates rather than responds sensitively to a challenging, high profile site
It's very difficult to get things this badly wrong  -  I kind of admire this level of misadventure - it's what I like about Sheffield: it sets us apart

How did you work this out then?

 

the architect firm have been operating for the best part of 60 years and have offices all over the uk. 

 

architects also don’t design piles - engineers do.

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Architects design buildings and usually have a key supervisory role in their construction: I didn't say that they designed piles although they are charged with ensuring that all structural elements are fit for purpose.
HLM are very much a local firm in the sense that their Sheffield practice is a well-established and prolific generator of design and build student housing schemes and other speculative-type interventions.
If you think that the consortium assembled for this task is up to the job then that's your view: I happen to disagree and am intrigued as to how this particular amalgam won the contract.
When I trained in the late 90's I would have been destroyed by my tutors if I'd come up with the a scheme that proposed the construction of a monolithic concrete structure on the site of a former damn in a leafy Victorian suburb.
We were told that these were the kind of mistakes that had been made by architects in the 60's and 70's and were to be avoided at all costs.
I must be out of touch because I thought that the currently favoured approach was to respond carefully to a site and not to impose a one size fits all approach on any space that was readily to hand.
I think that It's a shame that it's not a Calatrava, Foster or Renzo Piano project delivered by a firm like Arups but I guess my working out is all wrong and it's not an act of hubris by the University and in fact, they've got it absolutely right... ...then again, as i said in my earlier post; this is what i love about Sheffield.
I also particularly liked both the visualisations for a new Channel 4 Regional Hub in front of the railway station and Sheffield Hallam University's abandoned proposal for a Digital Campus on the site of the Interchange on 'Pond' Street which was cancelled because of the discovery that there might be water underneath the site: the giant football on the site of the old cooling towers was another classic...

 

Edited by edensor
typo

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Omnishambles!   I read that it wasn't realised that the site used to be a reservoir!   Ffs I can recall that it was a reservoir when I was a little kid!

 

 

Edited by kaytie
Missed the d off and

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A setback, but nothing more. This will be a great new addition for Sheffield Uni and the design is very elegant. 

 

 

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What an total embarrassment to  the University of Sheffield who must be overseeing the work as the client, and of course the Principal contractor BAM.

If it’s not bad enough for the Weston Park patients, they have to put up with all the noise and dust. Never mind the local residents.

Has this debacle ever happened before in Sheffield?

Edited by prince al

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