Retain and enhance Union Terrace Gardens
The preview of Frances Walker’s exhibition in Aberdeen Art Gallery was fair bursting at the seams with former students of Frances, prestigious artists and all who enjoy fine art and seek aesthetic delight.
In the midst of this visual celebration, I chanced upon a vigorous discussion about the proposals for Union Terrace Gardens. Both sides of the well-known debate were being forwarded and defended, by two dear friends of many years, and the measure of validity in both arguments deserved contemplation. So, I resumed my tour of the exhibition.
When I spotted Sir Ian Wood, I was tempted to ask him to convene a forum, there and then.
It was not going to happen at the preview, but opening up debate with the likes of those in attendance would have been an event not to be missed! A ‘stair-heid row’ of immense aesthetic proportions, I imagine.
Why should both proposals be mutually exclusive and why is the ‘public consultation’ so presented? I envisaged walking from Union Bridge into a modest civic square accommodating the Peacock Arts Centre, with the iconic steps and granite balustrades beyond, keeping their open view to the Library, St Marks and Theatre.
There might even be a delicate tracery of bridges and walkways drawing people to and from Belmont Street, or to a lower level. Can we keep the soul of what is there and gain a modest ‘piazza’? Surely there is a design which will get this right.
Perhaps it is time we all cooled down and searched for a way to retain most of what we treasure, yet enhance the area for future generations.
Fred Bull, Logie Coldstone.
Having read the article in Leopard (Feb. 2010) by Tom Smith, chairman of Aberdeen City & Shire Economic Future, on Sir Ian Wood’s proposal for the regeneration of Union Terace Gardens, I think it is only fair that the alternative scheme, proposed by Peacock Visual Arts, should get a fair hearing.
“Over 1,300 local businesses are adamant that the city centre needs to be significantlyimproved,” we are told. I take this to be an admission that tearing out the city’s heart and replacing it with the Bon Accord and St Nicholas shopping centres hasn’t improved things. It certainly killed off Union Street.
“The vision is to raise Union Terrace Gardens and cover over the Denburn dual carriageway and adjacent railway line.” A “street-level civic space” is mentioned, which I take to be the level of Union Terrace. Further on Mr Smith makes it clear that, “our plans are not about replacing gardens with a concrete square, but about using the natural sloping topography of the location to create a civic space with gardens which everyone can enjoy.” Which is exactly what Peacocks are proposing to do.
I am still trying to work this one out – how to raise the gardens to street level and use the natural sloping topography at the same time. “Our ambition is to have the same, if not more, green space than at present,” we are informed. This also puzzles me. Raising the gardens to street level will mean goodbye to every mature tree in the area, since they are all well below street level. Perhaps Messrs Smith, Michie and Wood have discovered how to grow trees in concrete.
“The City Square Project is about more than Union Terrace Gardens and the Denburn Valley. It is about safeguarding and creating jobs for our children and grandchildren.”
This also puzzled me until I noticed a detail which was slipped in as an afterthought. The vision would also “create a further two acres of all-weather, covered space”. Is there a hidden agenda here? I take it that the two acres of covered space refers to the space underneath the city square, and surprise, surprise, no mention is made of how this space is going to be utilised, but I have no doubt Sir Ian has a few ideas. Perhaps this explains how roofing over Union Terrace Gardens would give us, in Sir Ian’s words, “an opportunity to establish our position now and in the future as a global energy hub”.
After Aberdeen, of course, they could go on to bigger and better things. Just imagine what they could do to Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens.
Sandy Cheyne, Skateraw Road, Newtonhill.