Newcastle University - Developments

[toonlad]

I should have mentioned above that the main reason the university has this space surplus is because they started a system of 'space-charging' a couple of years back. Essentially the university estate bills individual departments for their services annually, the more space they use, the higher the bill.

Departments are now keen to keep estate costs low, so most have reduced their footprint significantly. Maybe too much judging by all the empty buildings on campus!

[AngerOfTheNorth]

Yup - and the university seems to believe that an architecture student needs the same amount of space as, for instance, a Geography student.

Bizarre...

[toonlad]

OK guys, I am just posting up some excerpts from an internal communication at the university. It reached me via marketing and comms, so I guess it will be public knowledge soon enough:

Construction work on a teaching and accommodation centre for international students has been scheduled to start in August 2010.

The centre, which will consist of three new buildings plus landscaping, is a joint project between the University and International student recruitment specialists, INTO University Partnerships.

An academic building with teaching and learning facilities will be built adjacent to Percy Street, next to the Herschel Building. Two accommodation blocks for 540 international students will be constructed, one next to the new Music Studies Building and the other on the site of the demolished Joseph Cowen/Old Forge buildings.

Preparation work for the developments is already underway. From Wednesday 14 July there will be no pedestrian access to the campus from Percy Street via Haymarket Lane or George Place for the period of the construction work, which will be completed by Summer 2012.

[TownPlanningNE]

Good news, pleased it's finally getting underway. I think it will really add to the streetscape of Percy Street, providing it is the same good quality of the Kings Gate building.

[Stamford]

Pictures from today

Noticed last week that some new fences were going up and there were a lot more by today, so did a bit of snapping. Very little to see though, other than to note the overall size of the whole site being fenced off.

1st July 2010

[bigchrisfgb]

Is that small curved buidling getting a reclad?? I noticed that half of the cladding had gone the other day so I'm assuming it's going to have the Newcastle stone cladding as we call.

[toonlad]

No the original slate will go back on. Over time the adhesives used to secure them has been degraded, so they are being re-fitted. You may remember 2 years ago they did the same with the black tiles on the Herschel (big building behind).

[bigchrisfgb]

Thats a shame, the Newcastle cladding could really brighten up that area, especially after the new building has been built. The slate on the building behind doesn't suit that building, I think it's on the wrong building in the wrong location.

[TownPlanningNE]

Some updates from the development page of the uni's website:

Confirmed INTO construction dates:

INTO Newcastle University

Total investment: £50m
Architect: FaulknerBrowns
Contractor: Balfour Beatty
Construction: August 2010 to Summer 2012

New page added relating to students union developments:

Students' Union Building Refurbishment

Total investment: £8million
Architect: Faulkner Browns
Construction: November 2010 to September 2011

Newcastle University Students' Union Building is undergoing a major refurbishment programme that will significantly improve the Union's service to its student members.

The planned refurbishment, developed in consultation with the student body, will see major changes to the interior layout of the building, making the internal space more flexible and enhancing the accessibility of key services such as advice, representation, sports and societies.

The redevelopment will include:

New 24 hour access computer clusters
A flexible multi-purpose space for clubs and societies
Social learning spaces
New cafe, bar and eating facilities

To view the plans and get further information about the Students' Union Building redevelopment visit the Students’ Union website.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/about/campus/de...ents/projects/

[Irish Blood English Heart]

Wasn't the SU refurbished within the last few years already or was that only the exterior of the building.

Spent many a good night there in the past.

[Tyr]

Originally Posted by Irish Blood English Heart

Wasn't the SU refurbished within the last few years already or was that only the exterior of the building.

Spent many a good night there in the past.

Yep, I'm pretty sure it was. They did the inside...5 years ago maybe then the outside 2 years back.

The student union is apprently struggling though. This refurbishment is a desperate attempt to remain relevant in the modern world where the student community is non-existant.

[TownPlanningNE]

Originally Posted by Tyr

Yep, I'm pretty sure it was. They did the inside...5 years ago maybe then the outside 2 years back.

The student union is apprently struggling though. This refurbishment is a desperate attempt to remain relevant in the modern world where the student community is non-existant.

How do you mean?

[anonymous1]

It's not just Newcastle's student union struggling. I went to 1 interview and 2 open days for unis, and every person who mentioned their respective unions said they're a bit rubbish and don't organise anything good.

[Tyr]

Originally Posted by TownPlanningNE

How do you mean?

Well....in European universities you still have a student community. Flourishing university institutions, student ran collective canteens and pubs. There's a real feeling of student community. You're not just signed on for a degree at a university, you're signed onto that university.
Students work together and collectivly fight for their rights. Its just....very different.

At Newcastle though...its just somewhere you're doing your degree. There's no sense of comradeship between students.
You're there for your 3 years to get a bit of paper much as everyone else is. You're not specially a student. You're a normal person just doing this degree thing.

I think part of the problem with the Newcastle union is its too corporate. Its supposedly owned by the students yet its very out of touch with them. Those election things they have- damn I hate them. Shallow, vulgar displays of 'vote for my mate!' without any actual substance. And all through the year there is a general huge gulf between the union and the students.
Compare this for instance to my university in Sweden where the unions are ran totally by the students on a rather grass roots level. They've 2 or 3 students taking a year out to work full time running the unions and thats it for proper staff. All the rest- voluntary student workers. At the best what they get paid is a meal and £15 a day. As well as other benefits if they work enough- they're able to skip the line for getting into clubs, invitations to club worker parties at the end of the year where they drink all the left over booze, etc...
Its a bit much to hope for that selfish Brits could do the same thing as this. I certainly didn't- it seemed to be voluntary slavery to me! Though some of my friends really liked it. They said it was a nice place to hang out and was fun. And of course good for their CV. But still. Even assuming we've no people who think that way over here it really is a bit overly corporate.

Its hard to explain really.

[AngerOfTheNorth]

I wouldn't be so harsh on Newcastle Uni - I know plenty of people who are incredibly proud of being there, myself included! However you're totally right that the union has lost its way - it went from trying to provide affordable services for the students to effectively trying to milk them as a "captive market". The students however where nothing of the sort and over a period of a few years started to buy their lunch, drinks, nights out, papers etc from nearby shops more than happy to provide better for less!

Plus students seem to have more money now, so don't need the cheap, budget nights out that the union offers/offered, because they can go to nice city centre bars during the week and get drunk on drinks just as cheap as those in the union.

That's what the refurb is trying to address - they're literally shutting the place for a year, gutting it, then rebuilding from scratch to create an appealing place for modern students to shop, drink etc. In my opinion it was pretty necessary, they've had plenty of skin-deep makeovers over the past ten years but they've always been done on the cheap and have had no impact at all.

[Irish Blood English Heart]

Is the Student Union being completely shut for a year then? Is a temporary one being set up anywhere?

[DXNewcastle]

Originally Posted by Tyr

. . . I think part of the problem with the Newcastle union is its too corporate. Its supposedly owned by the students yet its very out of touch with them.

The Students have long lost their sense of ownership of their Union. It IS owned by them, but they don't consider it as theirs, either in terms of using its facilities nor in terms of changing and adapting it to their needs (nor even in accepting responsibility for that rather splendid asset!).

Originally Posted by AngerOfTheNorth

. . . - it went from trying to provide affordable services for the students to effectively trying to milk them as a "captive market". The students however where nothing of the sort and over a period of a few years started to buy their lunch, drinks, nights out, papers etc from nearby shops more than happy to provide better for less!

Plus students seem to have more money now, so don't need the cheap, budget nights out that the union offers/offered, because they can go to nice city centre bars during the week and get drunk on drinks just as cheap as those in the union.

That has largely been the consequence of the above - the failure by students to take ownership of their property/asset. But its also a consequence of other having stepped in to fill the gap. City centre bars have wooed Society Presidents and others with drinks offers and other deals to attract them and their followers away from their own facility towards someone else's (which means they're paying to sustain somone else's bar as well as their own, neglected, Union).

Who knows if the market for large-ish dark-ish, cavernous live music venues will return in future years, maybe not. The market has changed, and other venues have re-structured too.
But if the Gate, Nancy's Bordello, Osborne's and a dozen other student-attracting venues can make themselves appealling, then there's only one reason why students couldn't have made their own venue into another student-attracting venue. The lack of will.

[AngerOfTheNorth]

The thing is DXNewcastle, I'm not sure how an individual student could go about "taking ownership" of the Union and making it change. As far as I can tell they have a permanent management team who I would doubt would have much interest in being told how to run the place. Don't get me wrong, I think the Union should be more responsive to the views and wants of the students (I don't think, for instance, much if any research was done with students to see what they wanted from the new Union), but I don't blame the students for it.

And yes IBEH, they're setting up a mini-Union in the building immediately to the left of the Arches, as you look at them from the Union. How they'll do it I don't know, but that's the plan.

[Tyr]

Thats the problem really, its the system the way things are, we're just individuals and the majority of the student body is completely non-caring. They're only here 3 years, university politics is just a dumb irrelevancy to most- which with the way the current status quo is it mostly is.
It would be intersting to see a truly radical candidate. Unfortunately however the kind of person who would care is unlikely to be posh and rich and therefore unlikely to be able to spend loads of money on a ridiculous 'vote for my mate' campaign which is all that wins elections.

[TownPlanningNE]

I noticed today there was quite a bit activity on the INTO Newcastle site, I'm guessing it will be the preparation work ready for construction to begin next month.