BIG COUNTDOWN
IT’S exactly six months today until the Victoria and Albert Museum will open in Dundee – and that’s huge in every way.
The unmissable building, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is already a landmark. It sits on the bank of the river, across from the railway station, just along from Tay Bridge… on the way to a large branch of Tesco.
The V&A is part of an ongoing 30-year, £1billion development of the city’s waterfront that has swept away a tangle of on and off-ramps, a past-it swimming pool and an enormous car park.
Half a million people are expected to visit the museum in the first year, calming down to 350,000 after the initial excitement has faded. They will come from all over the world.
The LA Times named the V&A as the best new museum opening in 2018. It has featured on CNN and Bloomberg’s “where to go in 2018” list. And international design magazine Wallpaper has already given it an award.
Dundee’s 150,000 residents have lived with the guddle around that bit of town for so long that its cranes, gap sites and temporary hoardings have become part of the furniture.
But visitors coming from outside the city will have higher expectations, raised by amazing architectural photos of the new building that cunningly leave out the less photogenic bits around it.
The official line is that by September 15 it will all be good to go.
Director Philip Long said: “Everyone who has worked so hard to create V&A Dundee is very excited to be six months away from our opening.
“It will have a transformative effect on Dundee, helping to raise the city’s profile and creating new opportunities for the people of Dundee.”
By the time the first visitors arrive, the city will be looking a lot better than it does today.
The barriers around the museum will be down, allowing Kuma’s imposing building to breathe. Beside the museum, the RRS Discovery, which has been in dry dock for years, will be floating again.
As soon as the builders move out, the site next door will be transformed into Waterfront Place, with a cafe in a man-made sand dune and an urban beach.
This will sit across the road from Slessor Gardens, creating an outdoor focus for a built-up city centre.
The gardens have already been used for outdoor concerts and design exhibitions and the city has also been organising events such as the Dundee Design Festival, Sound of Dundee and an annual Christmas Lights Night.
The train station, for a long time a shonky 1960s afterthought, is being redeveloped with a 120-room Sleeperz hotel as part of the building.
At the moment, travellers use the decrepit back entrance to the station and have to walk around the building
site to get into town. The hotel will be open by June. But as one building is completed, another will start. The site directly opposite the V&A is set to become a four-star hotel and flats, so the bulldozers and cranes are not going anywhere.
Elsewhere, the city is busy preparing for an influx of coach tours and city break visitors – and there are plenty of places for them to stay.
The Premier Inn just along the Tay from the museum recently added more beds. Boutique hotel chain Malmaison