It’s crunch time for the City Hall

Dutch design for iconic Perth site is rubber stamped

The green light was this week given to Dutch architects Mecanoo for the redesign of Perth City Hall – but not without criticism of how the contract award had been decided.

The firm was identified as the preferred practice out of five options put to the public during a consultation exercise. Procurement agency HubCo engaged with construction firms and promoted the design brief internationally.

The Mecanoo design came in at the agreed budget figure of £20m and was the only one to do so.

But it has emerged that while the final price for Mecanoo’s offering was within the limit, it actually came third in the competition in terms of combined scores for quality of design and proposed fee.

On Wednesday, the The Royal Incorporation of Architects In Scotland (RIAS) hit out at Perth and Kinross Council for awarding the ambitious project for the keystone Perth building to the firm.

The group told council leader Ian Campbell it was “disappointed at the variance from the procedure set out in the bid documents.”

The four other contenders - Austin Smith-Lord with MVRDV; Hoskins Architects; LDN and Richard Murphy Architects - costed construction for their design proposals at between £14.6m and £16.9m. In Mecanoo’s case, the cost of construction was seen to come in at a significantly lower £11.4m.

The fee charged by the various architects was not disclosed, given only in a council report as a “fee score”.

At a full meeting of Perth and Kinross Council on Wednesday of this week, Councillor Dave Doogan was first to comment that for fair comparison of the bids he felt a gross cost indication would have been better.

He said without a topline figure for each practice in the report, the firms could not be compared like for like.

Cllr Grant Laing asked why the fee had not been shown in pounds. “It looks bad,” he declared.

“That was an oversight,” stated Jim Valentine, executive director for environment.

He went on to explain that the fees asked for by the firms were treated as “commercial and in confidence,” therefore not added to the comparison table.

Cllr Henry Anderson vilified the report’s scoring as “obtuse”.

The criticism over transparency on fees was dismissed by Perth and Kinross Council’s head of culture and community development, Fiona Robertson, who argued that the building costs were the most significant figure pitched by the companies.

PKC’s head of legal and governance services, Lisa Simpson, pointed out that this was not a public procurement process and that Mecanoo got the highest score for overall quality.

Ms Simpson added that the other four firms has been “non compliant” cost-wise.

She gave the proviso: “We cannot ignore the element of affordability. There would be a risk of recommending a project outwith the budget.”

She concluded: “But we cannot say we will be beyond challenge.”

Moving on to the design itself, new member Fiona Sarwar said if there was a feeling Perth suffered from a deficit in cultural tourism, the city needed to adopt something that “stands out”.

Critical of the Mecanoo design, Cllr Anderson said: “I’m disappointed, this is far from cutting edge.

“Mecanoo’s design was not one of the best. The chosen design was to have taken us away from Victorian times. The council has picked a building vision that is dull, boring and bland.”

Provost Dennis Melloy warned Cllr Anderson to be sensitive. “We want no knives at the end of this,” he said.

Speaking on Wednesday, MP for Perth and north Perthshire Mr Wishart expressed relief that the process was moving forward and a decision had been taken.

The SNP politician said: “The people of Perth have been round the blocks with the tortuous saga of the redevelopment of the City Hall and this must mark the final paragraph in the last chapter of this sorry tale.

“For 12 years this prime space has sat forlornly vacant, holding back the redevelopment of our city centre.

“I am glad to see that agreement has now been reached on the way forward and the people of Perth will be watching the council closely to ensure that this project is delivered as expected and on budget.

“I understand that there have been disagreements over the years about the best way forward but now that these plans are in place we should all come together to ensure that this new cultural asset for Perth is delivered.”