Held the blog back till after the architect’s meeting today at 4pm and we’ve only just finished at 6.15pm. That will have messed with Geoff’s daily routine so I had checked with him earlier that he’d be okay posting after 6pm. He will be posting post gin o’clock.
Prior to the meeting I had read the draft Viability Appraisal by Munro Allison Architects & Rob Robinson Heritage Consulting, even read the draft Conservation Policies and will go back to them now I know what they are. These are important given funding comes from the Architectural Heritage Fund and that money comes from Historic Environment Scotland. I confess I hadn’t downloaded the drawings and still haven’t. A job for over the weekend. Suspect they merit being printed out and properly poured over.
We were presented with two high level options 1) New Life and 2) More Space and within those four variations of what we might do. We also got a Summary of Condition report detailing the works which were immediate, urgent, necessary and desirable. Not sure I could even summarise more than that yet. Lots of food for thought and possibilities and lots of conundrums that are not easy to solve. I need to go process what I’ve seen and heard.
It was only myself, Morag and Geoff who attended. We’ll need to get the others up to speed and then bring in the wider community. I’m wondering about uploading the documents to the website for you all to consider….maybe some kind of consultation.
We closed with the intention of getting back to Rob, our heritage consultant, with a defined option to be costed by August. With a good wind the SCIO will be through by then and that new body, which eventually will have elected Trustees, can settle the course for the building. Well, within the confines of available funding they can.
There is going to be a lot happening in August and September.
Still haven’t heard from the Council officials and we have chased.
Jennifer’s Blog 17 June 2021