panthro wrote:The whole site of the GRI really needs to be demolished other than the 'Old Building' which needs thoroughly cleaned. The Macewan Building (the one on the left as you enter Casualty from the Parade) is awful. The whole QEB/University Tower (which is getting refurbished at the minute and soon-to-be called the New Lister Building) section of buildings need destroyed. The Cuthebertson building is depressing and needs to go. The old Lister Building is rank and the gable end is held up with steel supports. Coming round onto Castle Street. The Gatehouse building - although old casualty - is pointless and interferes with the view of the main building.
A few gems of the GRI site: The Walton building (Old Nurse's home), the estates building on Wishart Street and of course the majestic old building. The Old Building is not fit for modern healthcare but with a new building on cleared QEB/UTB site, the old building could be used as offices. One poster commented on the ?Adam Smith Building and how you go up to the 4th floor from the 5th. The current hodge podge buildings of the GRI do just that where if you enter Old Building at Ground, walk UP the link corridor you are at the lower ground of the QEB. The maze of corridors even confuses me and I work there. It is dark and depressing even as a staff member.
Maybe once Tennants goes we can get that site, build a new hospital connected via tunnel (addition to the rumoured tunnels to High Street station! ::): ) to the current old building. Build a car park on cleared UTB/QEB that doesn't cost £178.50 a month to park as a staff member. You could even open up some of the Molendinar again! That literally might be a pipe dream!
Sadly it is I'm afraid. Remember, The QEB was a big grand scheme in itself to replace the Old Building which was first mooted in the early 1970s - that's why there are empty spaces on the concrete podium for future "modules" to be added - but to date only one - the Materinity Unit - ever has been. It was the same old story - grand vision, gargantuan plan, then lack of money to see it through to the end with only a small amount actually built. Glasgow is littered with examples - the ring road, the Anderston Centre, the new GRI as I've just said, and sad to say - I can see Collegelands going exactly the same way.
The big problem with big public infrastructure projects has always been because they take so effing long to plan for and fund, is that they are vulnerable to the political climate of the period which changes like the wind. Phase I gets built, the politicians that backed the scheme in the first place are long gone, the new lot cancel the future phases. It happens over and over again and we never seem to learn.