Mill House Development

[popgoestheweasal.]

Had a meeting tuesday evening with another meeting planned for this tuesday evening might pop along to see what they have to say.

[popgoestheweasal.]

Went to the MHAAG meeting last week with an open mind it was very well organised with everyone given the chance to aire there views.
The odeon to be turned into student flats is a great idea for the building and the area. i'm going to attend this Thursday to see what the HUFC and Gus Robinsons representives have to say.

[steveL]

Student flats sounds like a good idea but every time I walk passed the building I wonder just how much it would cost to restore it. There must be a point when it becomes cheaper just to flatten it and re-build - even if it's for student accomodation.

I know it's a Grade 2 listed building but similar Art Decor Odeons have been demolished everywhere around the country. It's OK sticking a grading on a building but no one ever explained where the money comes from to maintain it and as a result the country is dotted with such derelict 'graded' buildings.

[popgoestheweasal.]

Is it private money that will be used to upgrade it stevel.

[steveL]

Well you only have to read the Mail tonight to see that there's no public (council) money around. The building is owned by the Wilkies at the moment but, as far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be any legal obligation to maintain it beyond the point of making it safe. Compulsory purchase seems the only option to me but if the college took on the cost of converting it to student accommodation it would be hard to make a case that they should pay the extra to convert the existing building should this prove to be more expensive than flattening it and rebuilding it.

I'm not convinced myself. A lot of the buildings 'art-decor' credentials went out the window (literally) when the previous conversion to  a night club took place. There's really only the art decor cladding on the outside left intact and I'm sure some
way could be found to incorporate this into any new build.

Pity really, but I think it's a bit late to start shouting architectural heritage. The link to any Mill House redevelopment seems a bit tenuous to me but hey - if it rids the town of a long-standing eyesore then so be it.

[Stig of the Seaton Dump]

Student accommodation would be better placed near Church Street wouldn't it ?
Easy to get to classes and boozers.

[no6bus]

surely its more about using the odeon and bringing it back to a useable property than the need for pubs close by, also there are pubs,clubs close by that are actually open all week rather than a couple of hours on a weekend, and proximity for attending classes we are talking a 10 minute walk. and what alternative properties are there in church street area that are unused and suitable to be converted into student accomodation.

[testing times]

I'm not sure if would be right for the college to use public money to renovate the Odeon if it would be cheaper to build from scratch, which I suspect it would. It's not the college's responsibility to bring derelict buildings back into use; their responsibility would be to provide student accommodation at the most cost effective price.

[rabbit]

Some fairly recent photos of the interior of the Odeon here:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=66783

Not taken by me!

[no6bus]

but is it the college who would be funding it, or is it to be done by another party who will then rent direct to the students, but by having the accommodation available would the college be able to attract more students from other areas

[popgoestheweasal.]

The odeon is a lovely art deco building and brought up to date but keeping that art deco look would be fantastic.

[mk1]

Seems a bit of a stretch to  do that in a building with no windows!

[no6bus]

be interesting to actually see the proposals

[for fawkes sake]

Surely the point is that it would mean cost over and above what was strictly necessary to provide student accomodation. It doesn't really matter who pays. Whoever it is will want to recover the cost through higher than necessary rents which I doubt the college would support. Looks to me that whichever way you look at it the present building is doomed.

[From a distance]

Building probably doomed but the facade needn't be. When they built that new shopping centre near Grey's Monument in Newcastle they propped the front up while rebuilding behind it. The same approach seems to be used all over Europe, where civic pride and an eye on tourist euros prevents too much messing with the look of old city centres. They obviously aren't planning to restore the Odeon to former glories and then charge students to live in the balcony on a strict diet of Toffee Poppets abd cartons of Kia-Ora. Hopefully we'll see some creative thinking rather than more of the defeatism that sees old buildings left to rot until demolition is the only option.