EUR 6 million shaved off price of Helsinki Music Centre

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The price of Helsinki’s new music centre has been reduced by a total of EUR 6 million.
      For cost-cutting reasons,one of the smaller concert halls, a 100-seat auditorium, which would have been used by the Sibelius Academy, will be omitted. In addition, the number of seats in the rehearsal halls will be reduced.
     
Other savings include for example cheaper materials for the walls. The tiles on the exterior walls will also be replaced by cheaper domestic stone.
      A committee comprising the representatives of the City of Helsinki, Senate Properties, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), and the Sibelius Academy, has been seeking cost-savings since it turned out some months ago that the board of the real estate company behind the venture had not received any tenders which would have complied with the budget constraints. Actually all quotations exceeded the estimated costs of EUR 106 million.
     
LPR-arkkitehdit, the office which is in charge of the architectural design of the building, regards the proposed changes as minor.
      ”They do not change the architectural appearance of the complex”, noted architect Mikko Pulkkinen.
      Both Pulkkinen and Harri Kauppinen from the City of Helsinki’s Real Estate Department gave an assurance that no changes will be made in the large concert hall, which is the most important part of the complex.
      "According to acoustic measurements, the concert hall will be top-class, one of the finest in the world", Kauppinen asserted.
     
Currently, the construction of the foundations for the new building is under way on the prime site opposite Parliament. When the foundations have been completed, the fall from the level of Mannerheimintie will be some 20 metres.
      "The greatest savings result from last summer’s decision to continue the foundation work as a separate contract, even though a new bidding process had to be arranged for the main contract", reports Kauppinen.
      If the entire project had been stopped, further costs would have been caused by the fact that construction costs in general are rising by some 0.5 per cent a month.
      ”For the site of this size the sum would be EUR 500,000 per month”, Kauppinen calculates.
     
In a couple of weeks, the construction committee will open the envelopes containing the tenders from the new bidding process. A total of eight construction companies are now competing for the project management contract for Helsinki’s new music centre.
      "A project management contract is less risky for the contractor, and hence we expect the tender prices to be more moderate", says Kauppinen.
      The construction committee also estimates that economic cycles are being smoothed out.
     
Elsewhere in Europe, private donors are known to have financed the construction of various cultural buildings. Where are the Finnish benefactors hiding?
      If the quotations from the new bidding process still exceed the target price of EUR 106 million, would there be a company or a private millionaire who could come forward and announce that they are willing to cover the cost overrun? Just for the pure pleasure of offering large numbers of people access to great music?


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki Music House could be "cheaper solution" than originally planned (4.5.2007)
  Costs of Helsinki´s new Music House likely to increase as contractors´ bids are rejected (3.5.2007)
  Construction of new Music House to begin in summer (13.4.2007)
  YLE gives approval for funding of new Music House (17.11.2004)

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