In an extremely rare sighting, the only joy that has ever been associated with the MacRobert Building.
By Dwayne B. Utcher
"365: day 301" by Nick in exsilio is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
As the construction of the new business building approaches its end, we are invited to stop and reflect on its impact on the outlook of Aberdeen University campus.
The new building is located right at the back of the Sir Duncan Rice Library, at the intersection of Machar Drive and Bedford Road. With such a powerful sight as Sir Duncan Rice Library, it is impossible not to look at this new feat of horrific architecture on campus right next to it.
A university spokesperson, Sir Dan Iamond, gave his comment at the very start of the project: "MacRoberts? We can top that."
In fact, a University's project supervisor spoke to one of our journalists just last week, commenting on the challenge of designing a building uglier than MacRoberts. “Given the chance to build something new, that's not something that happens every day', he disclosed, “you want to make sure you come up something impressive”.
Impressive is the right word, especially if you are into those buildings on campus that have that sort of vibe. See Meston, also known as the maze, or the Zoology building, now a movie set of major motion picture set in Soviet Russia. A spokesperson in the constructing crew commented to the Gaudie: “The university didn't believe we could, but we made it. We have just built the ugliest building on campus.”
The impressive part? The design was created in 2019. So we can't even excuse the horrifying look as a product of the last century. Set to open in Spring 2022, the new business building is exactly what we needed on the Aberdeen campus: a flat, white, prison-looking rectangular to safely tuck away all our business students.
