Ill-fated structure is put up for sale
Apr 15 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal
FOR SALE: "One 150ft-high hotel room, built to fit around Grey's Monument. Brand new and in pristine condition. No previous owner. Valued at £140,000 but open to offers. Planning officers need not apply."
This possible classified ad is only slightly tongue in cheek for the skeleton of the flop Hotel Monument artwork is being put on offer to any takers.
County Durham firm Architectural Steelwork Ltd (ASL) built the steel structure for the partners behind the controversial project, which was refused planning permission last week.
For more than a year it has been sitting in the company’s yard, near Newton Aycliffe waiting to be put up. Newcastle arts organisation Locus+ and the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI) commissioned the company to build the structure, paying them £140,000.
Since the project was given the thumbs down by councillors, ASL’s managing director Rob Whatnell has been faced with the question of what to do with the redundant set of steel scaffolding, which his company still owns.
Rob said: “We’ve made it and it’s just been sitting here in our yard for the last year.
“For the time being we’re going to hang onto it. The last thing we want is to put it in the bin because a lot of money has gone into it. We’re extremely disappointed it’s not going ahead. I think it would have been a big success for the city and something a bit different. And on a business level we got very little in the way of profit from making it, for us it was all about the exposure we would get from the project going ahead.”
