'Building is a complex process.' Arnout Brouwer, Union committee member, knows this better than the average person as a student of civil technology and management. And since a few weeks he manages the portfolio accommodation & finances. This early he is faced with a disappointment: the long-expected renovation of the Bastille to student-bastion will take six months longer.
'It will be March', says Brouwers. 'More or less at our own request. The design-phase is being done in a way that is extremely inter-active. Robert Winkel, the architect, listens to our wishes, makes a first draft, we comment on that. It goes back and forth. During this process we found that many questions were still unanswered.'
Enough uncertainty to suspend the matter for half a year. For UT-Catering, the present occupant of the building, this means more time to pack its bags. The restaurants were meant to be housed in an emergency tent at the back of the Vrijhof to make room for the Student Union. UT-Catering would wait there until the 'Boerderij', at present occupied by CenT, was ready to be used. It is certain that CenT (and other services) are moving shortly to the BB-building, from where Industrial Engineering and Management will move in with Public Administration and Public Policy. The bottle-neck here is the faculty of Mathematical Sciences who, while waiting for room in the WB-building, will (have to) be offered space somewhere else. Despite of this FB-director Ben Olde Achterhuis is not happy with the Bastille postponement. 'We think it is a pity, both for the Union and for us. Everybody has an interest in a fast renovation of the Bastille. Those temporary emergency facilities probably have to be built anyway.
