The news yesterday that auditors KPMG are suggesting that The pUBLIC in West Bromwich which is currently £49 million over budget and rising should be either mothballed or demolished was very sad to hear. We saw something similar to this with The Millennium Dome which was built with no clear purpose but has since found one. It appears that The Public will be less fortunate.
How it all got to this after such humble beginnings is probably a management book in itself. It began as a small project to build an arts centre in West Bromwich - but even back then its purpose was ill defined. I knew some of the people involved and once asked them what things were going to be housed in the proposed arts centre. I didn't get a satisfactory response because I don't think they knew the answer themselves. The word they used most was 'space'.
How it was taken out of the hands of those well-meaning but naiive people and grew to cost £79 million and counting without ever developing a viable business plan is a tale of hubris, mis-management and groupthink - the kind of thing that could only happen when funded by taxpayer's money - and I hope somebody writes it all down one day. It will be hard to find people willing to tell their story though, because as each one leaves the project they very carefully remove the stain from their CV.
Notes:
the pUBLIC logo and namestyle appears to have been quietly dropped in favour of THE PUBLIC.
In 2008, Architect Will Alsop won Private Eye's spoof award The Sir Hugh Casson Award for the Worst New Building for his design of the pUBLIC.
Links:
Sandwell MBC
Express and Star Newspaper
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