TNAG-2960-FCO40-4239-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-building-incl-1993 — Page 42

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Whittle, Mr Reading and myself are now satisfied that the draft FSDS will produce a quality and

operationally effective building and we therefore intended, before our departure, to instruct Farrell to progress their draft FSDS to Final Sketch Design: these should be completed by the end of April. Mr Whittle stated that we are currently behind on the drawing programme but are still on line for occupation of the building by 1 July 1996 provided there are no further major "hiccups".

13. The committee expressed some slight concern over the deletion of the level one link between the Consulate-General and British Council (including the executive dining room). Mrs Barnes-Jones stated that the Hong Kong Steering Committee had also been concerned about this and had asked OED for a full appraisal of the cost savings: this had indicated that although the estimate cost of constructing the link itself is only £85,000 approximately, the omission of the link would save considerable corridor and ancillary space and allow the lower floor levels on the British Council side to occur at their most economical levels with the minimum of excavation at an estimated cost saving of £250,000: the HK Steering Committee had concluded that, in view of the cost savings, it would be difficult to justify the link. I pointed out that the link had been introduced mainly as a representational route between the Consulate-General and the multi-purpose hall and this justification was no longer valid as the hall had also been omitted as part of the cost savings exercise: movement between the two buildings is still relatively easy at ground level through the respective adjacent main entrances. In answer to a query, Mr Whittle advised that the lower floors of the separate buildings were now at different levels and it would not be possible to link, in future, the two buildings at level one or above. With reference to the omission of the executive dining room I stated that this had been introduced at the request of the Coordinating Committee during my October 92 visit to utilise "dead space" on the link route: at that time the Co-ordinating Committee had agreed to utilise the conference room on level 6, when necessary, for dining purposes if the link was omitted.

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