Furnishing the new Röling Building of the Faculty of Law at the Oude Boteringestraat, will cost over a milion Euros more than anticipated.
Prices of almost everything have gone up, from lights to surveillance cameras and cabinets. The faculty board now believes that furnishing the building will come down to a total of 4.6 million Euros.
That’s in the multiannual budget of the faculty for the years 2023 to 2026. At the beginning of last year, furnishing was still expected to cost 3.5 million euro. The new building will house the moot court, various teaching rooms, offices and spaces to meet.
Extra floor
When the faculty move next summer, not all staff members will fit in the new building, even though an extra floor has been added. In the last few years, dozens of new staff members have been employed because of the increase of student numbers.
The cost of the renovation itself is expected to be over budget too. Still, it might turn out to be better than expected, says board member Hanneke van den Berg. Even though she does not have the exact numbers, because the faculty does not oversee the building process, she knows building materials have been bought and paid for before the sharp increase in prices.
Consequences
However, the UG itself has no idea of the exact numbers either, says UG spokesperson Elies Kouwenhoven. ‘Of course we see the price developments and we realize that those will have consequences for our future projects. But we don’t know exactly what those consequences will be.’
The faculty of law wants to build another educational facility in the city centre, when the renovation of the former public library is done. The Röling Building will get an extra floor and an entrance to the underground bike shed.