Six-month delay in Tinbergen Building renovation due to unsuccessful tender procedure

Renovation work on the Tinbergen Building will commence in early 2020 at the earliest, a half year later than scheduled. The reason for the delay is an unsuccessful tender procedure.

The tender procedure for the renovation ended on 26 November, but not a single contractor was willing to get the job done for the proposed budget. The prices for construction have risen significantly due to the economic upswing and another contributing factor is that tenders are not attractive for contractors because of the red tape involved.

Since the tender procedure was unsuccessful, the university can engage in direct negotiations with contractors, but this process will take at least six months. This means the schedule has to be revised: the renovation was scheduled to commence in mid-2019. Moving Erasmus School of Economics out of the Tinbergen Building will proceed as planned, but the University Support Centre’s ICT service unit, the classrooms and the study spaces will remain in the building.

Because of the delay, plans for temporarily relocating to the area between the Sanders Building and the Mandeville Building (the empty square in front of the campus supermarket) have also been postponed by at least a half year to early 2020.

More expansive and spacious

The Delft-based architectural firm Cepezed has developed the plans for the ‘new’ Tinbergen Building. The building’s ‘character of brutalist functionality in the tradition of the sixties’ will be retained. But a number of elements will be modernised, for example making the interior of the building ‘more expansive and spacious’. The design features open spaces connecting the storeys, and a large lobby with a coffee bar, study spaces and a restaurant.