Last night, at the end of the Rochdale Borough High Street Foundation Meeting, we had the pleasure, and privilege, of a guided tour of the new municipal offices buiding known as Number One Riverside.
It is a brand new, state-of-the-art facility, incorporating a lot of very impressive features for aesthetic, environmental, economic, and simple functionality purposes.
A lot of thought and planning has gone into producing a building that works in a new way, not only for the public who have to visit to discuss various matters, but also for the staff who work there every day.
Such things as personal informal welcome for members of the public (rather than queuing at a single reception desk), hot-desking (to reduce the number of desk spaces required), total re-circulation of the air in the building (so no airconditioning is required, with its environmental and health issues), and incorporation of several organisations from within the borough, to get the most use out of the building, and to provide a building that reflects the whole borough working together, not just another "council building".
All parties being shown around were extremely impressed, and it did give me an immense pride in what Rochdale is set to become as all the new plans are rolled out.
The old Town Hall is hailed as probably the second most impressive gothic municipal building in the country, after the house of commons, and the new Number One Riverside is probably one of the best new buildings, to the extent that it will be receiving visits form other parts of the country to be shown as an example of what can be done.
Definitely something for which Rochdale can be proud.
And there is even a coffee shop opening around the 2nd of April. I must give that a visit and put it on my other blog!
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