Trouble at the tower

The Arts Tower is a problem. Student opinion of the building seems split. Some love it, others find it an eyesore. Those who use it everyday find that the tower's saving grace – the novelty of the paternoster – soon wears off. A process accelerated by the regular fifteen minute queues to get on it at busy times.

The building, completed in 1965, requires a £20 million face lift to hide the cracks of middle age. It also requires major alterations to increase its energy effectiveness and to reduce chronic congestion.

The vast sum required for these improvements has led many to question whether it is worth repairing. Were it not for it being a Grade II listed building, much of the student population would be happy to see it go, and the money spent else where. How did it come to this?

When the tower was built in 1965 it was a beacon of modernity. The slender, 22-storey building was a bold and innovative design, built during the whirlwind of university expansion in the 1960s. A time when, as if over night, university buildings popped up all over the country like funghi.

Sheffield, however, wanted to go further than other universities. There was no desire for the building to be merely functional – it was to be a statement of the University's ambition. The University thus chose the architects Gollins Melvin & Ward's adventurous plans for the tower and adjacent library, one of 99 entries in a nation-wide search for a design.

The Arts Tower should stand today as a symbol of the University's visions and aspirations as well as its desire for innovation. Instead the tower stands bleak and unloved. How did it come to this?

Its critics are right, the design has dated. The adage that 'nothing dates so quickly as visions of the future' certainly rings true. Indeed, the Modern Movement as a whole has become increasingly unpopular in recent times. Just look at the popular backlash at attempts to list the particularly bleak Robin Hood Gardens in London.

But this is common for all architectural styles, as Prof. Blundell Jones of the University's School of Architecture points out: 'There is a kind of trough of despair that architecture falls into around 30 years old when its style is vilified, before it is properly investigated and understood'.

But this is by no means a modern phenomena, nor one associated only with Modern architecture, the professor continues: 'Remember the gross prejudice against Victorian and Edwardian Architecture that was rife in the 1960s when the Arts Tower was built?'

'We knocked down dozens of good Victorian buildings. We'd be keeping them now, had they survived'. The Arts Tower was listed to protect against this folly.

What the Arts Tower needs, then, is care and attention. There is no point in leaving the building to rot in its current state. As it stands the Arts Tower is shameful. The lifts break down regularly, it's filthy and there are cracks in the plaster of practically every classroom. What impression does this give to an A- level student on an open day?

Like it or not, the Arts Tower is a symbol for the university. It cannot fail to be, it's the tallest building on campus and dominates Sheffield's skyline. If the tower continues to stand as it does today – grimly – then it reflects extremely poorly on the university as a whole, no matter how shiny and new the IC or the Humanities building are.

The choice was a simple one. The University could have either left its most recognised building to rot, its functionality spoilt by problems of overcrowding and general deterioration, or it could have done something to improve the situation for generations of students to come. The fact it chose the latter shows the university is prepared to look to the future, without abandoning its past.