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The Shard joins list of global landmarks completed more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens

The Shard is now on the list of global landmarks built more quickly than the Union Terrace Gardens £30m revamp. Image: Michael McCosh/DC Thomson.
The Shard is now on the list of global landmarks built more quickly than the Union Terrace Gardens £30m revamp in Aberdeen. Image: Michael McCosh/DC Thomson.

Aberdeen’s multi-million-pound refurbishment of Union Terrace Gardens (UTG) reached a new milestone going into December.

The three-year mark was reached in August after work on the £30 million revamp began in 2019.

Initially hoped to be finished in summer 2021, council officials beat their pre-Christmas deadline by the skin of their teeth.

Where does the Union Terrace Gardens project fit with global landmarks?

But the longer wait has taken the major city regeneration project into new territory though.

Work outlasted the construction of the Shard in London. When The P&J first published this piece in September, 90 days seemed vast.

But we’ve been keeping track of the UTG construction timeline… and the Aberdeen gardens recently overtook the skyscraper.

Union Terrace Gardens eventually opened more than 450 days late. The project took 1228 days in all.

Covid pandemic shutdowns have been blamed for some of the delays, along with the war in Ukraine, skill shortages and Brexit.

The disruption, paired with 30-year-high inflation, has increased the once £28.3 million cost by £1.5m.

And the troubled redevelopment has left Aberdeen in danger of outlasting construction times on some of the world’s most famous sites.

Are you looking forward to the reopening of Union Terrace Gardens this month? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.

Take a tour with us around the world, as we discover five now six famous sites built more quickly than UTG.

Six global landmarks finished more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens…

A new entry in our chart! The Shard: 1,207 days

The Shard in London was finished in little more than three years. Will Union Terrace Gardens be completed in the same time? Picture by Adel Newman/Shutterstock
The Shard in London was finished in little more than three years. Will Union Terrace Gardens be completed in the same time? Picture by Adel Newman/Shutterstock

The tallest building in the UK is fast approaching on the horizon for the city’s UTG contractor, Balfour Beatty.

They’d overtake the Shard at the start of December.

With 72 useable floors, the spire-like skyscraper (95-storeys-tall in all) was inaugurated on July 5, 2012.

Its £450,000,000 construction began on March 16, 2009: three years, three months and 19 days before it was finished.

Empire State Building: 410 days

The 102-floor skyscraper was built in 13 months, opening in 1931.

UTG took so long that they actually could have built another Empire State Building in the 450-day delay since work was first expected to be finished in Aberdeen.

The Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, New York City, was finished more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens. Picture by by Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.
The Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, New York City, was finished more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens. Picture by Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.

However, it was struck by the Great Depression and took 20 years to turn a profit.

Official records show five of 3,400 workers died in accidents during construction.

An ironworker perched on the Empire State Building construction site in 1930. That’s the Chrysler Building’s spire on the right. Picture by Lewis Hine/Everett Collection/Shutterstock.

But it is thought the true number could have been in the hundreds.

Millennium Dome: 450 days

The Millennium Dome in London was built in 15 months as work at Union Terrace Gardens continues. Picture by Aerial Motion/Shutterstock.
The Millennium Dome in London was built in 15 months as work at Union Terrace Gardens continues. Picture by Aerial Motion/Shutterstock.

The marquee-like Millennium Dome was finished in 1999, after 15 months of construction.

It was built for £43m to house the Millennium Experience throughout the whole of 2000.

However, it failed to attract the 12m visitors forecasted through the year and the owners went into liquidation in 2002.

It now houses the 02 Arena after undergoing significant redevelopment.

Eden Project: 912 days

The Eden Project in Cornwall was finished more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens. Picture by Kev Williams/Shutterstock.
The Eden Project in Cornwall was finished more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens. Picture by Kev Williams/Shutterstock.

The only other gardening project on the list, The Eden Project was built in a Cornish clay pit over two and a half years.

Opened in May 2001, the biomes cost £141m to build.

It was another scheme bolstered by the turn of the millennium splashing of cash.

The home of the world’s largest indoor rainforest is estimated to have brought £1 billion into the local economy in Cornwall since then.

Eiffel Tower: 795 days

Tthe Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars in Paris, was finished faster than Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen. Picture by saiko3p/Shutterstock
The Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars in Paris, was finished faster than Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen. Picture by Saiko3p/Shutterstock.

Sacre bleu! It took two years and two months to erect the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Built as part of the 1889 World Fair, it was also put up to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution.

It was the tallest tower on the planet at the time.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: 730 days

Even one of the Seven Wonders of the World was built more quickly than the Union Terrace Gardens refurbishment.

The real Mausoleum at Halicarnassus is now a ruin but it was finished, in 351 BC, more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens.
The real Mausoleum at Halicarnassus is now a ruin but it was finished, in 351 BC, more quickly than Union Terrace Gardens. This model is on display at Miniaturk Park in Istanbul. Picture by Gokhan Dogan/Shutterstock.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built between 353 BC to 351 BC.

Now ruined, it was recorded as being 411-feet-high, bounded by 36 columns and with a 24-step pyramid on the top.

The ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Picture by Alvaro German Vilela/Shutterstock.
The ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Picture by Alvaro German Vilela/Shutterstock.

We won’t get into the family tree of Mausolus, whose wife and sister Artemisia II had it built as his tomb.

Next on the horizon for Union Terrace Gardens? The Golden Gate Bridge: 1,565 days

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built in four years. Picture by TierneyMJ/Shutterstock.
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built in four years. Could the Union Terrace Gardens revamp in Aberdeen overtake this? Picture by TierneyMJ/Shutterstock.

This perhaps proved a consolation for any stressed project manager working on the Union Terrace Gardens revamp during the cold winter months.

Taking four years, three months and 14 days, there was always likely time for the sunken Victorian park to be opened more quickly than the Golden Gate Bridge.

The date to beat was November 24 2023. I guess you could say the council smashed that particularly target.

This story was behind door number two of our UTG-themed advent calendar, as we counted up to opening day.

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