Work looks to have begun to turf the Union Terrace Gardens lawn, nearly six months after they were opened.
Heavy machinery was spotted turning over the baked mud at the bottom of the Victorian park on Tuesday morning.
Aberdeen City Council last week confirmed work would finally get under way to lay grass in the central section of the gardens.
Once down, the area will be fenced off for weeks to allow the lawn to bed in.
The lawn being turfed comes as Our Union Street, the coalition formed to revitalise the Granite Mile, moved into the Union Street pavilion.
Our Union Street’s moving in comes only days after the taskforce revealed the key tenets of its work.
UTG’s Union Street pavilion taken up for a ‘modest rent’ as lawn turfing begins
The pavilion Our Union Street will soon call home has been up for lease for nearly two years.
At the end of April, chief Bob Keiller announced he’d struck a deal to take the space. It was originally designed with a restaurant in mind.
The three-storey premises will be rented for a “modest” figure, on the understanding Our Union Street will move out if a full-price tenant is found.
Until now, only one of the new three buildings, at the Rosemount end of UTG, has been occupied since the reopening in December.
Sir Howard Bernstein: Union Terrace Gardens ‘tremendous, frankly’
Meanwhile, Sir Howard Bernstein has hailed the multi-million-pound renovations on a visit to Aberdeen earlier this month.
One of the country’s leading city regeneration voices, he steered redevelopment efforts after the 1996 IRA bombing of Manchester city centre.
And Sir Howard told The P&J the gardens “look tremendous, frankly”.
The lawn will soon burst back into life. Image: Alastair Gossip/DC Thomson
UTG snagging and lawn preparation begins but one pavilion remains empty
Common Sense Coffee House and Bar has been trading in the Rosemount premises since September.
Meanwhile there is no news of a tenant being found for the remaining pavilion, near the Robert Burns statue in Union Terrace.
City officials have been told to provide the public with an update on the three properties, built as part of the recent £30 million UTG facelift.
They have also faced near constant pressure on snagging works on the much-maligned project.
In June, subcontractors Graeme W Cheyne Builders were onsite to redo pointing on the grand granite staircase.
In 2021, the firm caused outrage as it left historically-protected granite unattended on private land in a leafy western Aberdeen suburb.
Council chiefs remain silent on when public toilets – declared open in mid-May – will actually be unlocked.
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