Tallinn Mayor Peeter Raudsepp (Isamaa) recently told ERR that a major expense for the city is that new buildings are not constructed using standardized solutions. Instead, elaborate architectural competitions are held and architects are commissioned to create custom designs.

As a negative example, he cited the new building at Tallinn Secondary School of Science where a cabinet for the teachers' lounge is being commissioned for around €27,000.

"That's what happens when officials just go with what's offered. When an architect and an interior designer are assigned from the outset and everything is accepted exactly as it comes. For example, the procurement is won by the only bidder who can then charge a hefty price. Later, when these things need to be replaced or modified, you have to go back to that same interior designer again. So we just keep going down this expensive road," the mayor said.

Johan Tali, the architect responsible for the school's extension from the Molumba architecture firm, said the item in question is not an ordinary cabinet at all, but essentially the entire furnishing for the teachers' lounge — measuring three meters (about 10 feet) high and 10 meters (about 33 feet) wide.

"It includes a wardrobe, a small kitchenette and storage space for teaching materials needed by the competence center for science and STEM subjects. This is a somewhat unfounded controversy — there's quite a lot of cabinet there for that amount of money. There's a refrigerator in it and I think there was even a printer built in," he explained.

Tali said the cabinet itself is actually quite simple in design and made of melamine.

"It certainly isn't gilded or made from particularly complicated materials. It's really a completely ordinary cabinet and there are several more like it throughout the building," he added.

The architect said the high price is partly due to the city only beginning the procurement process for furniture and interior furnishings at the start of the summer, while requiring everything to be completed by the end of the season.

"It's quite difficult to find any bidder willing to take on the responsibility and risk of completing everything on time over the summer when all of Europe is on vacation and hardly any furniture manufacturers or material suppliers are answering the phone. I imagine that inevitably comes with a risk premium that's simply added to the price — if one supplier can't deliver, they'll have to find a way somehow. That's probably why there ended up being only one bidder who was then able to dictate the price for this cabinet and everything else," Tali said.

Tali added that the furnishings at Tallinn Secondary School of Science are not unusual when compared with state upper secondary schools built over the past decade.

"This isn't something where we can say we came up with some especially cool or innovative idea. Essentially, all new school buildings are full of cabinets like these," the architect said.

Cabinet issue blown out of proportion

The architect said the original brief called for constructing a new building and renovating the basement of the old one. Later, however, came the decision that alterations would also have to be made to the existing building, including upgrading classroom lighting and the ventilation system. In hindsight, he said, it became clear that the scope of the construction project needed to be expanded.

Tali said the Tallinn Urban Property Department had unrealistic expectations from the outset about how much it would cost to build such a structure in Tallinn City Center, on top of a medieval fortification wall. For example, the city had not accounted for archaeological excavations costing €1 million more than initially planned.

In the architect's view, however, a single cabinet should not be attracting so much attention in the first place.

"All of these things have gradually and quietly found their way into the project, in a way that's understandable and logical, and together they add up to a fairly hefty budget item. In this situation, it's rather unfair to mock the fact that there's supposedly one very expensive cabinet somewhere. Even if the building had been left completely unfurnished, the project still would have gone several million euros over budget," Tali said.

Total cost of the building grows by 30 percent over just two years

Officials at the Tallinn Urban Property Department said the construction of Tallinn Secondary School of Science's new building will cost a total of €30 million. The figure includes furnishings, design work and archaeological excavations.

Just two years ago, however, the department had estimated the new building would cost €22 million. The project's price tag has therefore increased by more than a third over the past two years.

Marko Sula, head of the Urban Property Department's real estate development and management service, said the cost increase was partly due to the results of archaeological excavations and partly to geological conditions at the site.

ERR reported in the fall of 2023 that a thriving suburb had stood on the site of Tallinn Secondary School of Science during the Middle Ages and that the finds uncovered during excavations surprised historians. One particularly valuable discovery turned out to be a rather ordinary cooking pot used for making porridge.

More generally, Sula said the Urban Property Department does not tend to underestimate the budgets of similar new construction projects. Rather, projects become more expensive because market conditions change. He added that investments involving historic buildings carry certain risks, meaning that greater allowance must be made for potential cost increases.

Deputy mayor critical of the department

Tallinn Deputy Mayor for education Andrei Kante (Center) acknowledged that virtually all buildings and construction projects are becoming more expensive, something he said concerns him.

"In this case, we're mainly talking about the furnishings and the furnishing aspect is indeed very expensive. The Urban Property Department's internal processes could have been organized better here. The procurement process could have been launched much earlier so that other bidders would also have had the opportunity to submit offers," Kante said.

He added that the Urban Property Department has now hired a new specialist who will be responsible for interior design procurements.

So when might the first school buildings constructed without an architectural competition actually be completed? Kante said the practice is still taking shape.

"At the moment, the Kalamaja Basic School extension and Martsa school (a new basic school on Martsa tänav in Lasnamäe — ed.) are being completed, but the Westholm High School extension is also under construction and already includes a great many custom solutions," he said.

Kante explained that until now, the city's approach has been to replace old school buildings with entirely new ones.

"Perhaps in the case of certain schools, we need to focus specifically on renovation and, as a result, make use of standardized solutions," he said.

Kante added that standardized solutions cannot be used everywhere and that architectural competitions are sometimes justified when building schools. In his view, Tallinn Secondary School of Science could not have been built without one.

"As deputy mayor for education, both the city's interest and my personal priority are certainly to ensure that the school is completed on time. At this point, we can only acknowledge that this particular project became more expensive and move forward. We cry and we pay," Kante said.

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