DEVELOPMENT
THE KEON-COHEN DINING HALL : ‘ A TREASURE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME ’
Superb dining hall up and running after a unique official opening
It might not have been the foreshadowed grand , whole Senior School event , with the boys savouring their Baker ’ s Delight fare courtesy of the Gillespie family , but it was a true Scotch milestone for the entire School community nonetheless .
While the boys have watched , navigated and lived through every step of the construction process from demolition to final product , the Keon-Cohen Dining Hall officially came into being when School Council Chairman , the Hon Dr David Kemp AC (’ 59 ) unveiled the plaque via a Zoom conference call to a virtual audience on Wednesday 15 April at 9am .
It may well prove to be the most unusual opening ceremony in the history of Scotch . Along with the Chairman of Council , coronavirus social distancing rules reduced the official party on site to two key representatives : James Denton of Hutchinson Builders and School Council Property Committee Chair , Michael Sim (’ 78 ) who were both adhering to strict social distancing protocols .
Dr David Kemp and members of the School Council including Foundation President , Associate Professor Doug Lording AM (’ 64 ),
Principal Tom Batty and Bryan Keon-Cohen AM QC (‘ 63 ) were all interested onlookers via their computer screens .
In declaring the building open , Dr Kemp paid tribute to the leadership of the Executive , the School Council and the Foundation , the architects and builders , and ‘ all those in the Scotch Family who have made donations to get us to where we are today ’.
He commended the remarkable dedication and eye for detail that went into ‘ producing a building of the highest quality that will endure for a century , perhaps several centuries ’.
Acknowledging that while ‘ it ’ s regrettable that the boys and the members of the wider Scotch Family [ were ] not [ there ] to celebrate ’, Dr Kemp reminded everyone that ‘ Scotch has weathered depressions , two World Wars , previous pandemics , and will emerge from this one still Scotch .’
With the plaque unfurled to the right of the Dining Hall ’ s main entrance , also on display to its left is a corresponding plaque incorporating the six commemorative bricks relocated from the original building , including that acknowledging Chester Keon-Cohen
42 Great Scot Issue 160 – September 2020