This month’s construction industry gossip: A brand day out

The big reveille

Mace held the big reveal of its new name last week at the Odeon Leicester Square. Not a venue normally associated with a contractor’s name change but chosen so 700 staff could watch proceedings in person. And hats off to Mace because it certainly was an event. Just a shame for my hack that the 8:30am start was the morning after the 1am finish the night before of the Building Awards.

In for a pound

Sticking with Mace – or Forco – the firm’s outgoing chief executive Jason Millett got up to deliver a fourth-quarter update to assembled staff. My hack was bundled out before any bombshell could drop. But he did hear Millett (a Mace shareholder) begin: “If I had a pound for what people were thinking.” My chap turned to the Mace PR man and muttered: “Let’s face it, he doesn’t need the money.”

By the way, Millett’s leaving bash was held this week at 40 Leadenhall. That had a name change, too. For a while, it seemed to be only called Gotham City…

You know the drill

Vistry may have had a somewhat rocky year in 2026 but spirits were high at an event which the housebuilder hosted at Portcullis House in Westminster to show off a new brick panel system. One of my hacks went along and was soon put to work drilling one of the said panels into a mock-up wall. He was pleased to place fifth on a leaderboard of the fastest drillers, which was topped by none other than Baroness Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence. In second place was Mike Reader, a civil engineer turned MP, who, with 16 years of graft in the construction industry under his belt, was, I’m told, rather aggrieved to have been pipped to the post. 

The name’s Parker

With speculation growing about who the next James Bond will be to take over from Daniel Craig (the latest favourite is Callum Turner, AKA Mr Dua Lipa), my hack found himself in the company of 007 junkie Iain Parker at last week’s Building Awards. The T&T Alinea director says his favourite Bond film is Skyfall with Craig up there with the best who have played the role. The only one he was a bit sniffy on was the largely forgettable Timothy Dalton. If the decision is so difficult for the Bond people, I have a suggestion: Get Parker.

Given that over the summer my hack had walked into a shop in Brighton that sold nothing but plastic ducks, should anything surprise him any more?

Tall storeys

As business addresses go – in fact any address to be honest – this one takes some beating. Mott MacDonald has opened its North American headquarters in the Empire State Building. Imagine the conversation with a staffer billeted there. “Where do you work?” “Oh you know, the Empire State Building.” “Right.”

Name that tune

Boxers have long chosen walk-on music to energise the crowd or send messages before their bouts – are we beginning to see the same of speakers at industry events? It was certainly the case at The Housing Forum’s annual conference at County Hall in London where speakers were told they could choose their walk-on songs. Alex Notay opted to energise the audience by coming on stage to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off, which was the choice of the Housing Forum boss’s 12-year-old apparently. Meanwhile Lucian Cook of Savills turned his choice into a quiz, coming on stage to a rock song and telling the audience there would be a prize at the end of his session for anyone who could name it. He revealed the track was Confusion in the Market Place by American rockers The Hold Steady, before saying he hoped his session on the UK housing market helped to dispel some of the confusion. How droll.

Send any juicy industry gossip to Mr Joseph Aloysius Hansom, who founded Building in 1843, at hansom@building.co.uk