This month’s construction industry gossip: Sparks fly

Straight talking

Has anyone seen Thomas Heatherwick’s nearly-completed redevelopment of Olympia? John McAslan has, and it’s fair to say he didn’t like what he saw. “It’s horrible,” the King’s Cross station architect told my scribe a couple of weeks ago.

Nothing like sitting on the fence. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. I’m a big fan of the Walkie Talkie and, to quote McAslan, a lot of people think it’s horrble as well.

Perhaps gelato outlets could be counted as defence spending too as clearly soldiers fighting in the sweltering Mediterranean heat will need some way of cooling themselves 

Strait talking

Readers are doubtless eager for an update on Italy’s plans to build a bridge between Sicily and the mainland. The government intends to ignore a court ruling that rejected the plan and has even been mulling the idea to list the 13.5bn euro project, known as the Messina Strait bridge, as defence spending in a bid to meet NATO’s military expenditure target of 5% of GDP.

The bridge, it was claimed, would have a “key role in defence” as the armed forces would no longer have to hang around waiting for the ferry. Perhaps gelato outlets could be counted as defence spending too as clearly soldiers traipsing across the country in the sweltering Mediterranean heat will need some way of cooling themselves.

The government has now passed legislation giving the scheme the go-head, but don’t hold your breath. The first law for the project was passed in 1971.

Sign of the times

My hack was being shown around Canary Wharf earlier this month and he spotted a couple of people taking pictures outside a building. “Bit overcast and grey for pictures,” he thought, “but each to their own.” The PR noticed his befuddlement. “They’re influencers,” she said, helpfully.

The whole truth

Galliford Try chief executive Bill Hocking says he has first-hand experience of the state of the country’s pot-holed roads. He tells my scribe: “I was driving in the fast lane on the M40 the other day and hit a great big pot hole.” Try cycling in London, Bill. The roads are full of craters.

And … action!

Grizzled estimators might want to turn away. “Sometimes I feel we’re like Disney,” says Steve Elliott, the chief executive of fit-out firm BW, Why, horrified bid teams from yesteryear might ask? “Because now we’re doing so much filming, animation, broadcast quality when pitching to clients. Every other week, there’s a film crew here.”

A far cry from the days when clients just turned over sheets of paper to look at … price.

Lilee’s bouncer

Hailing from Yorkshire, Keltbray’s new chief executive Karl Goose is, as you’d expect, a big cricket fan. His favourite players include Australian Shane Warne and Geoff Boycott, the Barnsley-born batter who it’s fair to say divides opinion. It reminded me of this gem given on God – Boycott’s other name to some – by another Aussie bowler, Dennis Lillee. “Geoff fell in love with himself at an early age,” remarked Lillee, “and remained faithful.”