This month’s construction industry gossip: What’s new, pussycat?

Rank and filing

Chris Williamson is settling into his role as RIBA president after starting his two-year term in September. It’s certainly an influential position, although some have questioned how much heft presidents really have within the institution, with many suspecting the real power is in the hands of the chair of the board of trustees, a role currently held by Jack Pringle.

Regardless, Williamson told my hack recently that he “gets on really well” with Pringle and recently found out that their fathers both worked in the same iron works in Derbyshire. Williamson’s father worked in an office, while Pringle’s father – as Williamson slightly sheepishly admitted – was the manager.

An infestation 

The restoration of the Barbican is pressing ahead with teams from Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan currently preparing to overhaul the site’s famous conservatory. It’s a big job.

All the plants are apparently riddled with diseases brought in by members of the public, so they will need to be removed, cured and replanted – the plants, that is

All the plants are apparently riddled with diseases brought in by members of the public, so they will need to be removed, cured and replanted – the plants, that is.

New homes crisis

Meanwhile, sticking with the Barbican and its spruce up, other occupants are simply being removed under the plans, including, sadly, the much-loved terrapins. The reptiles originally lived on Hampstead Heath as feral former pets abandoned by their owners and were adopted by the Barbican in the 1990s. Now the conservatory is no longer suitable for them, my hack was told by someone working on the scheme, and they need to go.

The problem is, it’s proving difficult to find them a new home. Any takers?

Things that go bump in the night

Does anyone remember the Nakheel Tower? This was Woods Bagot’s plan for a 1km-tall skyscraper in Dubai that was put on hold back in 2009. Envisaged as the tallest building in the world, it was never built for a variety of reasons – partly its original location next to the city’s airport. Apparently, no one on the scheme had bothered to think about flight paths, until someone realised that the nearby runway under construction was angled directly at the site of the planned tower.

A cut above the rest

To the Building Awards last week and my hack says he thinks he saw a first – the host of the event, comedian Dara Ó Briain, managed to cut himself when handing out one of the gongs. How, I have no idea. But it did come to mind that, for all their bravado, aren’t comedians supposed to be thin-skinned? Well, here was proof.

Keeping up with the Joneses

A few weeks ago, one of my team was flown over one of the government’s 12 new towns. It was the one near Bicester in Oxfordshire, called Heyford Park. Do keep up. 

Anyway, my hack tells me that the chap flying the chopper turned out not to be Biggles but Tom Jones’ grandson, Alexander. It reminded me to dust down my Tom Jones gag for the rest of the team. Not heard it? Oh, go on then. 

I went to the doctor the other day, I said “Doc, I’ve got Tom Jones songs coming out my ears. In the left, it’s the Green Green Grass of Home, in the right it’s Delilah.” Doc said to me: “It’s Not Unusual.” Thank you very much.