Gold

Name
Steve Eades
Company
Spectrum Projects
Project
Fit-out of 1500m² of office space. 123 Buckingham Palace Road, London
Contract
£0.8m, GC Works 4, 10 weeks

Government departments find it hard to turn down the lowest tender, but Steve Eades so impressed the Highways Agency with his understanding of this project, his drive and commitment, and the work he had already done on price and programme that he won the contract on a higher tender.

Eades’ skill and commitment offer a masterclass in how to manage a small-value contract superbly. He instilled a can-do attitude up and down the contractual chain and kept command of everything from programming and cost to quality and personnel issues. He developed a financial audit trail so comprehensive that the client described the project as the best-run financially he had ever seen.

With plenty of noisy work to carry out on the fifth floor of a multi-occupancy office block, Eades ensured it was completed before 7.30 in the morning when staff started arriving for work, and that all neighbours were aware of his plans. He liaised closely with the landlord’s office manager to ensure minimum disruption and arranged a permit-to-work system for hot work and work in risers – the sort of attention to detail that ensured not one tenant had cause for complaint.

The formal weekly site meetings soon gave way to Eades’ suggestion of electronic communications, which sped up the flow of information to all parties and eased decision making.

Two areas of work caused concern: the comms room, which had to be ready early in the programme, and the client’s request to bring forward the carpet installation so that furniture could be delivered early. A team of ceiling fixers, electricians and duct workers had to work off platform towers spanning the furniture and computer equipment, with Eades arranging work so they never had to return to the same area. This put great strain on the end date, but everything was completed in time and the final account agreed on the final day.

Silver

Name
Kenneth Marshall
Company
Ogilvie Construction
Project
Refurb of and extension to listed building. Sheriff’s Court, Lanark
Contract
£2.9m, SBCC with CDP, 66 weeks

Kenneth Marshall coaxes the most out of everyone around him while still keeping a smile. That smile should be wider than usual for what he achieved on this project: successfully managing the refurbishment of an original building in an extremely poor state of repair. The listed building in question, Sherriff’s Court, in Lanark, required major structural alterations, considerable fabric repair and complete refurbishment, as well as the construction of a two-storey extension.

Marshall was heavily involved with value-engineering the project, and agreed the cost plan before work started on site. He chose or approved all subcontractors and produced a very demanding target programme that was shorter than the contract programme to build in flexibility and time for the critical finishing trades at the end. Marshall’s invaluable experience made his role in all preconstruction activities pivotal.

On site, the first job was to demolish the post-war extensions to the listed building and turn-of-the-century fire station, although the original sandstone arch was carefully dismantled and rebuilt into the entrance for two new courtrooms built to match the original single chamber.

Getting modern M&E systems into an old building never designed to accept them was not easy, and Marshall produced numerous elemental and trades programmes as work progressed and new areas of the building were exposed. His knowledge and appreciation of old buildings was essential in successfully integrating the old and the new.

Marshall’s philosophy is to design quality in rather than snag it out, and the finished buildings are without doubt extremely impressive. Marshall helped set quality standards at the outset by building a complete sample room, a move which also helped overcome potential co-ordination problems for the designers.

Commended

Robert Halford Inspace Interiors, David Jones Bovis Lend Lease, Nick Knott Styles & Wood, Edward Layton Hubert C Leach, Tony Vincent Spectrum Projects