Housing four storeys and under

Gold

Name
David Cope ACIOB
Company
Bellwinch Homes
Project
120 flats and houses. College Heights, Weymouth
Contract
£15m, in-house contract, 150 weeks

On this one, David Cope was pretty well all on his own. But he has emerged from the experience with the reputation of being a project manager who sees the big picture too.

Packed off to the south coast from the London offices of Bellwinch, which had done a landswap with Weymouth College, Cope arrived with just a forklift driver as backup. Not only did he build the project with no local support at all, he also negotiated with planners and managed the contract to get the best possible value from his site.

He negotiated to demolish the brownfield site and remove the contamination caused by an old factory – everything from asbestos in the buildings to toxins in the ground. The financial implications of the demolition and cleanup were serious – if it had gone wrong, he’d have been in real trouble. But it didn’t and he moved on to negotiate on housing density and traffic movements with the local authority planners, freeing the site from some harsh constraints and substantially increasing its value to Bellwinch.

Cope got a local contractor to build the social housing units required by the planners, and built the rest of the project himself. Among the technical challenges were size-specific joining pipe designs that were new to both Cope and Bellwinch.

Cope developed a good team spirit both with the professionals and his construction team, and quickly built up a positive relationship with all those involved. This helped create a development built to high standards and which has been a sales success story for Bellwinch. And Cope didn’t just build a fine development: the multi-talented project manager negotiated the whole package, successfully looking after the purse strings, quality, programme and cleanup of a contaminated site.

Silver

Name
Michael Donkin
Company
Bewley Homes
Project
Reconstruction of listed facade and 13 apartments. Charles House, Winchester
Contract
£1.7m, D&B, 64 weeks

To overcome the exceptional difficulties involved in rebuilding Charles House in Winchester city centre, Bewley Homes needed an outstanding project manager. It had one in Michael Donkin.

Recruited specifically to rebuild the former listed building, Donkin first had to demolish a structure tacked on in the 1960s without damaging the all-important Victorian level. The unwanted addition connected with occupied dwelling houses and covered more than 95% of the site.

Collateral damage was a big worry. The 1960s add-on went right up to the back edge of the public path and posed a real risk of collapsing and causing injury to the public, particularly as the site was bounded by busy roads.

With the soon-to-be-demolished building covering virtually all the plot, the utter lack of space for storing materials proved a huge test of Donkin’s just-in-time management skills. Traffic management, protection of the public, onsite safety and the engagement of local subcontractors all required careful planning.

Arriving on site, Donkin found the piling rig booked to start and the programme aiming for completion in 10 months’ time. This gave him little time to familiarise himself with the drawing and specification. Even worse, after a close inspection of the site, Donkin concluded that the to-be-retained listed Victorian facade was unstable and a health and safety risk. The structural engineer agreed, so Donkin sought permission to demolish it. Permission took three weeks to obtain but the structure was redesigned and the drawings amended in this time, and the piling and groundworks continued as programmed.

Not satisfied with redesigning and transforming the structure, Donkin also insisted on substantial enhancements to the internal specification. He convinced his director, the amendments were made, the project completed and sales targets met. A truly remarkable project – and a truly exceptional project manager.

Commended

Christopher Adams Bewley Homes, Bill Brown George Wimpey East Midlands, Lee Conners George Wimpey East Midlands, Robert Crossland Haslam Homes Midlands, Tony Dever Countryside Properties, Andy Lee Britannia Developments, Ian Osborne Bellwinch Homes, Mick Smith David Wilson Homes Northern