More Focus – Page 478
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Features
Tender price forecast: Hope amid uncertainty
A mood of uncertainty prevails, with modest rises in tender prices and new orders, lower housing starts and a decline in infrastructure work. But the Budget, reports Davis Langdon & Everest, has strengthened hopes for robust recovery
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Features
The art of induction
What should do you do with a group of new recruits who know nothing about your company? Sue Neumeister, HR manager at QS Cyril Sweett, tells all
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FeaturesAppointments
ContractorsConstruction group Osborne has appointed Rob Guest as group procurement director. Wrekin Construction has appointed David Blount manager of its utilities division.Gleeson's northern construction division has appointed Stephen Marshall, previously with Omni Construction, commercial manager. Simon Dolan has been appointed contracts manager. John McCredie rejoins the firm as contracts manager.Gary ...
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FeaturesStack attack
As city-centre sites get scarcer, developers are getting ideas above their stations, putting offices on the market – literally – and giving a whole new meaning to living on the river. Victoria Madine looks at the rise of the stack development
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FeaturesSound bytes
If TV execs ever want a charismatic consultant to style as an IT doctor, they might call on Microsoft's Mark Dodds. He's studied how major industries have adopted and adapted IT, and he spoke to Marcus Fairs about how construction is faring.
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FeaturesAnnette Fisher
This time next month, the RIBA could have a black woman as president, which would certainly be a change for an institution – and an industry – still dominated by white men. So, asks Marcus Fairs, who is Annette Fisher?
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FeaturesExperimenting with glue
Have you ever thought about attaching bricks with glue rather than mortar but were worried that your brickies might get stuck together, or it would cost twice as much? Well, a project in Bristol is discovering exactly what the advantages and disadvantages are.
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Features
Sir Robert McAlpine ends reign of Bovis Lend Lease
McAlpine takes top spot on yearly table as Bowmer & Kirkland climbs from 16th to first place for March.
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Features
So what happened to Labour's big ideas?
In 1997, after 18 years of Tory rule, Tony Blair’s Labour government won power with gushing promises of integrated transport systems, world-class public services and an urban renaissance. Five years on, it’s time to make an assessment of how many it has delivered on.
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FeaturesManchester’s new slant
Buoyed by regeneration cash and the impending Commonwealth Games, Manchester council is about to complete an ambitious series of civic projects. Martin Spring took a look at the three jewels in the city’s crown.
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FeaturesUrbis – museum of the city
A huge iceberg – glistening, green and translucent – has incongruously floated into Manchester city centre. This is Urbis, Manchester's £30m millennium project and the culmination of the city centre's phoenix-like rebirth after the devastation of the IRA bomb in 1996. Due to open in June, it has been designed ...
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FeaturesCity of Manchester Stadium
It's the roller-coaster roof, visible from miles around, that is the big giveaway. Manchester's £110m stadium, designed by Arup and Arup Associates, is Britain's answer to the Stade de France, north of Paris, completed in 1997. It has a similar lightweight canopy that swoops up and down over the stands ...
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FeaturesManchester Art Gallery
Designed by Michael Hopkins & Partners, the £35m extension to the rear of Manchester's classical art gallery is a perfect fit. Before the extension was built, the gallery comprised two free-standing stone buildings designed in the classical style by Charles Barry, the architect of the Palace of Westminster. In contrast, ...
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Features
Snakes and ladders
This year's Hays Montrose/Building consultants' salary guide reveals architects are slipping down in the salary stakes, whereas surveyors and engineers are still climbing.
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Features
Better on balance
In this month's tracker, Construction Forecasting and Research reports firms are starting to feel a little more positive with order books and tender prices balances improving across the board
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Features
Just the job
Artist Andy Bradford is a colourful character who explains how he uses his architecture training in his work on an installation at the University of the West of England
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FeaturesAppointments
ContractorsMansfield-based Baggaley Construction has promoted Chris Collison to managing director.Jane Metcalfe has been appointed business development manager of Willmott Dixon's Property Services division for the north of England.HousebuildersNeil White has been appointed contracts manager housebuilder of David McLean Homes. In addition, Chris Williamson has been appointed architectural technician.Roger Hughes (left), ...
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FeaturesThe best of the bunch
Earlier this month, Building obtained a draft of Accelerating Change, Sir John Egan's critique of construction's progress since Rethinking Construction. Although he was impressed by the general reaction, he admits to being "frustrated that the rate of take-up has not been as rapid as it should have been".Well, perhaps Sir ...
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Features
And the winners are …
Best Practice AwardA longstanding commitment to best practice in all its guises paid off for Mace, which fought off tough competition to pick up this award, sponsored by the Construction Best Practice ProgrammeMaceAll the firms shortlisted for the 2002 Building Awards were eligible for the Best Practice Award, which focuses ...
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Features
why we’re supporting The Prince’s Trust
This year, the Building Awards will be supporting young people’s charity the Prince’s Trust. All the money raised at the post-ceremony casino will go towards helping disadvantaged young people learn new skills, move into work and start up businesses. As HRH the Prince of Wales wrote in his foreword to ...