More Focus – Page 543
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Features
We hate to say it, but … Charles was right
The Prince of Wales’ Poundbury may not be cutting-edge architecture, but as far as John Prescott’s urban agenda goes, it’s bang on the money.
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Peak practice
Architects have never had so much to do, at least since the fevered 1980s boom. So what’s driving the market – and is it downhill from here?
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Features
Britain’s glass ceiling
Insurer Swiss Re spent 18 months working to get its new tower through planning, but it is still awaiting approval. Little wonder that the industry is crying out for clear and consistent guidelines on designing skyscrapers.
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Features
Stefan Allesch-Taylor
The 30-year-old entrepreneur is turning his three-year-old property firm into an investment company and has just spent £85m on a stake in a US Internet business. So, why is he interested in quantity surveyor MDA?
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Features
New school tie
Birds Portchmouth Russum's bridge linking two school buildings is a sculpture in steel and fabric with a Wild West theme.
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Features
Coming up roses?
In the first of a series on urban regeneration, we report on the New Deal for Communities and ask if the programme is living up to its promises.
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Features
Space-age design: a fly's eye view
The pair of giant spaceframe “biomes” at the £75m Eden Project in Cornwall are two of the most futuristic artificial structures in the UK. However, their design by Andrew Whalley, project director at Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, was deliberately influenced by the natural geometry of leaves, fly eyes, dragonfly wings ...
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Features
Guaranteeing the Eden experiment
The Eden Project is the brainchild of a drop-out musician-turned-historic garden restorer Tim Smit. This CV hardly qualifies anyone to design and manage a ground-breaking construction project worth £75m, yet Smit had the foresight to second Ronnie Murning, director of London-based Land Architects, as design and development director.In combination with ...
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Site lines
These sites are billed as the "construction marketplace" and the "one-stop guide to the industry". Do they live up to their slogans?
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Features
Constructiongateway.Com.UK
This site by Business to Business Internet sets out to provide an information highway for construction, but it looks overcrowded and unfocused. It claims that it is a “one-stop” guide to the UK industry and it does provide links to other sites, but it is fiddly to use.The search facility ...
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Features
Don't forget to write
Does the Construction Act apply if there is only an oral agreement? The act seems to say yes, but the judge in a recent case said no. Clearly it's an urgent case for treatment.
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Features
The threat of exposure
Adjudication has put insurers under pressure. So what do they do? Pass the burden of risk on to their policyholders, of course, inventing all manner of get-out clauses to make it hard for them to recover.
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Features
Good as their words
The second article in a series on collateral warranties looks at the principal warranty, supplementary warranties and a vital aspect of professional indemnity insurance.
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Features
Clash points
Pay-when-paid has been outlawed at the end of the subcontract chain, but the industry is still passing risk to firms in the middle. Why not have stand-alone contracts with each party accepting its share of liability?
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Features
Clash points
True, subcontractors are still being forced to bear the same risk as main contractors, and stand-alone contracts are a fine idea. But it is clients that can really affect how liability is distributed.
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Features
The power of speech
No amount of flash graphics and high-tech software can compensate for a presentation that is unstructured and hard to follow. Remember your first duty: to keep your audience awake.
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Features
Cost model: Building services
Services installations are crucial to the smooth running of construction projects, as well as the finished product, but their complexities are too often ignored. Mott Green and Wall, the specialist building services team within Davis Langdon & Everest, examines the specification, procurement and costs of a City office’s building services
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Features
A cunning plan
Don't drift between jobs or settle for second best. Start running your career like a business and maximise profit.
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Features
Appointments
Contractors Bob Nethery has been appointed senior business development manager at the Scottish construction division of MJ Gleeson. David Kay has been promoted to managing director of its new national construction division. Keith Shivers replaces Kay as managing director of the Northern construction division. Steve Landes has been appointed commercial ...
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Features
Newcastle's budget halls
A new international passenger terminal has been added to a terminal at Newcastle International Airport. The addition, along with the refurbishment of the existing terminal, cost £27m and increases the airport's capacity to 4 million passengers a year. Designed by Crispin Wride Architectural Design Studio and engineer Gibb, it is ...