More Focus – Page 559
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PFI procurement
Building’s series of articles on different procurement routes continues with procurement for private finance initiative projects.
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Cost study: Holiday Inn Express
The client wanted a budget hotel built for a fixed price with minimum risk. Thanks to the innovative use of a special purpose vehicle company, it was able to start operating the new Holiday Inn Express at Wellingborough after just 30 weeks on site
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Just the job
The Chinese project manager helping Ove Arup build business in Asia tells Elaine Knutt what brought him to Manchester.
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Appointments
ContractorsBangor-based Watkin Jones Construction has appointed Nigel Tonge group business development manager.MJ Gleeson has appointed Steve Davies managing director of its property division.Roofing and cladding contractor Rogerson Group (Roofing) has appointed Bob Beattie managing director.HousebuildersTaywood Homes has appointed Claire Crawford field sales manager for Scotland.John Ireland has been appointed group ...
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1999 architects' fees survey
Architects' charges are closer to physiotherapists' than solicitors'. A new study by Mirza and Nacey Research shows that fees are inching up, but after seven years spent qualifying, is an average of £55 an hour a fair rate?
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The strength of Sampson
Claire Sampson, production director on the Millennium Dome, is a cool operator. Which is just as well, as she's co-ordinating the backstage elements for the whole shebang
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Spotlight on brickwork
Lead times Although lead times are now steady at six weeks, rising enquiry and workload levels are expected to boost them in the autumn. Brickwork contractors report little difficulty in procuring materials, but cite the lack of qualified operatives as the critical factor in determining lead times. As ...
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Have your say
The Institute of Personnel and Development's Angela Baron on 360° feedback, the system that gets everyone talking.
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Appointments
Contractor Birse Construction has appointed Martin Peat managing director, building. He will also join the Birse board. Housebuilder Ronnie Jacobs , previously with Persimmon Homes Scotland, has joined Miller Homes as regional director for west Scotland. Consultants Michael Albright , previously chairman and chief executive of Centex ...
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Together in electric dreams
IT Construction Best Practice promises to acquaint the small contractor with modern technology. Is this the advice that they've been waiting for, or is the FMB right in pointing to weaknesses in its approach?
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Lead times
Workload is healthy as we approach the millennium, but as Mace's update shows, lead times are mostly unaffected. compiled by Mace and Gardiner & Theobald
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One up at half time
Coventry City has a mountain to climb – a £122m stadium, a controversial site and Cardiff’s example of what can go wrong still fresh in the memory. The good news is that, so far, it’s all working out.
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High noon?
Nick Raynsford is now faced with the crucial decision on how tough to make the quality mark, the centrepiece of his anti-cowboy plan. What factors will he be taking into account?
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Alun Michael
As "prime minister" of Wales, Alun Michael holds the purse strings for development in the country. But will the man once called "Tony Blair's poodle" boost or curtail it?
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Moonbase Walsall
The surreal lunar landscape may look like something out of Space 1999, but it is actually a roof of somewhere far more down to earth – a bus station in Walsall.
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Replenishing the earth's resources
Planted roofs are still a rarity in the UK, unlike in Germany, where planning permission for developments on greenfield sites is granted only if the building’s roof and landscaping can provide greenery equivalent to the square meterage lost under concrete.The UK market for eco-roofs is a fraction of the size ...
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Fluid dynamics
The arching, fluid lines engineered by Buro Happold at Stuttgart Station give the impression that its concrete roof is flowing down to the platforms like molten lava. This is liquid architecture.
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Top priorities
We could put men on the moon but couldn't make roofs that installers didn't fall through, says Brendan Dowd, who wants everyone to take more care of each other.
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Keeping the racket down
Acoustic designers could be costing clients money by over-specifying acoustic solutions. Now, software has been developed that tracks how sound moves through a building and how to stop it.