More Focus – Page 576
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Features
Urban warrior
Skilled self-publicist Michael Gwilliam has transformed the "close to crusty" Civic Trust into an urban campaigner with influence. He wants to make the everyday better and this week, the trust's awards aim to do just that.
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Features
The family
Privately owned Sir Robert McAlpine is the social and political apex of contracting, yet next to nothing is known about its internal life. Building investigates
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Features
Splitting headache
Cracks are showing in the glazed roof of the National Centre for Glass. Whether it's down to builders, skateboarders, stones or the weather, restoring the centre to its former transparent glory will be costly.
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Features
Sea through
A glazed roof is the star of a redevelopment scheme designed to help Greenwich's Maritime Museum cope with millennium-fuelled tourism.
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Features
It's a hard life
Laing has a tough job on its hands creating the International Centre for Life. A steel frame that flexes to cope with the earth's elements is topped by the complex curves of an asymmetric roof.
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Features
Now we're talking
In a bid to get departments and regional offices communicating, Kier is investing £2m in a streamlined, centralised computer system.
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Features
Rip-roaring success
Contractors have the chance to make National Construction Week go with a bang if they use it as an opportunity to stop meddling with standard subcontract forms and tear up onerous amendments.
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Features
Partnering comes unstuck
Not so long ago, partnering was being hailed as the answer to construction's contractual problems. But it is doomed to failure unless the industry and its clients take on board the practical philosophy it embodies.
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Features
Adjudication so far
An adjudicator gives his impressions and reflections on how well the process is working in the cases he has been involved with.
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Features
When overseas …
Specifying outside the UK can be fraught with difficulties for British consultants. Local codes and standards apply and only the translated document will stand up in court.
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Features
Just the job
Whitby Bird & Partners' building physicist Duncan Price tells Nancy Cavill about low-energy design, Tanzanian solar cookers and white-water canoeing.
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Features
Appointments
Contractors Tony Walton has been appointed managing director of Oxfordshire-based Western Counties Construction. Dallast Wiltshier has appointed Dave Muncaster regional construction director in the South-west. David Pinch has joined the South-west division as regional estimating director and Simon Rider has been made regional finance director. Colin ...
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Features
Cost model update, March 1999
In its second cost model update, Davis Langdon Everest examines how the prices of four key building types – business parks, hotels, offices and supermarkets – have been affected by change
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Features
Mace stake for sale as founder quits
After 10 years heading up Mace, Ian Macpherson is putting construction behind him and his 34% share up for sale – but only to the right buyer.
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Features
Appointments
Contractors HBG Construction has appointed James Wimpenny construction manager in the North-east.Midas Group has promoted John Alton to Cornwall area director. Keith Hosen and Graham Hosking have joined the Cornwall team as contracts manager and commercial manager respectively.Housebuilders Persimmon Homes (North East) has promoted David Jenkinson to land ...
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Features
What's going on inside the dome?
Designers are changing, the budget is tight and the decision-making process is best described as "fluid". But there's no moving this deadline. So, will the 14 Millennium Dome zones come together on time?
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Features
The front man
Marco Goldschmied will take over as the new president of the RIBA in June. His plans are many and varied, but at the centre is one core goal to promote the profile of architecture.
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Features
Heart transplant
Britain's second city has long been characterised by drab concrete blocks and shabby brick buildings. Now developers have joined forces to give Birmingham a smart new image.
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Features
Birmingham's Mailbox: Britain's biggest building conversion
Even in a city famous for its concentration of huge commercial buildings, Birmingham's Royal Mail sorting office breaks several size records. For a start, it is the largest building in the city. With a footprint that covers two entire blocks, or 1.6 ha, it rises to five storeys and ...
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Features
Motown revival
There has always been more to Coventry than car plants. Now the city council and architect MacCormac Jamieson Pritchard are using its thousand-year history to stimulate the regeneration of the city centre.