New Build £15m-£45m

Gold

Name
Mike Morris
Company
Laing O’Rourke, Midlands
Project
15,750m² laboratory. Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford
Contract
£44m, JCT 98 without quantities, 114 weeks

Technical excellence was the bedrock of Mike Morris’s achievement in building the Chemistry Research Laboratory – the largest single research building Oxford University has ever built. Instead of the four services required by the typical modern office (all of which have the potential to clash ruinously with structural elements), Morris had to pipe a dozen gases, solids and liquids through the building to create an interior something like a scene from Dr No. Morris, a quantity surveyor before he became a construction manager, successively co-ordinated the installation without busting the budget on achieving free runs for the services.

Morris’s happy relationship with the principal M&E subcontractor was underpinned by a highly effective preconstruction, proving of all the installation works associated with the laboratory module design. Throughout construction, a full mock-up with all component interfaces and services installation allowed issues to be resolved off site. As a result, all floors of the modular laboratory were delivered virtually snag-free and ahead of programme.

The design called for a full double basement over the whole of the building’s 3,500m² footprint, requiring a 9m excavation within the perimeter of the diaphragm wall – only 6m from the Grade II listed buildings of neighbouring Mansfield College. Not only that, but Morris had to build top-down and bottom-up, excavating all 7,000m² of basement floorspace only after the steel-piled superstructure had been cast and completed. The bottoming-out ceremony held 10m below ground level in June 2002 was an unusual variation on the traditional rooftop celebration.

As well as mastering the exceptionally complex technical issues, getting the very best value from the budget and winning the confidence of consultants. Morris kept the client onside with open, clear and regular communications. He even put out hanging baskets all along the curtain wall scaffolding on the main facade to help promote Oxford’s entry in Britain in Bloom.

Silver

Name
Martin Potterton MCIOB
Company
Bovis Lend Lease
Project
10,000m² office block with 1,800m² retail space. Juxon House, London
Contract
£30m, bespoke Construction Management, 75 weeks

With this extremely challenging project, Martin Potterton has given an object lesson in how to compete effectively at a time of resource stretch and how to overcome onerous access and environmental restrictions.

Potterton could easily have ended up the loser in a battle for scarce craftspeople with the high-profile Paternoster Square development just around the corner, which was constructed at the same time as Juxon House. Both projects specified large stone facades that could only be built by a very small pool of tradesmen. And Potterton had an even smaller pool of skills to tap for the project’s large lead roof – many tradespeople have found easier ways to make a living than by unrolling extremely heavy coils of lead on a roof.

He heightened the attractions of his site to tradespeople by making it safe (it had one of the best safety records in Bovis Lend Lease), providing superior welfare conditions (he won a considerate constructors gold award), and organising it so that site workers could get straight down to work without having to hunt high and low for their gear.

Close control and micro-management of the supply chain was crucial, as the local authority didn’t want delivery lorries driving all over the public footpath. And with St Paul’s Cathedral as a neighbour, the local environmental pressures were particularly burdensome – the congregation doesn’t appreciate jackhammers and concrete pours interrupting services.

The shape and detailing of the building dictated a complex co-ordination and construction sequence, and Potterton set one key milestone each month to ensure that the team was continually achieving targets. Breaking each job into bite-sized chunks and monitoring them weekly made each job smaller and ensured this landmark building was completed on time.

Commended

John Birch Skanska UK, Peter Bloxham Wates Construction, Paul Davey Bovis Lend Lease, Peter Earl HBG Construction, Tony Grindrod HBG Construction, William Poole Bowmer & Kirkland, Jim Power HBG Construction