Building journalists win top awards

Two Building journalists scooped gongs at last night’s International Building Press national journalism awards, with the magazine bagging the coveted best features and best news journalist awards.

Building’s Assistant editor Will Hurst (pictured top left) won feature writer of the year category and news editor Allister Hayman (pictured below left) won the news reporter of the year category.

The annual IBP awards recognise excellence in built environment journalism and included finalists from across the national and specialist press.

Hurst won for his expose of the troubles besetting architect RMJM; for his examination of the issues facing construction firms’ final salary pension schemes; and for his investigation into the marketing rules that restricted firms involved in the Olympic Games construction project from promoting their work.

The Judges praised Hurst’s “dedicated desire to create the best possible articles” and said his “three distinct articles” all had a “critical edge”. “All three articles were pitched and written with consistency and supported by well researched investigation,” one judge said.

Hayman won for his exclusive report on a buried government report which revealed that schools built under the previous Labour government had improved learning; for his scoop on the delay to the procurement of around £5bn in Ministry of Defence (MoD) construction contracts; and for his report on how the MoD had quadrupled the value of its contract for a private sector partner to manage the defence estate.

The judges said Hayman was a unanimous choice. “Hayman showed great tenacity, inside knowledge, and all the professionalism that you would expect of the best news editing on an established trade magazine,” the judges said.

Building journalists were also finalists in three other categories at the awards: assistant editor Joey Gardiner was a finalist in the housing and residential property journalist of the year; reporter Iain Withers was a finalist in the young journalist of the year; and  senior report Vern Pitt was a finalist in the sustainable writer of the year category.