The retake

Bedales School is, or has been, home to the offspring of artistic luminaries such as Laurence Olivier, Mick Jagger and Ted Hughes. Minnie Driver and Daniel Day Lewis were pupils: this is a bastion for the rich and famous.

Sitting on a rolling hillside above Petersfield in Hampshire, overlooking the Sussex Downs, Bedales enjoys 48 hectares of picturesque private grounds. Founded in 1893 by J H Bradley, it strived to produce graduates of a “kind and serious nature, believing in co-education, temperance and liberalism”. An orchard at the school’s centre is dotted with sculptures donated by past scholars, while the Memorial Library is a Grade I listed building.

However, contrary to the privileged lives of some of its former pupils, the design and construction of the new teaching and administration building at Bedales was not some frivolous exercise in the art of spending pot loads of money. Being independent, the school has no help from government and so has to count every penny. Cindy Walters, of architect Walters and Cohen, says the finished project should compare favourably with state funded education projects, especially the new City Academies. And to ensure this, quantity surveying and project management specialist Fanshawe became involved in the scheme just months before construction was due to start.

The project includes three buildings – a teaching building and an administration block, connected via a circulation space, all of which have been built, and a new arts, design and technology building that will be built in the next couple of years – as well as associated landscaping. The project was originally divided into three phases. This, along with the associated temporary works and extensive landscaping, had forced the project massively over budget.

“We got involved at Bedales in January 2004,” says Fanshawe partner and quantity surveyor on the project, Barry Rose. “We were brought on board at the request of the architect to re-evaluate the project and reduce costs, because work by the previous team, who I am legally obliged not to mention, had not delivered the goods.”

With construction due to start in July, Rose realised that to make any headway major steps would have to be taken. Fanshawe de-phased the project, scheduling the construction of the teaching and administration buildings as a single phase. This cut site and administration costs and long-term disruption but it still wasn’t enough.

“We then carried out a value engineering exercise, re-evaluating every aspect of the design. But the architect was cost aware and designed the project to death. There was no real scope for change, so our only alternative was to downscale the landscaping,” says Rose. “We did this, respecifying the landscaping, reducing it in scope without compromising the brief of setting the school well within its surroundings.” This raft of changes, especially the de-phasing of the two buildings, meant that many elements of the design, especially M&E specifications, had to be re-evaluated and tender drawings redraughted because temporary works were now not required and a full specification had to be accommodated.

As time ticked away until the programmed start date, and with the immovable completion date always at the back of his mind, Rose went out to tender with a project that he knew the client still couldn’t afford. As expected the tenders came back over budget. “We had to negotiate hard with the two lowest priced contractors and within a very short space of time managed to agree a price that was on budget.”

Fanshawe’s deft work in reappraising the project had impressed the school governors so much that they asked the firm to project manage the scheme to hopefully provide as smooth a transition from paper to built school as possible. This didn’t go down especially well with some of the parties who had been involved in the project from the outset. “Things were a little fractious at first,” says a suitably reticent Rose. “But, as time went on the contractors could see we had good intentions, we were interested in building the best project possible and not just screwing down the price.”

It is good to have a client who is going to occupy the building, rather than it being a spec build

Barry Rose, partner, Fanshawe

Fanshawe’s dual role on the project enabled it to keep a tight grip on costs and project manage towards a common goal without the wariness that sometimes develops between different firms. Project management and quantity surveying teams were set up as entirely separate entities, within the same office but with separate drawings and job numbers, giving the project manager a perceived independence from cost control activities. But, before work could start, the project manager had to sort out fee agreements with the consultants, another element that had been overlooked by the previous management team.

Work finally commenced on the project around four weeks late, at the end of July 2004. Employed on JCT without quantities: specification and drawings, built as drawn, the contractors started on site, immediately aware they were playing catch-up with the schedule. “This is where our dual role on the project came to the fore. Information sharing and instant liaison without suspicion really speeded things up,” says Rose. “The contractors did their bit too, pulling back time throughout the scheme little by little until we completed works on 29 August 2005, just one week before the school opened for the start of the 2005/06 year.

“It wasn’t your usual project management role but more of a project monitor for the client, reporting to the governors and ensuring everything ran on time and within budget,” says Rose. “It is good to have a client who is going to occupy the building, rather than it being a spec build. The school’s drive to succeed and its willingness to work with the project team, rather than looking to apportion blame, enabled us to produce a fabulous building that everyone is happy with.”

Construction works and commissioning were completed while furniture was being moved in ready for the start of term but the school’s priority of getting the buildings up and running, rather than gunning for some acrimonious fallout, enabled everyone to emerge out of the project unscathed. Fanshawe even signed an agreement with contractors that there would be no ‘liquidated and ascertained’ damages, despite finishing slightly late, so long as everyone went all out to get the job done.

The project is now a working school, full of wealthy young individuals that know nothing of the stress involved in making Bedales’ new teaching and administration buildings. Final accounts have been agreed “on or around the contract sum, with just one or two extras”. And at £1,767 per m2, Bedales costs considerably less than the £2,400 per m2 paid for the new Mossbourne City Academy in Hackney.

Bedales Project Members

Quantity Surveyor: Fanshawe

Project Manager: Fanshawe

Things were a little fractious at first, but the contractors could see we had good intentions, we were interested in building the best project possible and not just screwing down the price

Barry Rose, partner, Fanshawe

Architect: Walters and Cohen

Client: Bedales School

Planning Supervisor: PFB Construction Management Services

Structural Engineer: Adams Kara Taylor

Services Engineer: Max Fordham

Landscape Architect: Edward Hutchison Landscape Architects

Main Contractor: R Durtnell & Sons