Gold winner: Tasman House, London
GOLD: Dominic Hattee MCIOB – Wates
Project: Tasman House, London: Construction of 4,500 sq m block with class B1 offices from the first to the sixth floor, ground-floor retail, and a D1 unit in the lower ground floor. Completed in 86 weeks.
Contract: JCT 2011, design and build
Value: Tender £18m, final contract £19m
On this six-storey office new build, Dominic Hattee demonstrated his ability to keep the client happy even when things go wrong.
The killer moment came as the project approached completion. Fine surface cracks were discovered in the finish of the facade’s frames. Unnoticeable in dry weather, the cracks had drawn in moisture during a spell of rain and were incontestably unacceptable.
Other finalists
Jamie Cassidy, McAleer & Rushe- 35 Chancery Lane, London
David Wells, Mace – One Bedford Avenue, London
John Rabey MCIOB, BAM Construct UK – Tamesis 1, Egham
Suspecting the cracking was exacerbated by the early striking of the concrete frames from their moulds, he told the manufacturer to produce a unit but not strike it until the curing temperature had cooled.
The resulting crack-free frame allowed him to negotiate a way forward with the client: he replaced the units most seriously affected and applied a crack repair treatment to those that could not be removed.
That was a big win on a contract heavy with challenges. He overcame the party wall challenges for the patterned brick cladding when it emerged that a neighbouring building had to be itself extended and supported from the new wall. Hattee’s hands-on ownership of the problem ensured a way past the numerous complicating factors.
SILVER: Allan Cameron – Sir Robert McAlpine
Silver winner: Bloomberg London, City of London
Project: Bloomberg London, City of London: Construction of 93,000 sq m of office space in two nine-storey buildings divided by a public retail arcade and linked by bridges on the upper floors. Works included a 260-seater auditorium, a common basement across the entire footprint and a full fit-out. Completed in 262 weeks.
Contract: Construction management
Value: Tender £532m, final contract £946m
The world’s highest rated BREEAM office building was a monster project for Allan Cameron to manage, involving 150 designers, numerous consultants, 200 trade contractors, thousands of site operatives and his own 100-strong management team.
Standout features he successfully delivered included a bronze-clad steel ramp spiralling through the floor plates, folded aluminium petalled ceiling panels with integrated services, timber floors magnet-backed onto traditional raised floor tiles, and hollow bronze fins on the facade to naturally ventilate the building.
The bronze cladding installation was particularly complex due to potential clashes with the structure – revealed in an as-built survey – so Cameron worked with the architects to agree a line of best fit for the already manufactured cladding.
Using setting-out instrumentation from the space industry, he positioned the cladding’s hanging brackets to a tolerance of 0.001mm. By doing this, he avoided the need to cut and amend the steel structure, giving a substantial programme saving.
Cameron also had to deal with over 6,000 change requests worth £120m, a restored Roman temple in the basement and 106 work packages to be signed off as complete before the project could be handed over – a monster achievement.
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