July Event - Cafe Royal Site Visit

This was a very popular event!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Royal The Crown Estate had a vision in 2003 to refurbish their central London Estate which include the Café Royal.  To achieve the vision a team was created from Mace http://www.macegroup.com/projects/caf%C3%A9-royal as Construction Manager (construction management contract); Buro4 (B4) as Project Manager; Chipperfield Architects ; URS Scot Wilson for Structural ; Aecom for M&E and the personal involvement of a client, Alrov, the hotelier – an Israeli company - http://thesethotels.com/  and http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g293983-d1467206-Reviews-or110-Mamilla_Hotel-Jerusalem_Jerusalem_District.html .Manly was Mace’s client for this project http://www.manlygroup.com/Company%20Brochure%202012.pdf

Adjacent blocks owned by Crown Estate were also being redeveloped at the same time and became colloquially known as Quadrant 1,2,3 & 4. There is a 125 year Crown Lease. Café Royal (CR) is Quadrant 1  and has all its site access, due to planning and Regent Street is a Red Route so that means no stopping at all the kerb, in a side street called Air Street. Access to the site is from Quadrant 3 which is behind CR and separated by another street is 'interesting' in that materials go into Q3, down into its basemen then along a new tunnel into Q1 = CR and up again!

Planning Permission was granted April 2008, Ground break was January 2009 and final completion is slated for September 2013. A phased opening is happening right now. Apparently, the original CR was a gentleman’s club and was kept operational is some form or other during construction. The building is listed – English Heritage (EH) and so whilst a wall might be listed, a floor might not and vice versa so inserting new services was not always straightforward and varied room to room, floor to floor.  There are 10 floors and 8 historic rooms. Now it is an hotel with 159 5* rooms http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186338-d586582-Reviews-Cafe_Royal-London_England.html

Following on from an unexplained fire, the Grill Room was refurbed and had to fit back in all its respects due to EH listing status. So if walls had been finished with say green paint, then the insurers were happy to pay for new, green paint although there had been gold leaf under the green paint and so they wanted new gold leaf and then have it painted over with green. All very bizarre and fascinating!

Altogether it is was one of the most interesting and informative site visits we have made.  Enjoyed by all.

June Event - The Energy Landscape 2013 on

As a change to the usual single presentation the event was formed by having 3 speakers doing 10 minutes each.  Feedback suggests this format went down very well.

Richard Quartermaine opened the evening with the Sweett Group view on the sustainability landscape.  The issues and the speed of change are really factors that take industry and government to work together.  Unfortunately so far the government has been dragging its heels on enforcing target percentages and keeping to dealine dates.

Martin Fry took the floor next. He is well versed on the inner wheels of Brussels, Whitehall and beyond with a very wide plethora of documentation.  Lots of acronyms to take in! The impression was that the domestic housing market could still offer up a lot of savings.  The concept of people being paid not to use electricity is quite interesting, especially the newly coined word of negawatt.

There also was a very interesting short  presentation from  British Gas and how it is working with government and local authorities to promote energy saving e.g. boiler scrappage.  Strangely the biggest challenge is spending all the money otherwise Centrica is fined 10% of its turnover!!

As always there was a lively Q&A then more conversation of a networking natiure over a glass or two of wine.

May Event - The Benefits and Challenges of Modular & CLT Construction

Morgan Sindall Image

On the subject of modularisation   - Justin and Sean talked about the fate of the old Hammersmith Palais - it has definitely danced its last tango! It has been demolished to make way for student accommodation.  It is being constructed by Make, Morgan Sindall and others.  To show that times have really changed the accommodation on offer will be 17m2 en-suite bedrooms renting at £228 per week with a 99% occupancy rate - being a student is way different these days!


Very interesting  comparisons were made between the traditional on-site and off-site delivery methodologies. The statistics prove that the offssite method beat traditional in terms of programme, working at height, temporary works, standardisaation, foundation load, design life. But about 1% more expensive - which maybe be considered a lot in these lean times. Lessons were learnt in respect of oquality - surprising as the repeated manufacture in factory onditions should have solved this issue. The units were “complete” including IT and fire alarms.

BRE Image

On the subject of Cross Laminated Timber -  The 2 speakers were Gavin and Sophie,  academies designed by Sheppard Robson & Ramboll. An individual CLT component can be 13.5m x 2.95m x 200mm thick. Transportation becomes a limiting factor. Construction gives a good air tightness quality (a la Passivhaus). Unlike the component modular the space in the academies is created and then sub-divided. This means that future teaching methods (whatever they may be) and thus larger smaller spaces can be created / re-configured.  The aesthetics in having so much wood is of course a very personal thing. Wood is more forgiving in terms of knocks and bumps.The Q&A afterwards brought up the question of  fire rating – A very erudite answer was given whereby it is easier to set fire to a match than it is to a log! 

Two very different and interesting takes on innovative construction methods. As with all events it was topped off with ample time to network and, as is the custom, enjoy a few glasses of wine!

April Event - 10th Anniversary & Ray Crotty on BIM

This event held at the University of Westminster  marked the 10th Anniversary of the London Club.  Ray Crotty was the main speaker for the event and as an expert on BIM Ray took the floor to discuss BIM and where it is going. 

Don Ward of Constructing Excellence proposed a toast to the clubs 10th year being also its 100th meeting.  The presence  of members and past members showed  that the continued enthusiasm for the club and its events continues unabated.  

Ray Crotty talked about the need for an approach to BIM that brought together the supply chain and worked through it - joined up thinking.  He drew examples from the past where original drawings were used rather to support the build rather than the usual re-drawing at the time.  A practical domestic example being Ikea where, for instance, a kitchen can be created that will fit into the space with all the units so that on delivery everything will fit together and work with no on site problems.

There was also a special vote to increase the number of officers for the club with a view to being more inclusive and to allow opportunities for others in a less formal structure.  Themotion was approved!

Networking, reminiscing and celebrating the 100th event continued afterwards, as always, over a glass or two of wine!! 

March Event - Communicating & Engaging on Sustainability - Making It Happen

We were delighted to welcome Andrew Kinsey who spoke on the subject of practical sustainability.  He  drew on his experiences working on the Olympics and elsewhere. 

Andrew discussed how to effectively communicate sustainability messages to promote action and engage project teams. Putting theory into practice including how Andrew helped deliver some exemplar sustainability outcomes at the Athletes Village, for the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Andrew joined Mace in February 2012, and has responsibility for the sustainability in Mace’s UK construction operation and is working to ensure consistent delivery of sustainable outcomes on all of its projects, and position the company as a leader in sustainability.

Andrew fields susbstainability as a story to grab attention using 4 main facets: Policemen, Science, Money & Time - elements that everyone can relate to easily. To change behaviour the whole has to be addressed across all levels from the CEO down to the newest intern. The sue of metaphors works even though they may be seen as 'un-cool' which makes them 'cool'.  The linking of messages is important as waste for example has to be linked to H&S and money.

Inevitability there is the conundrum that sustainability creates savings - quite who pockets the savings or where they end up is another subject entirely.  Measuring/accounting for savings is of couse another subject.

Andrew concluded that the sustainability issue is one that is carrot and stick!

Another great session topped off  y the usual networking over a glass of wine or two!!

February Event - CE Project of the Year - Stratford Westfield

Our guest speaker Ian Ogden Design Director of Westfield Shoppingtowns Ltd.

 gave his company’s view of the development  of the prestigious Westfield Stratford using some very interesting slides to illustrate his talk.  

Some key points:

• It is a mixed development -  retail, leisure and commercial
• Statistics are always in the “millions” which is no stranger to Westfield – the Lowe Group from Australia, who broke their teeth so to speak on an Australian development in West Field.  
• Lowe Group have gone on to projects in Australia, Europe, UK and South America.
• On the cards are developments for Milan and Croydon…. no one asked about the link!
• Stratford has millions of square feet of retail , millions of visitors, millions of feet of commercial. And a £4bn price tag
• Well served by road, bus,  rail, HS1, LU, taxi, on-foot, cycle and maybe at some time in the future they will need to turn to have river access
• Shopping rationale was established in the West End and Lakeside and the “economics” suggest Stratford would work to infill the gaps
• Westfield are always principal contractor employing all the specialists directly
• The project itself has the largest ever contribution to a Section 106 amount at £200m.
• Jobs during construction topped 27000 and leave a legacy of 10000 permanent posts
• 97% of the space was leased before opening
• Westfield own, operate and FM through their own companies and also have a projects arm for the inevitable life cycle refurbishment works along the way.
• A measure of success is the 800000/week footfall. Retail is more lucrative than leisure

The Q&A was wide  ranging from river access through sustainability to post Olympic fervour all of which Ian answered with lots of statistics showing that Westfield’s initial homework has stood the test. The  presentation slides were a real help to members helping them engage in a Q&A session as well as post-presentation discussion and networking over the usual glass or two of wine!!

January Event - Peter Jacobs and AGM

 Peter Jacobs was our guest speaker, he is currently the Managing Director of Morgan Sindall London & Aviation and also Senior Vice President of CIOB, succeeding as President in June 2013.

Peter talked about the Olympic Delivery, the London Market in 2013/14 including the latest developments in Aviation Infrastructure. He also spoke on the importance of the Professional Institutions and their key role.

Peter reviewed the delivery of the Olympics and in particular some behind the scenes aspects which were fascinating. A fantastic project with some extremely interesting angles such there were 14 architects employed!

On the subject of the market Peter was bullish about London.  In aviation there is £2 Billion to be spent per annum for the next 5 years which is encouraging.

In his closing remarks Peter wished that the organisations he is involved with - CIOB, RICS, ICE, CIBSE, RIBA - would collaborate actively.

The AGM went well with all officers elected.

As always the evening was capped off by discussions and networking over a glass of wine .... or two!