Construction industry gossip: The hard sell

Fifteen and a half minutes of fame

Another month, another new construction minister – or so we assume, but there was no news at the time of writing. One industry bigwig winced that he spends far too much time getting to know these people only for them to disappear, never to be seen again. There’s been seven in the past three-and-a-bit years. That’s even greater than the number of new prime ministers we’ve had in the past four.

How to talk yourself up

An announcement last month by the developer behind a new office block at 120 Fleet Street heralded – finally – the start of work on the £430m scheme which will be carried out by Lendlease. Understated it was not. Perhaps there was something lost in translation but the husband and wife team behind Chinese Estates Holdings were variously described in the blurb as showing “wizardry” and being “savvy”, as well as being “renowned for remarkable success”. Good luck to the project team.

One industry bigwig winced that he spends far too much time getting to know construction ministers only for them to disappear, never to be seen again

Road to nowhere

An unfortunate headline on a press release cropped up recently. I think I know what it meant but, still, I had to reread it several times. “After 10 years of building,” it read, “Desa Potato Head are ready to share the detailed steps of their Journey to Nothing at Singapore Design Week 2022.” I’m afraid Potato Head just makes me think of Phil Mitchell from Eastenders while Journey to Nothing conjured up images that were the opposite of success.

Credit where it’s due

One of my team spotted a thank you notice on a billboard on the side of a recently completed building in Vancouver. Intrigued, he had a closer peer and, sure enough, there was a list of firms, from the designers, to the builders and the team of consultants who worked on the scheme, all getting the written equivalent of a high-five. They do things differently out there.

Two of a kind

Apparently the joke is that when Margaret Thatcher was asked by Labour leader Michael Foot to name two economics professors who backed her 1981 budget, which had been attacked by more than 350 economists in a letter to the Times, the prime minister later remarked: “Thank goodness he did not ask for three.” One of those she named was Patrick Minford, one of the few who is backing Liz Truss’s idea of tax cuts 40-odd years later. In Minford she Truss.

Glass half full

Architect BDG’s latest Southbank development is full of secrets. Not only does Rose Court, home to global creative agency WPP, have the remains of an Elizabethan theatre tucked away in its bowels, but the top floor, too, has its own mystery. The architects were so concerned, in the current climate, about the cost of replacing the glazing to the upper levels in the event of damage that they have hidden spare glass panels behind a concealed door in a top-floor hospitality room. A smashing idea.

Breath of fresh Ayr

A Jewson press release brought to mind a tricky quiz question for the football fans among you. First, hats off to Jewson for extending sponsorship of Ayr United to the women’s team and its stated aim to bring equality to the game. So, here’s your starter for 10: who was the first Scottish footballer to score a goal in a World Cup final? I know … Scotland has never made it to a final. Yet. But Ayshire-born Rose Reilly did, playing for Italy’s women’s side in 1984’s precursor to the women’s World Cup where she scored the winning goal in a 3-1 win over West Germany. Lorna Martin’s play Rose tells her remarkable story and it’s now being made into a film, sponsored by the British Film Institute.