All Features articles – Page 640
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Features
‘It’s all a lot of hype’
That’s what Egan means to one regional contractor. Others have seen turnover double. Building asked three smaller players to say what impact the new culture has had on them.
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Features
Here’s the gain plan
Planning gain, perhaps unfairly, is often linked with slightly dodgy negotiations in smoke-filled rooms. This, however, would be a thing of the past if this new proportional system is adopted.
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Features
The acceleration game
Making a claim for acceleration costs – those incurred by speeding up work to meet a deadline – can be fraught with problems. After all, who exactly is to blame for a last-minute rush?
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Features
Appointments
ContractorsAlan Hollingworth has joined M&E firm Dudley Bower Building Services as divisional manager for the Loughborough, Leicester and Grantham offices. Peter Mason has been promoted to regional design-and-build director for EBC Construction’s Southern region.Taylor Woodrow has appointed Norman Broadhurst non-executive director.HousebuilderWestbury Homes has appointed Steve Cartwright building director.ConsultantsSue Ollerton ...
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Features
On site: CityPoint, London - Mission impossible
Here comes the 1980s revival: developer sinks £160m into a huge City rebuild, pre-lets it and hands its team a deadline that is all but unachievable – even if things don't go wrong …
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Features
It's a fair cop
This Thames Valley Police HQ is the first fruit of design-led PFI. Maybe it is; but two years of tortuous value engineering have left their mark, too.
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Features
Can the Eye be copied?
Has BDP copied the design of the London Eye for its Prague wheel, or was it simply inspired by the idea? The London Eye’s creators face an uphill battle to give its copyright any teeth.
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Features
IT: Defects database - Perfect match
This year’s Wimbledon is set to be fault-free – at least where the buildings are concerned, as Try tested a new zero-defects system on its latest project for the club.
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Features
Are the Eganites winning over the industry?
On the eve of the third Egan conference, construction is at the Rubicon. Over the next 10 pages, Building reflects on the report’s impact and asks whether the cult of Egan will become the industry’s official religion.
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Features
The essential tool
A specification-writer’s job is never done. The document he or she produces should be kept close at hand throughout the construction process. Proceed without it at your peril.
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Features
Light exercise
Here's how young architect Walters and Cohen transformed a squat, dingy supermarket into a chic, sleek fitness club by bouncing daylight from one end of the building to the other.
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Features
Just the job
Phil Clark meets the chairman of CALdes, the firm that’s integrating design, surveying and 21st-century technology.
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Features
So, what does he think now?
After fathering his report, Sir John Egan has been something of an absentee parent. However, he does think he was rather clever about getting the industry to take it on board …
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Features
The politics of trust
As this year’s winners of the Hudson Prize demonstrate, it is well worth exploring the subtleties of special relationships if you need to tackle subcontractor problems or partnering difficulties.
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Features
Trouble on Quality Street
The government’s quality mark scheme was meant to frustrate the cowboys and help reputable small firms. Bureaucracy and expense mean it might end up doing the opposite. Can the DETR get back on track?
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Features
200-mile-high club
An orbital hotel sounds like science fiction, but it might soon be construction fact. If one international design firm has its way, you could be checking in to space in less than 20 years.
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Features
Danger – slippery law
If an adjudicator makes a decision that contains an obvious mistake, then tough. It’s supposed to be a rough-and-ready system for settling disputes … But then again, surely that’s too ridiculous to be true?
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Features
Clare’s seven days as a surveyor
The jobClare spent one week and two days in the quantity surveying department at Citex. QS Melissa Martin drew up a timetable of events so that Clare would sample building surveying, project management and facilities management. The assignment also included a number of site visits. Week oneMonday I meet Melissa ...
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Features
Does the Construction Act really work?
According to a Building/CMS Cameron McKenna survey, subcontractors are grumbling about its payment system, lawyers are using it to sandbag the opposition, and almost everyone has reservations about its adjudication rules. Two years on and with a review imminent, should changes be made?
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Features
Appointments
Contractors Ballast Wiltshier chief executive Bob Heathfield has been made chairman. He has also joined the management executive committee of its Dutch parent, Ballast Nedam.William Underwood has been appointed non-executive director at Middlewich-based Pochin.HousebuilderPersimmon Homes has promoted Ian Hessay to deputy managing director in the Yorkshire region.ConsultantsConsulting engineer Donald Smith ...