All Features articles – Page 663
-
Features
Your planning queries answered
Baffled by planning rules? Building's planning agony uncle can guide you through the local authority labyrinth. His two-monthly slot starts with some fictional questions. Next time, he'll answer yours.
-
Features
Roof with a view
Minimalist Manhattan-style loft apartments are an imposing addition to the South Bank skyline. What lifestyle statement are they trying to make? And how does a 15-storey mango-yellow tower deliver it?
-
Features
Problems, problems
IT troubleshooting at Bucknall Austin used to be run on a chaotic first-come, first-served basis. A new helpdesk and priority system for calls has smoothed out the system.
-
Features
Local leagues
Which firms ended 1998 on top? Building's quarterly regional update on contractors' workloads gives the full picture.
-
Features
Part L: how tough will it be?
The DETR is consulting on proposals to radically upgrade the energy efficiency of every building in the UK. What will the effects be of the Building Regulations' new Part L?
-
Features
Held to ransom
As millennium deadlines approach, workers on high-profile schemes are demanding better pay and getting it, but are they really blackmailing bosses? And how can contractors ensure that they beat the clock?
-
Features
A tale to warm the heart
Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that trouble-free projects are the stuff of fairytales. But there are some jobs that do come in at less than expected, run by honest builders that don't try to rip you off.
-
Features
The greatest story ever told
When London Underground challenged an engineering consultant's claim for extra fees, it wrote another chapter in the epic tale of the Jubilee Line Extension with itself as the villain.
-
Features
International costings
Cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald's latest set of international costings compare worldwide variations in building costs, materials prices, labour rates and inflation.
-
Features
Culture clash
In the second of a two-part focus on company style, the Institute of Personnel and Development's Angela Baron says merging firms ignore culture at their peril.
-
Features
Circus troupe
It made its name fitting out stylish loft apartments. Now, explains partner Duncan Chapman, nine-strong practice Circus Architects is changing its act to portable buildings.
-
Features
D&B: a beginner's guide
An occasional series explaining procurement methods kicks off with the pleasures and pitfalls of design-and-build contracts.
-
Features
Biting back
The trend by cost-conscious clients to bundle contracts into giant deals is squeezing out the small contractor. But now local firms are joining forces to stand their ground.
-
Features
Appointments
Contractors Plymouth-based Hill & Lang has appointed Mark Stapleton minor works manager in its small works department. Tom MacQuillan has been promoted to head of corporate communications at Taylor Woodrow. EBC Construction has appointed David Matthews senior quantity surveyor. Housebuilder ...
-
Features
Be thankful l don't take it all…
The self-assessment system for corporation tax that came into force last July is going to increase the amount that companies pay in 1999/2000 by 63%.
-
Features
The man on the tube
QS Rafudin Bacchus played a feckless loafer in Channel 4's post-pub sitcom Tottenham 2, but now he's back on the job with London Underground. So, where does his heart really belong?
-
Features
Made to measure
Mace's Activity Based Planning isn't the only system being developed by contractors and consultants keen to start monitoring their Egan demonstration projects.
-
Features
Detailed planning improves productivity
The project to build the seventh baggage reclaim extension at Heathrow Terminal 4 was completed for £225 000 less than the original cost plan. When agreed client variations are added, this represents a saving of 9.7%. The project was also completed in 30 weeks six weeks ahead of ...
-
Features
Culture counts
In the first of a two-part series, the Institute of Personnel and Development's Angela Baron tells Nancy Cavill about the effects of company cultures.