The next 10 through the door?

01 - Andrew Wyllie

Wyllie made his name at Taylor Woodrow Construction where he became a youthful managing director in 2001 at the age of 38. By the time he left Taywood in August last year he had refocused the company through a mixture of acquisition and organic expansion, turning in a £12m profit at the end of 2004. He is now looking to repeat the trick as chief executive of Costain, a construction firm that has gone through its own difficulties in recent years but is now looking to compete with the industry's major players, such as Balfour Beatty and Laing O'Rourke. (Turnover at Costain in 2004 was £690m compared with O'Rourke's £1.5bn). Wyllie is looking for double-digit profit growth by 2009, and if he achieves this, he could follow some of contracting's most illustrious names into the Hall of Fame.

02 - Roger Madelin

Madelin's brand of entertainingly straight talking and love of motorcycle jackets has made him a favourite speaker at construction and property conferences. He is also the chief executive of Argent, the developer behind the £2bn King's Cross Central mixed-use scheme that is set to transform this notoriously rundown quarter of London. If that project comes off, that alone would make Madelin a candidate for the Hall, but his significance is greater than just one scheme. He is praised for making use of public spaces, an area that many developers overlook in their quest to generate the most cash out of a scheme. Argent's development of Brindley Place in Birmingham, for example, included an art gallery and made the most of its stunning canal side views.

03 - Ken Shuttleworth

For years he was Lord Foster's right-hand man, working on London's Swiss Re building and City Hall, but at the turn of 2004 Shuttleworth decided to go it alone. Despite being an incredibly well known and popular industry figure, Shuttleworth decided to shun the notion of signature architecture by naming his practice Make rather than after himself. The idea is to rid the firm of a hierarchical structure and therefore avoid internal disputes as to which architect really is the creative brain behind a given building. The practice completed its first project in April this year - a £3.5m judo hall in Dartford - and the architecture community is looking on with great interest at upcoming projects, such as the landmark phase of Birmingham's mixed-use Mailbox scheme, to see if Make's egalitarian philosophy will pay dividends.

04 - Allan Jones

Arguably the industry's foremost ecowarrior, Jones transformed the leafy Surrey town of Woking into a template for sustainable development. By the time he left his post as energy services manager at Woking council in 2004, the town had 10% of the country's photovoltaics, and carbon dioxide emissions had been cut 77%. His current challenge, though, offers him the chance to make an altogether greater impact. He is the chief development officer of the London Climate Change Agency, and is tasked with reducing the capital's CO2 emissions - which mainly come from buildings - 20% by 2010 from the 1990 figure, and 60% by 2050. He must ensure that developers use cleaner energy sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels, to hit these tough targets.

05 - Sean Griffiths

In truth, all the three main men - Charles Holland and Sam Jacob being the others - behind Fat Architects could be included here, but Griffiths is arguably the most well known of the trio. This is largely because his own home, the Blue House, is among the practice's key works. A cartoon-like east London house, it sums up Fat's passion for postmodernist architecture mixed with art. However, many of their designs are conceptual rather than completed buildings, with the practice's outlandish designs often being awarded highly praised second places, before losing out to more conservative mainstream designs. It remains to be seen whether their ideas will either influence the next generation of architects or actually be constructed for the public at large to see and fall in love with.

06 - Chris Wise

Almost inevitably for a bright young thing of the engineering world, Wise emerged from the Arup stable. Before leaving to set up Expedition Engineering, the now 49-year-old Wise led the design stage on the Millennium - or "Wobbly" - Bridge project. Loved by the industry for the way he successfully combines engineering and architecture, Wise is currently working as principal designer of the twin-arched Northbank Bridge Stockton-on-Tees, which looks set to be another iconic footbridge. If its impact is anything like that of its elegant, and now rock steady, forerunner, Wise will soon be the closest thing to a household name that British engineering has to offer.

07 - David Marks and Julia Barfield

This married couple has already transformed the capital's skyline with one of the world's most popular modern landmarks, the London Eye. This update of the Ferris wheel is a testament to the clean engineering style of their architecture practice, Marks Barfield, but they need to build one or two more of their stunningly original and dynamic ideas if they are to enter the Hall. These ideas include the I-360, a vertical observation tower that sends a cabin of 100 people to its tip, and the River of Light, less an architectural adventure than an artistic project to illuminate the banks of the Thames in central London in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Marks Barfield’s I-360 tower

08 - Steve McGuckin

As development director of Land Securities, McGuckin is already a major client. In 2004 alone, he was responsible for handing out £620m of work to contractors at an average project value of £69m. However, it is not just the sheer amount of work that marks McGuckin out, but the way he continually nudges the industry and development in new directions. For example, in January this year he secured planning permission for an eight-storey office and retail building, One New Change, next to St Paul's Cathedral. By appointing Parisian architect Jean Nouvel on the project, he hopes to encourage high quality foreign practices to work in the UK. With Land Securities' schemes including 14,000 new homes in Ebbsfleet, Kent, he will also influence the development of the Thames Gateway, the largest brownfield site in Europe.

09 - Gerald Ronson

The Corporation of London's approval for Ronson's £700m Heron Tower scheme in the City to increase by four floors to 47 storeys marked the end of a six-and-a-half year battle to go forward with a scheme that could potentially lead to a swathe of skyscrapers in London. The 244 m luxury office tower, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, may well lure West End and Canary Wharf occupiers back to the Square Mile, reinvigorating the City property market. It will also be the culmination of a 50-year career in the property business, during which Ronson has developed a thoroughly impressive 151 buildings in nine countries.

Gerald Ronson’s Heron Tower

10 - Ken Livingstone

In the 1980s it would have been amazing to think that "Red Ken" could ever be a potential candidate for a construction Hall of Fame. But the London mayor is now the developer's friend, encouraging skyscraper schemes, while retaining some of his left-wing roots by demanding ever higher provisions of affordable housing in residential projects. He is also intent on demonstrating his green credentials through the ambitious energy targets of the London Plan. And then there's the construction of the 2012 London Olympics and the development of the Thames Gateway … Like any leader, it will be easier to gauge whether he has really achieved these grand ambitions once he has left office, which might well be after one more term - if re-elected - to 2012.