PRP Project Services pursues QSs as boss succeeds in expanding work

PRP Project Services is bolstering its quantity surveying capability as it expands beyond its traditional focus on social housing. The project management outfit has hired Graham Greene, formerly of Derek Frost, as a senior QS and plans to take on further QSs.

Philip Murphy, group director, PRP Project Services, said he was aiming to hire five further people to his 20-strong operation this year. He said: "We need to have strong QSing in all the areas we work in order to support our project management service."

He has also hired Angela Godrich, who joins from Sidell Gibson Architects, as architect/project manager. She will support associate Philip Pamment, who runs an account for housing group Circle Anglia.

Murphy told QS News in November that he would bid for work outside the affordable housing sector. The firm is now working for London's Globe Theatre, project managing the reorganisation of the site. The project includes the creation of an education centre for school children, which is going to planning next month and is expected to start on site in spring 2007.

Murphy's plan to boost the firm's presence in the Northwest is also picking up pace. PRP Project Services is working on two schemes in Manchester and is looking to recruit two people for the region.

We need to have strong QSing in all the areas we work
in order to support our PM service

Philip Murphy, group director, PRP Project Services

One scheme is in Lostock, Bolton, for Trafford Housing Trust, which PRP is advising on its property strategy.

PRP is also working for Catalyst Housing Group on the regeneration of the Wornington Green Estate in north Kensington, London. It is preparing the masterplanning options for the project, which include new build and refurbishment work. The firm will also handle project management, architecture and landscaping. The estate comprises 500 homes with a further 300 likely to be created.

Murphy took over as the head of project management at PRP last year after joining in 1997. He has experience at multi-disciplinary consultancies Planning Design Development and Conran Roche. PRP Project Services is the QS and PM arm of PRP Architects.