Name: Adam Conyers MCIOB
Employer: Bovis Lend Lease
Project: Bow Bells House, London EC4
Contract: Design & build
Whatever the project, whatever the constraints, Adam Conyers delivers. Having delivered a string of high-profile projects to impressed clients, he brought his trademark managerial skill, can-do mentality and measured approach to this tricky redevelopment in the heart of the City.
With the Norman church of St Mary-le-Bow and occupied office buildings alongside the site, Adam spearheaded an extensive neighbourhood liaison effort. He set up a regularly updated public project website, kept noisy works under stringent control so they never interrupted church services, and made such a success of monthly meetings with Father George that he ended up giving a reading at the Christmas carol service.
Adam paid careful consideration to the sensitivities of the conservation area, ensuring no works were carried out that disturbed the archaeology. Indeed, it was his insight into the logistical complexities thrown up by the site that persuaded the two owners to award the contract to Bovis in the first place and won the support of the City planners.
Once onsite, Adam welded together a young project team by offering support but also responsibility and authority. He split the project into three elements – structure/envelope, services and finishes – and put a project manager, commercial manager and construction manager in each to empower individuals and create teams focused on cost, time, quality and safety.
He also had the confidence to agree the lump-sum contract on the basis of the cost consultancy’s estimates, which were significantly lower than Bovis’s. He led the value-engineering, replacing hand-set stone with precast cladding, and waterproof membranes with Caltite concrete, and re-engineering the fire precautions so that the secondary beams did not need specialist coatings.
At the same time he worked hard at winning designer buy-in to the value-engineering process by agreeing additional fees for some of the extra design work and staying true to the clients’ aspirations.
Fidelity to the design intention was a characteristic of the project. Adam had all drawings vetted for compliance with the base building definition, and he paired construction managers with architectural managers to eliminate any unconsidered design creeping in from his own team.
Despite the ambitious programme, substantial redesign work in line with planning department requests and the hefty commercial pressures created by Bovis’s joint venture with one of the developers, Adam turned in a fantastic project. Throughout, he managed his own staff and the wider project team to deliver a project in style, and has subsequently taken on the role of delivering a bigger and even more complex building in the City for the same joint venture.