Name: John Darling
Employer: Como Group
Project: 20 Victoria St, The Attorney General's Office, London SW1H
Contract: Design & build
When you have to submit your coming week’s works schedule to the police every Friday so they can rest easy that it’s construction workers rather than sharpshooters on the roof of the building, and materials deliveries rather than suicide bombers drawing up at the site entrance, you know it’s a project where security is a big issue.
With New Scotland Yard as an immediate neighbour and a high-level government minister as the future building occupier, John Darling needed to manage complex security restrictions, and mitigate their potential impact on the programme, for this refurb. He had to procure high-specification bomb-resistant glazing systems, personally survey the project for potential security risks in the building fabric, and put security guards on the front entrance to control site access.
By taking the client’s interests to heart and adopting an exceptionally positive and non-adversarial approach, John successfully brought in this complex and fast-trick fit-out. He identified the maintenance of good client relationships as crucial to the project, while managing expectations and keeping the client team always up to date with progress and problems at bi-weekly meetings.
He also held meetings each morning with his management team to identify priorities, manage information and delegate work. He managed the risk at all levels through look-ahead meetings every week with the architect and every day with the subcontractors.
John’s quality control strategy included each subcontractor submitting a plan outlining their quality objectives, as well as regular inspections and progressive snagging. By practical completion, snagging was minimal and there were no outstanding works.
As well as delivering on time and on budget, John successfully met the challenging requirement for a good BREEAM rating in a refurbished building. In fact, he achieved an excellent rating by substantial reuse of electrical containment, blinds, doors and frames, and innovative initiatives, such as recycled beech and yoghurt pot worktops, and screens formed of melted CDs.