Name: Geoff Bull
Employer: The Apollo Property Services Group
Project: Rockmount Primary School, London SE19
Contract: JCT 2005
With plenty of experience of similar projects, Geoff Bull was a natural for this one, his first for his new employer. His hard work, perseverance, commitment to discussion and willingness to find solutions paid off in successfully balancing the sometimes competing demands of the client and the school.
By fully engaging with this demanding scheme, applying the earlier lessons of a phased construction, and striving for excellence, he achieved outstanding results. He worked hard at making savings on the building basics, such as bricks and foundations, so he could concentrate the budget on quality and high-profile elements, and allow all parties to bring new ideas to the table.
When, on the completion of phase one, teaching staff picked up on built-as-specified elements that they realised were not ideal, such as the positioning of electrical sockets and whiteboard cabling, Geoff didn’t dismiss them as minor points. He appreciated their impact on the day-to-day running of the school, and addressed them. For the subsequent phases, he involved the users to a much greater extent, inviting their practical insights and advice about improvements to the design and build.
His client focus was sharp. When problems threatened one of the school’s failing buildings with closure before the new site was ready, he didn’t hesitate to offer the support required to keep it open long enough, even though the problems were not his responsibility under the contract.
His own outstanding leadership set a tone of honest and efficient working for the project and won the construction team a wide measure of respect from the school, which continued to operate during this time. He kept his channels of communication constantly open, nipping problems in the bud by meeting suppliers on a regular basis.
Value: £3.8m