Name: Peter McStay ICIOB
Employer: Kier Wallis
Project: Australian House Refurbishment, Strand, London
Contract: JCT 1998
If Peter McStay ever tires of construction, he could probably do very well as a juggler. For that’s what this project required. He repeatedly shifted 450 of the client’s staff, who all remained at their posts during the scheme, around the Grade II listed building just ahead of the equally mobile construction works.
To accommodate the users and the activities of the building, Peter and his team would often work long into the night. It was the only way to ensure that the deadlines of the project’s six phases were met and that the client’s staff could be back at their desks the next day. Professional, polite and even-handed, he inspired their confidence even when operations were at their most disruptive.
And it wasn’t only the users that he juggled. Security was paramount and all operatives required a police clearance to enter the site. That made the logistics of introducing material and construction workers into the building extraordinarily difficult. It also demanded a tight management and planning regime, which in turn was complicated by the need to transport some of the specialist materials by boat all the way from Australia.
More juggling was required with the conservation of the glazed brick lightwells, which was the crux of the project. Peter shuffled the temporary works design team to drive fresh ideas in how to set a scaffold over the large, decorative and listed skylights at the base of the lightwells. The ultimate solution then emerged: bracing the scaffold off the building and supporting it with a Mabey propping system.
And while all this was going on, he had to proceed with three new blast-hardened public entries to the building that proved extremely difficult to construct.
Peter subdued the complications of the many stakeholder relationships through a management style that stressed understanding, trust and common goals. He established an open forum at project meetings, actively encouraged feedback from all parties, and put the resolution of problems ahead of the administering of processes. He made judicious use of email, limited paperwork and solved site issues through face-to-face meetings and a positive approach to decision-making.
Value: £6.4m