Name: Chris Taylor
Employer: Kier Marriott
Project: Think Tank Lincoln Innovation Centre
Contract: JCT 2005
With an absolutely unmissable deadline, a budget that needed slimming down by 25%, and a highly innovative building, there was plenty of scope for failure on Chris Taylor’s project.
Given the tight programme, the pressure to deliver on time was immense. The client had external funding for the building, but that would lapse entirely if it weren’t completed in time.
Programme was all, and despite valid cause for time extensions, not to mention £300k of additional work in the last eight weeks, Chris showed calm and control to push this project through for the original handover date. His buildability successes included installing the cladding and curtain walling from scissor lifts rather than scaffolding, allowing the external works to begin earlier.
Chris also played the central role in delivering the £2m worth of savings required for the project to go ahead. He led the value-engineering exercises with subtle judgement as to what could be jettisoned or adapted and what could not be altered without damaging the design intent or relationship with the award-winning architect.
He mastered the steep learning curve and need to adapt posed by the building’s innovative materials and processes. Right from the very start Chris got himself and his team fully involved in understanding the ethos and the technical details of the sustainability initiatives. It paid dividends in building the biodiverse green roof, passive ventilation, timber cladding, thermal mass, photovoltaic panels and geothermal energy source.
By ensuring he was in touch with all aspects of the build, Chris gained the respect of the consultants and subcontractors working on the site. The esteem was underpinned by his ability to communicate with all parties and his honest approach to partnership working.
Regardless of the issues and their potential for significantly delaying the project, he kept the client informed. His honesty, acceptance of responsibility and early identification of potential problems promoted a whole-team collaboration to produce workable solutions.
Value: £6.4m