Name: Chris Goodall
Employer: GB Building Solutions
Project: The Green, University of Bradford
On this high-profile student village development, Chris Goodall turned in a performance that should be rated the same as the BREEAM level it achieved: outstanding.
Contracted to deliver an ‘excellent’ sustainability rating, Chris was determined to get ‘outstanding’ – giving the client what it really wanted, not just what it could have. His success was incontestable. He made heavy use of sustainable construction methods and materials – timber frame, rainwater harvesting, solar thermal, offsite fabrication and much more. The scheme passed the BREEAM test with the highest score ever.
Long before that superb result, Chris had convinced the client that he was the construction manager of its dreams. In the preconstruction discussions, he saw off the involvement of other contractors in the scheme through a single-minded focus on client satisfaction and an exceptional technical command honed by 20 years’ experience.
With nine separate timber-frame blocks to build, he focused on the substructure works early in the planning process. The decisions he took then drove uncertainty and surprises out of the programme. Even the worst the weather could do was batted away by his use of temporary heating systems so that internal works such as plaster skimming and decoration could proceed unchecked.
His handover on time, to budget and with expectations outstripped is really a tribute to his starting out at 16 as an apprentice joiner, with all the quality mantra and problem-solving approach that brings.
Value: £30.5m