Name: Martin Brown ICIOB
Employer: Interserve Project Services
Project: Allerton High School, Leeds
Martin Brown brought drive, vision and commitment to this well-received project, one of four new-build schools in Leeds’ Building Schools for the Future programme.
He took immediate control of all the major stakeholder interfaces. He worked closely with the client to develop the design in a sequence he determined so construction could progress. He chaired regular design meetings with the consultants, and visited their offices to ensure specific issues were resolved with speed. And he demanded high standards of external site presentation and maintenance, personally dealing with the handful of complaints from local residents.
But most of all Martin worked hard at establishing positive relationships with the school, which already had existing buildings onsite that it continued to use during the construction project. He explained his plans, his schedule and why and when the programme would change, and installed vision panels around the site so staff and students could view progress.
He spoke in school assembly about the site, judged a student design project and helped physics students doing research on forces and power. And he listened attentively to any senior staff concerns following site visits, patiently answering questions and moving swiftly to impose effective solutions where necessary.
Starting off with a clean slate in terms of site personnel, Martin built a capable and integrated delivery team that performed as a cohesive body. He involved the whole team before making the key construction, commercial and design decisions. And he instilled a right-first-time culture, a preference for keeping it simple and a determination to close tasks off so there were no bits left to complete.
He owned the schedule, mastering the risk register and deploying a site-based design manager so he could influence and control the design to make it buildable, affordable, safe, timely and sustainable. He closely monitored trade dependencies to maintain progress, and implemented offsite fabrication where advantageous.
Despite a tight programme, and the serious safety and logistics implications of the site’s proximity to an existing school, Martin achieved all the critical deadlines. His decisive pre-planning and detailed understanding delivered a fine and highly praised project.
Value: £24.2m