Name: Gary Weir
Employer: CCG (Scotland)
Project: Blocharin Place, Glasgow
Finishing five months early with the budget intact and to a quality that gives a penthouse feel to social housing is the sort of performance that wins promotion. It certainly did for Gary Weir, who moved up to projects manager shortly after completing this major regeneration of a former industrial dump.
A natural leader, he energised the workforce with passion, promoting shared goals. Open, honest and professional, he set out to forge trust and responsibility among the team. He delegated ownership for individual functions but sought collective responses to cross-cutting issues.
Aware of the challenges posed by the contaminated brownfield and the irksomely tight site with businesses, homes and a busy railway line close by, he dipped deep into innovation to condense the programme. He took on a pair of tower cranes to erect the steel frame of the seven-storey block. And he persuaded the timber-frame supplier to put on extra shifts to provide floor cassettes and make the wall sections in long-panel format, so cutting down site erection time.
Given the wide variety of structural forms onsite – timber frame, masonry and steel frame for blocks ranging from three to seven storeys high – he made extensive design adjustments to allow for differential settlement and installation tolerances. He set high standards, building confidence by making a concerted effort to deliver the early milestones.
His endeavour, pride in the job and desire to succeed were infectious. Always focused and utterly methodical in examining problems and finding solutions, he turned industrial blight into a landmark development.
Value: £11.2m