Stories - Grangewood Magazine Issue No. 2

stories

Issue 02. Autumn 2017.

The 25 Year Edition 25 years of Grangewood Eccleston Yards: Harnessing historic energy Nina Campbell: her latest projects and design tips

25 Years of Grangewood

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stories

Issue 02. Autumn 2017.

The 25 Year Edition

2017 is a very special year for Grangewood, as it turns 25.

There’s nostalgia in the air and in this special edition of Stories we look back fondly over the years, and optimistically to the future.

Nina Campbell talks to us about the secret of her success as one of the UK’s most highly acclaimed interior designers.

Contents 25 years of Grangewood As Grangewood turns 25 this year, owners Richard and Mike tell us about the early days, and the journey to becoming one of London’s premier players in the refurbishment market Greening Grey Britain at Chelsea Flower Show Grangewood helps build RHS show garden at the prestigious and much-loved Chelsea Flower Show

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Directors from successful businesses across the industry share their own views on how things have changed in our sector, and the technological and legislative game-changers.

Lucy Puddle and Steve Gilchrist from Grosvenor Estates tell us about Grosvenor’s new vision for Belgravia and take us behind the scenes of its latest development at Eccleston Yards.

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Re-energising Eccleston Yards Exploring the development taking shape at Eccleston Place

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Nina Campbell talks Maine, Matisse and photo booths An interview with Nina Campbell

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Through Your Eyes: 25 years in construction

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News in Brief

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We’d like to thank our loyal employees, clients and partners who have made the last 25 years such an enjoyable and successful chapter, and one that we can reflect on with very fond memories.

Richard Stevens Grangewood CEO

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25 years of Grangewood As Grangewood turns 25 this year, owners Richard and Mike tell us about the early days, and the journey to becoming one of London’s premier players in the refurbishment market.

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In the beginning After completing his A levels, Richard was keen to get out into the workplace and start earning. He bypassed university and got a job as a trainee surveyor at Trollope & Colls, where he studied to become a chartered surveyor: “I’d always been interested in the commercial side of construction. It was a fantastic opportunity to work for one of the best contractors in London at the time. I went straight into the west end.”

After qualifying as a surveyor Richard left Trollope & Colls to work freelance. Richard introduced Mike

to Olivera, a Brickwork subcontractor to Trollope & Colls. Mike secured and completed a Brickwork apprenticeship with the brickwork specialist.

For brother Mike, quality craftsmanship and a meticulous attention to detail is in his blood. “From a very young age, solving puzzles, contemplating and understanding how and why things worked, was for me as natural as breathing. For every problem there is a solution, but to say that I simply love to problem solve is not the full story.

Working with partner and brother Richard

for the last 25 years, and the never ceasing challenges we face, gives you a skill set perfectly tailored for our industry.”

Becoming the owner of a business was never a choice for the brothers, it was a rite of passage. “From an early age, I always wanted to have my own business. I was heavily influenced by my family," says Richard." Our father had his own construction company and our grandfather had his own business in the London Docks repairing containers.”

Working with partner and brother Richard for the last 25 years, and the never ceasing challenges we face, gives you a skill set perfectly tailored for our industry.

When brothers Mike and Richard formed Grangewood they didn’t set out to be the biggest. For them it was about doing what they enjoy – delivering a first-class service, and ultimately pleasing clients. This has been the bedrock of its organic growth to the £37m turnover business it is today.

The double act Using their complementary skills in construction, founding Grangewood was a natural next step. The journey began in Essex, operating from Richard's loft in Grange Road, Billericay – the inspiration for the company name.

Richard and Mike were in their midtwenties when they registered their first company and Grangewood Builders Ltd in May 1992. They went diligently from one job to the next in the city, delivering small brickwork packages in residential and warehousing.

As it turns 25 this year, this is still very much the mandate of this family business – and it’s this rare approach that has served the business so well.

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25 Years of Grangewood

25 Years of Grangewood

The brothers gathered a reputation as a trusted partner who operated with professionalism and integrity.

Before long they landed their first £1m main contract at Cannon Street, constructing a new gym, fully fitted with studios and swimming pool.

The first major milestone came in 1995, when the Church Commissioners of England selected Grangewood to work across its Hyde Park estate.

“We went from replacing one pane of glass to full refurbishments, pretty

much in a D&B capacity,” says Mike.

“We were managing all of the maintenance and refurbishments across hundreds of west end properties, and over the decade made lots of contacts.”

On the back of referrals, the business went on to secure its biggest client at the time, The Wellcome Trust.

The team was responsible for the repairs, maintenance and decoration of its South Kensington Estate.

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Steady growth By 2001 the business was working across the Crown, Sloane Stanley and Eyre Estates. Grangewood had established itself as a reliable and dependable partner to some of the most important land owners in London. The team had grown to 40 and was turning over £5m.

Richard is keen to point out that Grangewood hasn’t grown out of this market. “Estates are still at the heart of the business. Grangewood has always been good at building relationships of trust and collaboration, which has enabled us to attract repeat business from our clients. This benefits

businesses the most with owners of multiple properties, like the estates.”

Their experience and track record with landlords led to an introduction to Grosvenor. By the end of 2007 Grangewood was on its framework, an agreement that remains in place today.

Mike says: “We consider Grosvenor to be the most forward thinking property owners in the UK. With their incredible and inspirational 300-acre estate, consisting of some of the finest buildings in the world, we consider ourselves very privileged to be part of the team working on hundreds of their iconic properties.”

Grangewood became a well-known

face in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia as it carried out its work respectfully and considerately on the many listed buildings that form the fabric of these communities. Today its work is visible on almost every street.

New opportunity arose in 2009 as the market felt the bite of the recession and competition fell by the wayside.

Grangewood took advantage of the sad demise of some of the most established companies. It doubled turnover by making a concerted push into the Private Client market and started working on high profile projects such as One Hyde Park and Eaton Square.

The future – where next?

Now in its 25th year, Grangewood is completing its 1064th project.

Although the business might look different today in terms of its size and scale, it still feels the same, and bestows the same virtues and personal family feel, synonymous with the Grangewood brand.

Richard is keen to maintain the close relationships and direct contact he has with clients. In terms of strategy he says the future is about staying true to Grangewood’s values. “We see ourselves very much as a local builder to the London market.

And that’s a message we want to reinforce.

“The future for us is not about turnover, it’s about maintaining what we do really well and expanding our relationships with clients."

“We take pride in what we do and place real importance on building close relationships, making the construction process an enjoyable one for everyone involved," Mike adds.

Their market is not an easy one. Over the years they have seen many companies come and go. Mike puts their success down to

25 Years of Grangewood

‘hard-work first and foremost, perseverance, and a genuine care about what we do’.

In its anniversary year, Grangewood has widened its operations with the launch of a Southern division, keen to provide the same values and first-class service that its founders pride themselves on.

On Grangewood turning 25, Richard says: “It’s a particularly proud moment, not least because many of the people who started the journey with us, both employees and clients, are still very much a part of the business today.”

“When you have people who are happy, driven and focused, that’s a pretty good recipe," Mike adds.

“We’d like to thank everyone who has played a part in making Grangewood what it is today.”

After 25 years it’s clear the passion is still there.

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BREEAMing with delight As 119 Ebury Street becomes the UK’s first BREEAM ‘outstanding’ listed property, we talk to the people behind the project about the challenges and what this monumental milestone means for the wider industry.

Greening Grey Britain at Chelsea Flower Show Grangewood helps build RHS show garden at the prestigious and much-loved Chelsea Flower Show

We take a peek inside...

Words

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Pictures

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Chelsea by numbers The RHS Great Spring Show was first held in the now vanished RHS garden in Kensington in 1862. he Show moved to its current T site at Chelsea Hospital in 1913 and was promptly renamed.

It takes 15 months to plan each show, and 800 people over three weeks to build the show from bare grass to the finished article.

Each year, 157,000 people visit the show. The number has been capped at this level since 1988.

At this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, Grangewood was busy helping build the RHS ‘Greening Grey Britain’ show garden.

While most Chelsea gardens have an important message to convey, the one behind this year’s RHS garden was particularly relevant to the construction industry.

Designed by Professor Nigel Dunnett, it illustrates the challenges of climate change and rapid urban development. Speaking of his design Nigel said: “Gardens and plants are no longer an optional and decorative ‘nice-to-have’, they’re essential. With pollution levels dangerously high in cities and flash-flooding devastating areas of the country, we need to all embrace the fact that plants help mitigate against some of the biggest environmental threats facing us today.”

With more pollution and flooding in towns and cities the RHS garden showcases how and why plants, nature and gardens are essential, and have never been needed more.

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We need to all embrace the fact that plants help mitigate against some of the biggest environmental threats facing us today.

The garden focused on practical and creative solutions for where space is at a premium, including balconies, and areas on and around the buildings themselves.

In under two months we turned Nigel’s concept drawing into a physical two-storey timber frame structure clad in Accoya timber and Designclad stone tiling, finished with a green roof. The structure was pre-assembled in the Nave at our St Marks project to reduce the build time on site, and was deconstructed and transported to Chelsea in time for the opening of the show, which this year saw over 165,000 visitors.

The building featured an external balcony, which was used for filming the One Show during the week, and visited by the Queen.

We're proud to have been a part of the project with Grosvenor Estates.

A huge thanks to Sean Doyle and Miguel Ghimpu, L2i glazing, Rachel Reynolds Garden Design and to the wider Grangewood team for their support in making the project happen.

Greening Grey Britain at Chelsea flower show

Chelsea attendees enjoy a drink or two, with around 1,068 bottles of champagne being consumed over the five days. That’s nothing compared to how much tea is drunk though, with almost 16,000 cups being enjoyed.

The Great Pavilion is roughly 12,000 square metres, enough room to park 500 London buses and bigger than two football pitches.

The 1951 Chelsea Show featured a gigantic Himalayan garden made up of 23 lorry loads of plants from RHS Garden Wisley.

In 2000, a new pavilion replaced the large canvas marquee, which was cut up and turned into over 7,000 handbags, jackets and aprons by the Old Chelsea Marquee Company.

Source: The Telegraph

Greening Grey Britain at Chelsea flower show

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Re-energising Eccleston Yards

Y A R D S

On Eccleston Place, in South Belgravia a complex development is quietly taking shape, tucked away behind the beautiful and commanding Victorian red brick facades of Chester House and 25 Eccleston Place. We caught up with Lucy Puddle and Steve Gilchrist from Grosvenor Britain & Ireland (Grosvenor), for an update on the Eccleston Yards project.

LOND ON

Photography courtesy of Grosvenor

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25 Years of Grangewood

Re-energising 25 Years of Grangewood Eccleston Yards

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Built in 1891, for the Westminster Electrical Supply Corporation, 25 Eccleston Place was once a Power Station, and the work of architect Stanley Peach. Best known for his elaborate industrial architecture, Peach, also designed Wimbledon’s famous centre court, and several important art deco blocks in Chelsea.

Lucy and Steve are part of Grosvenor’s Estate Development Programme and leading on the delivery of a new vision for Eccleston Yards on the company’s London estate.

The site sits on the border of Victoria and South Belgravia, and presents an opportunity to better connect and integrate Victoria and Grosvenor’s London estate.

A space for creativity Grosvenor, with the help of Grangewood and architect BuckleyGrayYeoman, is delivering a sympathetic and sensitive refurbishment of the 80,000 sqft site, which comprises 40,000 sqft of retail space, and 30,000 sqft of offices - of this 26,000 sqft is co-working space.

Once complete, the development will centre on a pedestrianised courtyard to help establish a new destination for London which blurs the lines between food, fashion, retail, coworking and wellbeing. Lucy explains: “There are five buildings in all: Radstock House, 25 Eccleston Place, Chester House, the Giraffe Sheds, and 115A Ebury Street.

All were once used for light industrial/ office use, and the central courtyard as a commercial car parking area.”

“The courtyard is unusual in this part of Belgravia, and indeed in London.

We have the opportunity to inject new life into the buildings and create a tranquil, public space in the courtyard.

Eccleston Yards is nestled in a busy area

that has a large residential population and a community of commuters from nearby Victoria Train and Coach Stations.

The train station is just a two-minute walk from the north end of the scheme and the site is immediately adjacent to the arrivals hall. On the other side of Elizabeth Street is the departure's hall.

Grosvenor completed a consultation in 2012 across the wider area; Eccleston Yards, to a greater extent, is a response to that consultation.

“In early 2016, we shared and discussed our vision for Eccleston Yards with around 350 local stakeholders. We had a really positive response. People are very excited about the project”, says Lucy.

I always say to people who come and visit that the building stock and space is very different. With that, the architectural design is sympathetic to the respective heritage of each building.

Harnessing the historic energy The scheme is seen by Grosvenor to help deliver its 20 year vision for its London estate. The company wants Belgravia and Mayfair to be more flexible, open and appealing to everyone with more active, integrated neighbourhoods and thriving and enterprising businesses of all sizes.

While none of the buildings are listed, Chester House and 25 Eccleston Place are deemed to have facades of ‘architectural merit'.

“I always say to people who visit, that the building stock and space is quite different to what you would expect in Belgravia. With that, the architectural design is sympathetic to the respective heritage of each building. This gives 16

Re-energising Eccleston Yards

Re-energising Eccleston Yards

us the opportunity to do something a little bit more distinct”, Lucy explains.

In this context, the origins of the building are still visible today. There’s evidence of the old coal store in the basement and beautiful glazed white and green brick tiles in the interior of 25 Eccleston Place, that was once a large power generation hall. But the most distinctive and unexpected feature is the very unusual Giraffe shed structures, where the electrical transformers were originally sited. These are the jewel in the crown, and the tall open spaces lend themselves perfectly to showcase the wares of retailers and restauranteurs, through the floor to ceiling aluminium and glazed shopfronts: “Our aspiration is to attract the kind

of creative, entrepreneurial tenants who welcome the fact that you've got a variety of buildings, with an industrial vibe. We want to create a hub for innovative entrepreneurs, creative talent, start-ups and independent businesses.”

“With that, you build a community of unique retailers that are a little bit different, perhaps to what we would normally attract on the Estate.

We’re targeting new operators, that can grow with us on the Estate, as they establish themselves.”

“We haven't designed absolutely everything to the nth degree. If we get the tenant mix right, we should be attracting tenants who are far more creative than us and able to put their own mark on it.”

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Consideration comes first Eccleston Yards has in its midst a neighbouring resident, office and retail population. Being a good neighbour and in regular contact with local stakeholders has been a key thread to the project’s success, says Steve: “The team has been great. Grangewood has been particularly good in stakeholder contact. They've been really proactive with the office tenants and helped build and manage expectations, as to what they're doing, and when."

Re-energising Eccleston Yards

To Grangewood’s credit, and evidence of its team's professional approach, it has scored 42 out of 50 on the Considerate Constructor scheme so far for the project.

“They take pride in their work and are passionate about the scheme.

The site is kept tidy and they are very welcoming of guests. We could have up to 30 interested people visiting the site every day. As simple as it sounds, just being accommodating, facilitating those things, has been incredibly helpful.

There's a huge amount of value that this approach generates,” Steve adds.

Grosvenor’s commitment to engage and communicate well with the community will continue long after construction has finished. Just as every hotel has a general manager, Eccleston Yards will have its own too. It’s the first time Grosvenor has created this type of role on the London estate. In doing so, they will curate and host a calendar of events in the courtyard, connect the operators, create cohesion, and bring the community together.

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A success story in the making Eccleston Yards has been a swift and ambitious programme of just nine months. The co-working space, which is now undergoing a tenant fit out, the gym and three retail units handed over on sectional completion dates, with final PC achieved on programme, at the end of October.

The team is on course to deliver the scheme on-budget and in time for its spring 2018 launch.

With five separate buildings and the courtyard under refurbishment, the project is complex and not without its challenges, but slick project programming, flexibility by the team, and continuity of staff, has been pivotal.

“Victoria Coach Station is immediately south of the site and 1,200 coaches

go down the street every day, making Victoria Coach Station busier than Luton Airport, in terms of the number of million passengers a year. You need a team that’s responsive and adaptable, which we have been lucky to have," Steve explains.

“Comprehensive traffic management systems have kept the development on track, and disruption to a minimum.

We also have the District and Circle line, running underneath, which we generally managed to avoid any interfaces with, because we designed around it.”

The team is applying lessons learnt from each sectional stage to the next phase. For Grosvenor, the project is slightly unusual to the norm, says Lucy: “There's an opportunity for us to learn quite a lot from this project. Does bringing in a slightly more creative, entrepreneurial tenant create a better

place? And what can Grosvenor learn from this project, to be able to apply its vision to other sites? Is it right to have such an ambitious programme?”

What’s clear is that Eccleston Yards already feels like a success story and the start of an exciting new chapter in the buildings’ history, even though it isn’t yet complete. It has a buzz about it, thanks to its large and unusual open courtyard space and industrial legacy.

Once occupied this will no doubt change again, as the development takes on the personalities of the business owners and, in turn, their unique new ventures take shape. And this is what Grosvenor wants. Together with the team they have created the canvas for a new community to thrive, and their stories to evolve, in a little oasis, far from the madding crowd, in the heart of London.

Lucy Puddle

Steve Gilchrist

Senior Development Manager, Grosvenor

Project Manager, Grosvenor

Lucy is Senior Development Manager on Eccleston Yards and has been involved in the project since its inception. She has been at Grosvenor for seven years, and is a qualified accountant by trade. Lucy is passionate about place making and shaping the Estate.

Steve’s background is in civil engineering.

He worked for contractor Sir Robert McAlpine and spent two years in PM consultancy before moving client side, joining Grosvenor in 2015. Steve enjoys the challenges and problem solving that come with construction projects.

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Re-energising Eccleston Yards

Re-energising Eccleston Yards

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Nina Campbell talks Maine, Matisse and phone booths We recently caught up with our client Nina Campbell at her Knightsbridge store, to talk about her latest ventures, business advice and interior design tips.

Interior design tips from Nina Campbell

I sometimes put a colourful pattern in an otherwise plain room or just a small chair to add drama.

About Nina How many stores do you have now?

Known for her signature heart-shaped spectacles, Nina is one of the world’s most respected and influential interior designers.

Her client list includes celebrities, royalty and a whole host of boutique hotels and international private clients. It’s this broad range of commissions that makes Nina one of the most celebrated designers in the industry.

We have a store in Chelsea harbour, which is going very well. We design comfortable and useful pieces of furniture, which aren’t the norm, and are sold here. We’ve also got our Walton Street store in Knightsbridge, which stocks smaller pieces - glass, china and accessories. We’re working on a new line. I’m completely obsessed by anything practical; I suppose it’s having five grandchildren. We’ve got a lot of melamine, but it’s really good quality and fun. The melamine story has almost come indoors now. We’ve got some wonderful mats that look like Italian linen, but you can actually wipe them.

How important is it to have a store(s) in the digital age?

What have you been up to recently?

What are your latest client projects?

I’m about to launch a new fabric collection, called ‘Les Rêves‘ inspired by Matisse colouring. We’ve created a small limited edition of ceramic lamps in the same sort of genre, which is exciting and new for this summer. We’ve also just designed the most enchanting, almost baby chair; it’s something you can put by the fireplace and pull in. I’m doing a house in the country for a lovely couple, who’ve got three children, and we’re making one each for them.

I’ve just completed an enormous three-year project in Maine in America, which included a bowling alley, squash court and party room, which you approach through a telephone box. You put a penny in the slot and another door opens into the party room; it’s all rather crazy. We worked with an extraordinary architect in America and excellent builders. It's rather like working with Grangewood, where you have a very good relationship, which it essential to getting a project of that scale successfully delivered.

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Nina Campbell

I think stores are still important. Everyone still likes to interact. We’re building our website presence, but I still think it’s important to have a shop. There’s something quite nice about coming into a shop, and having something beautifully wrapped for you and a conversation. So, I think you need both. The success of our shop in Knightsbridge has shown that customers are still making carefully considered decisions when it comes to interior design and their homes.

If you had to pick a decade to live in from an interior design perspective, which would it be?

It’s tricky because from an elegance point of view you’d want to pick the 18th century, but from a practical point of view, you’d want it to be the 21st century. Somehow you have to blend the two, and that’s what I enjoy doing.

What do you love about transforming buildings and interiors?

It’s like the Cinderella syndrome. I love finding a building and bringing it back to its former glory. I think that’s so satisfying. I love searching for items and when I’m starting a project from scratch I don’t like anything to look completely matched. You see houses done by people who have no idea about architecture. The cornices aren’t right and the skirtings aren’t right and you think 'Oh God, this is such a mess'. When you go into a house that’s been wrongly done, you just know. It’s jarring on the eye. You don’t have to have training or knowledge. The proportions are wrong.

Do you have a favourite project?

My project in Maine. The client was so enthusiastic and 90% of the time was happy to go with my ideas. After working together for three years you become a friend.

To get the best out of a project you really have to listen to the client and meet at their house to take the brief.

25 Years Nina Campbell of Grangewood

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Interior design tips from Nina Campbell

If you’re afraid of using colour, change a chair or a couple of cushions.

What are the most common design mistakes you see?

What makes you happy when you’re not working?

It’s really difficult when you design a project and the client changes it half way through, and leaves out aspects.

You get big holes in a scheme that would have flowed.

So, you have to go back to the drawing board and start again, or it doesn’t work. They don’t realise that by taking out three elements the rest of it won’t hang together.

I have five grandchildren, so it's spending time with them. You never know what’s going to happen next. I think there’s an artistic side to some of them. I’d recommend interior design to them. It’s a very rewarding occupation that you can do forever.

What are your top design tips?

Be practical. There’s no point in having a white carpet in the sitting room with French windows through to the garden.

Stick to one idea and make your colours work all the way through the house so that you don’t jump from one room to another in a hysterical fashion. Halls and staircases can be calm, before going into something more dramatic, or the other way around. Keep your drama in certain places. I think colour depends on where the house is and which way it faces. If you’re doing a big project it’s a good idea to consult somebody on lighting. Consult them, but don’t let them overlight. You don’t want it to end up looking like Crystal Palace.

We’ve all been in rooms where there have been so many lights in the ceiling, it looks like the ceiling has got measles.

What’s the best piece of business advice you would give or have been given?

Get as much in writing as possible. Every budding interior designer who comes into the industry thinking it’s all about choosing fabrics, needs to know that it’s not just that. It’s about making sure your paperwork is in order.

What has been the secret to your success?

I think I’ve been lucky and had wonderful people to work for, and to work with. I’m engaged in what I do. I enjoy it, and I think that comes through. I work a lot in America, because there’s a slight American mantra where designers tend to be more dominating and say ‘it’s my way or the highway’, whereas I like to bend it a bit and make a person’s dream come true.

What would you say is your signature style?

People come to me for a feeling of harmony but comfort.

In fashion, you should wear the dress, the dress shouldn’t wear you. This is also true in houses. I think it’s quite sad when people live in houses that are so designed they are frightened to move anything. You should feel at ease in your home. The best call I had was from a client in New York who gave a house warming party and he rang to say that the evening had been a huge success, there had been an accident with the red wine but it had cleaned up perfectly!

Somehow that broke the ice of the new house, and seven years and many parties later it is still in great shape.

Get some interior design tips from one of the best in the business, Nina Campbell…

If you’ve got a high ceiling, you’ve got the chance to do something extraordinary. I’ve created a dark blue ceiling with gold stars for a client in Gloucestershire. Make a large space cosy by using warm colours. Make sure the furniture is of the right scale, too. You don’t want small furniture in a big space, and vice versa. If you’re afraid of using colour, change a chair or a couple of cushions.

Acid green is wonderful with grey, if you want to keep it calm, try pinks. I sometimes put a colourful pattern

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25 Years of Grangewood

Nina Campbell

in an otherwise plain room or just a small chair to add drama. I use a lot of mirrors. I love the reflections you get, I mirrored my fireplace and am about to do the same for someone in New York. Clever lighting and lacquering low ceilings also helps to maximise space.

Take a long hard look at your lampshades and cushions, I like to think of them as your home’s shoes and handbags. Edit down your belongings every once in a while, so that clutter doesn’t creep in.

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It's 1992, John Major is Prime Minister and the UK is clawing its way out of a recession. It's the year Take That formed and The Big Breakfast aired its first episode. Adding to the London skyline, 54 Lombard Street, Barclays £87m new headquarters, is completed. Fast forward 25 years to 2017, and we caught up with senior figures to get their perspective on how the industry has changed in the last quarter of a century, and their thoughts on what the future might hold.

Through Your Eyes

Nick McKeogh

Executive Director, Pipers & Co-Founder New London Architecture

1992 - 2017 Nick is Executive Director of Pipers Projects and Co-Founder of New London Architecture at The Building Centre, which he set up in 2007 and is widely known throughout the sector for its model of the whole of central London.

Through Your Eyes

What do you think have been the major changes to the industry in the last 25 years?

What’s changed the most is the view that developers take, not just of individual buildings, but the places and the spaces around the buildings.

Understanding that just developing individual buildings in isolation is not as valuable as all the amenities that you put around them. If you actually look back on the great estates, the Grosvenor’s and the Bedford estate, when they laid out their developments, they put in parks and a mix of uses.

Those have been the most successful parts of London for over 200 years. I guess everything to do with property is driven by the end user, people want to live and work in places where they can get out and do more things. I think developers are realising the value in that.

How have clients’ needs and demands changed?

Clients have become more design savvy, more quality savvy, and I think that’s because we have access to the internet and more information. We travel more, we go to interesting places, and we see more things. Because London is very international, it’s really led to a sort of upping in terms of people's anticipation of what they want to see. People are much more interested in design. Clients are more aware of the possibilities, and are more sophisticated now.

What projects have put UK construction on the world stage?

There are three projects that really struck me. The fact that we won and we delivered the Olympics; the fact we are building Crossrail under London; and the Shard. International clients and city leaders think London is amazing, how it delivers these huge projects in a historic environment. I think the big infrastructure pieces we’ve done in the last few years have had a massive impact on international opinions on our ability to deliver construction projects.

How has your part of the sector changed?

The thing that strikes me when you think about London as a city or development, is the short-term thinking of politicians.

Good development needs long-term money, long-term thinking, and often it just seems you have a housing minister for a shorter, and shorter amount of time.

You don’t have clarity on policy, you’ve got political short-term interference and meddling, which stops an airport being built or housing getting delivered.

We’ve got to remove short-term political meddling from good-quality long-term thinking about how we develop the city.

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What do you think the industry will look like in another 25 years?

I’d like to think that it will be much more diverse and some of the skills are more evenly distributed across the delivery.

We learn and share best practice much more easily now, so we’re already seeing, even the traditional house builders starting to produce much better quality again. I’d like to think that the industry just didn’t produce badly built housing, which is where the problem has been.

Mike Windsor Edward Pearce, Consulting Engineers

What has been the impact of the advancement of information communication and design technology?

What will be the biggest challenges and opportunities over the coming years?

Engaging young people and communities with the idea that development is good and of benefit.

Certainly, in London, I don’t think we’re doing a very good job of young people thinking the property or construction industry is a cool place to work. They probably don’t understand just how many different, interesting jobs there are in it. We need to do a much better job of engaging ordinary non-professionals with what’s good about the construction industry.

What would be your dream project?

I’d like someone to give me a prime site in central London. I’d work with a great architect to design a fantastic bespoke building for learning and educating people about development in London.

We have a space at The Building Centre, but I’d love to have a whole building full of it. A science museum or a V&A, but all about development and construction and building and designing places for people to live and work.

If you can afford to have property all over the world, where do most people want to live?

Sometimes Paris, but nearly always London 28

Sometimes Paris, but nearly always London. The construction industry itself, in many instances, has become less litigious, but high-end private clients tend to be much more litigious.

Twenty-five years ago, it was all about claims. Today no-one really wants to get the contract out of the drawer.

Mike Windsor is a director at Edward Pearce, a firm of Chartered Consulting Engineers, established in 1944, specialising in Building Services Engineering.

Most changes have been good, but we’ve seen a decline in direct communication – fewer people are picking up the phone. A lot can get lost in translation via email. Sometimes it’s very difficult to interpret or its very easy to misinterpret the tone and understand the real sentiment behind the words in emails. Communication used to have a natural cooling off period. Less was sent in hast, when mail went by post.

Nothing can replace the importance of speaking to people directly.

What innovation has had the biggest impact in your sector?

What’s been the highlight of your last 25 years in the industry?

VRF cooling systems. They’re much more sophisticated and reliable, a bit like televisions. If you bought a television in 1990, apart from the fact it took up half the living room, it weighed a tonne and lasted about three years.

If you were lucky, it didn’t go wrong more than once a year. Now you buy a television, stick it in the supermarket trolley, plug it in and it lasts you until you decide black’s not the ‘in colour’ now.

The highlight of my life in this industry has been the people that I’ve worked with. Not the jobs. But there’s one project that was the highlight of my career, which I loved doing. It was finished in 1990 and was a £40m project. Bearing in mind it was 1987, that was a large project.

It was the Royal Citadel, in Plymouth.

The reason it’s a highlight is that it was so much fun. Everyone was singing from the same sheet and got on so well. You bonded with people and everybody helped each other out. I’ve never known a job like it since. I still think of it fondly and have met a few people who worked on it since, and they say the same.

There has been a huge increase in international clients in the high end residential market in London over the last 25 years. What effect do they think this has had?

It’s had a large effect. I don’t know where the market would be without it to be honest. But everyone has jumped on the bandwagon, because that’s where the money is. I can’t see the market dropping off. If you can afford to have property all over the world, where do most people want to live?

How has your part of the sector changed?

The biggest change, probably for the worse, has to be the absolute lack of qualified people. There’s much less training on the engineering side.

Nobody wants to be an engineer. People don’t see it as anything glamorous, do they? They used to back in the day.

Through Your Eyes

What do you think the industry will look like in another 25 years?

It will be backed up with sewage because we haven’t got any public health engineers. That’s been the industry hot potato that no-one wants to get hold of, so it’s been passed round from M&E engineers, structural engineers, civil engineers, to architects, no-one wants to do it.

What have been the wonders and blunders?

I think the Channel Tunnel is an amazing project. I still cannot figure out how they managed to meet in the middle.

The blunder was the Millennium Dome, before it became the O2. It had an awful roof, took ages to build and the client didn’t even know what it was for.

Mark Dendy Director, Dendy Byrne

What’s been the highlight for you?

I really enjoyed working with quite a few people in the industry. Some of them have been really fascinating. It’s a really fun industry to work in. There’s lots of great people, lots of inspirational people, who are involved on all sides.

What have been the technology game-changers?

Developments such as BIM (Building Information Management systems) and Revit has a real opportunity to improve how we build. That has real advantage, but it comes down to the quality of the information put in to the system.

Some designers are doing really well with it, but contractors and clients are nowhere near up to date on it yet. That's a shortcoming. It needs to be a bit easier to manipulate and for all parties to use.

If there’s one piece of advice you could have given to yourself 25 years ago, what would it be?

To value and work at creating good relationships with really good businesses.

Try and get business relationships with clients, designers, contractors and subcontractors who are best in class. Learn from them and support them. Look out into the industry and see who's doing it well and how you can try and either emulate them or partner with them. Don't just think things will stay the same. You can make change, you can improve things.

That would be my lesson for myself.

What innovation has had the biggest impact in your sector?

Mark has 23 years of experience in the construction industry, advising property owners and investors on the construction and technical aspects of property development on a range of commercial and residential projects throughout Central London.

Through Your Eyes

Design is so creative nowadays we've had to adapt construction methods to build the ideas. To actually create the temporary supports and temporary structures that help you put these new buildings into place often requires great innovation. And sometimes in quite hostile environments; for example, the industry has extended construction into rivers and seas where they've reclaimed back extra land. I think that's real innovation.

Design is so creative nowadays we've had to adapt construction methods to build the ideas.

What do you think the industry will look like in the future?

I'd like to see more collaboration, particularly between the design side and the construction side. I think it would achieve better buildings. Consultants are really good at knowing what clients want and contractors are really good at knowing how it can be delivered.

I think there's a big gap between demand and what's achievable. If that gap was reduced, developers and occupiers would start to get what they really were looking for. That would be a great step in the right direction, but it needs people who are inspired to deliver better buildings for their clients and finding different ways of achieving them - like bringing in contractors much earlier than we currently do and trying to value contractors’ tenders in a better way, not just considering price.

What have been the wonders and blunders?

In terms of blunders I think we are still building poor quality housing, in some instances even worse than before. I think the quality of construction and the coordination of the design can be very poor. I think the spatial provisions, both in garden space, but also in indoor space, can also be inadequate.

What would be your dream project?

I love working on old buildings in central London and that's mostly what I do. I feel very privileged. The older the building and the more history they have, the better. Just making these existing spaces suitable for modern use and still look stunning, I think is just great fun.

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News in Brief Garrick Club

Keeping cool

Grangewood is currently working on a refurbishment at one of the most exclusive members clubs in London the highly esteemed Garrick Club. Home to major collections of art, with more than 1,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures on display, it has around 1,400 members and a seven-year waiting list.

Our CEO, Richard Stevens, continues in his quest to help Londoners keep out of the rain by providing (leaving) Grangewood umbrellas on London’s Central Line. This unintentional marketing strategy helps to ensure Londoners stay dry, but has now reached international acclaim. Danny Painter, Grangewood Buyer, reports: “My Dad is a London cabbie and does work for the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, who organise trips around the UK and Europe.

As part of the anniversary of D-Day celebrations, a 90 black cab convoy went to Normandy from Portsmouth taking some of our old soldiers to France one last time.” His passenger, 98-year-old Ray Whitwell (seated) sheltered from the hot French sun under a Grangewood brolly. During the evacuation at Dunkirk, Ray and other soldiers from the 1st Airborne Division got stranded. The men stole a staff car and three cans of petrol.

They drove through occupied territory, hiding during the day and travelling at night, hijacking a train they made their way to Cherbourg, got a Dutch fishing boat to Southampton. But how he ended up with a Grangewood umbrella is a closely guarded military secret...

Southern wins Grangewood Southern has secured over £7.5m in new contracts since it launched earlier this year. Speaking of the new wins Directors Matt and Stuart said: “We’re extremely pleased with the response from new and old contacts in the region. We’ve have been very fortunate to meet some great clients. Their support and trust in us as a new business has been superb.

Thank you to all. We are looking forward to delivering some outstanding projects in the near future.”

Wentworth completion

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20 Bourdon Street

Damien Hirst and painting – I Am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds

On the Wentworth Estate in the depths of rural Surrey the team has been busy completing Grangewood’s largest and highest value project to date. The £14m project took 20 months to complete.

Charu Gandhi, Director of Elicyon said: "We’ve developed a valued relationship with Grangewood. At Wentworth, Grangewood has continued to deliver a high quality, professional service and excellent product. This has resulted in Elicyon’s bespoke design details being executed, with a commitment to quality and a very happy client."

If you spot a Grangewood brolly on your travels be sure to let us know.

Lyndsey Ingram opened her new boutique art gallery this summer and we’re proud to be part of the project team, working alongside developer Stefan Turnbull. The new gallery on 20 Bourdon Street in Mayfair, is Lyndsey’s second gallery.

It deals exclusively with post-war and contemporary original prints, showcasing the work of Jonas Wood, Damien Hirst and other leading artists.

News in Brief

25 Years of Grangewood

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