Woolgar Hunter LAYOUT Magazine Volume 5

Woolgar hunter magazine | issue 5 | 2019

Woolgar hunter magazine | issue 5 | 2019

Edinburgh Park

Parabola’s new development

Ask the Engineer bothwell exchange Vibration in floor slabs

Replacing an icon

Welcome I suppose it is fair to say that the political scene is in turmoil and understandably so. Thankfully, the property market seems to keep going. The next year is a big one for most of us and here’s hoping that everyone can draw even further on their dwindling stash of resilience to hold their nerve to keep investing, designing and building despite the political noise in the background.

This past twelve months, in spite of everything, have been good to Woolgar Hunter and the market has been strong for most of our industry. Our recruitment continues and I have been impressed by the standard of graduates in the last few years; technically gifted but also with a great enthusiasm for engineering which is especially pleasing.

We have had a strong run of high profile commercial office projects, especially in Glasgow and indeed we highlight the changes at Bothwell Exchange on page 21. The residential sector in the form of PRS projects has been keeping us busy with projects for MODA and Get Living obtaining planning consent. In addition to these, we are delighted to be involved in a significant project which features both large office and residential elements at Edinburgh Park (see page 9).

Staying on the residential theme, we are delighted to welcome T. Lawrie Engineers into the Woolgar Hunter Group. They specialise in the volume residential sector and through their integration we intend to increase our presence in this growing market.

The project we feature on the cover of this issue is the new Clydebank Leisure Centre, this was a great project for our team to work on and included our first wave pool! Well done to the Client and the wider team, it really is an impressive facility.

Our telecom infrastructure team has been busy designing 4G sites across the major UK cities and also as part of the Government supported Rural Infill Project.

This, as the name suggests, aims to bring 4G to rural areas which have very small populations. Some of our geologists and engineers are about to embark on a survey trip to Isle of Out Skerries – go check a map, this is as remote as it gets!

The exciting news is that 5G is nearer than you think as our team leader Cameron Murray explains on page 11.

Finally, I would like to thank Jane McMonagle of Brodies LLP for penning a guest article for us on the peril of ‘unforeseen site conditions’ for clients - the answer, it seems, is to thoroughly investigate your site to minimise the risk, and for that you’ll need a good engineer!

William Neilson Managing Director

Interior detail of Malmaison Hotel, Dundee Engineered by Woolgar Hunter

Woolgar Hunter Engineering

Contents on the cover: The cover features the Clydebank Leisure Centre captured at dusk by the photographer. The new building is situated over a slipway on Queens Quay that many a fine Clydebuilt ship was launched from. In the background a Titan Crane can be seen, a lone survivor of an army of cranes which allowed the yard to function efficiently. The crane has recently been refurbished and the public can now access the top of it via a new lift – worth a visit (for information see http://www.titanclydebank.com)

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8

News

Edinburgh Park

12 Ask the Engineer

20 LIVE PLAY LEARN WORK CARE COMMUNICATE

6

14

11 New Bits on the Block

18

Clydebank Leisure Centre

Our Teams: Civil Engineering

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25

Unforseen Albany Hotel site conditions

Business Travel

26

29

28

Welcoming Engineering What’s on Club at Woolgar New Hunter?

Partners

credits

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Cover: Clydebank Leisure Centre ©infinite 3D - Inside cover: Malmaison Hotel, Dundee ©Samuel F. - P.4: 1 West Regent Street, Morgan Stanley’s Headquarters under construction, Woolgar Hunter Director Malcolm Buchanan , Kelvinhall refurbishments, 177 Bothwell Street under construction, 1 West Regent Street under construction, Telecom engineers on site, Fusion Appartments All images ©Samuel F. - P.5: Morgan Stanley’s Headquarters ©Samuel F. - P.6, P7: Play: Moda Living - Play: University of Stirling Wellbeing - Work: Buchanan Warf - Care: The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice - Learn: Roslin Primary School - Communicate: Telecom Antenna ©Samuel F. - P8: Edinburgh Park render ©Parabolla - P.10, 11 & 13: Illustrations ©Samuel F. P.14: Clydebank Leisure Centre ©Samuel F. - P.15: Kenneth Irvine ©Samuel F. - Clydebank Leisure Centre frame ©Kenneth Irvine - P.16: Gareth McKnight ©Kenneth Fitzgerald Architects, The RMS Empress of Britain, Clydebank Leisure centre render, illustration & Photo ©Woolgar Hunter - P.19: David Campbell ©Samuel F. - P.20: Engineers on site on Morgan Stanley’s headquarters ©Samuel F. - P.23: Morgan Stanley’s Headquarters ©Samuel F. - P.24: Motel One: Samuel F. - P.28: Engineering Club photos & SPT tunnels visit ©Woolgar Hunter & ©Samuel F. Contents | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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news

LIVE PLAY LEARN WORK CARE COMMUNICATE We are involved in designing places for people to LIVE ; sports & leisure facilities for them to PLAY ; schools and universities for them to LEARN ; offices and factories for them to WORK and hospitals to provide CARE when sick. We also design telecom infrastructure to help us to COMMUNICATE with each other.

We take this opportunity to update you on a selection of our recent commissions. If you would like further information on any of the listed projects or find out what else we are doing in a particular sector, please contact our marketing co-ordinator, Pamela Dool at pdool@woolgarhunter.com

LIVE We are working on a number of PRS projects. In Glasgow, the MODA project in the heart of the City is underway with the demolition of the old Police HQ. We are also working with Get Living on their project to build a new PRS development on the site of an old goods yards, and at Buchanan Wharf, we are designing the L&G twin tower scheme with Drum Property Group. In Edinburgh, we are involved in the exciting Western Harbour project which aims to provide circa 2,000 mid-market homes, and the impressive Edinburgh Park development which provides an array of residential properties. We are also working on residential projects in Halifax and Salford from our Manchester office.

Student accommodation is still strong, and we are working on a large new project for the University of St Andrews. In the private sector we are on site with a student accommodation project in Dunblane Street, Glasgow.

PLAY

‘And they’re off!!’..... Morrison Construction has now demolished the existing buildings and cleared the site of what will become the new ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of Stirling University’s Centre of Sporting Excellence .

We are working on this development with Faulkner Brown architects; their design involves the construction of a striking, double-height glass box which will serve as the central hub of the facility, tying the existing sports halls and swimming pool together, and providing new changing rooms, gym, studios, sports hall, indoor sprint track along with ancillary offices and break-out social spaces. The project involves careful interface with the existing buildings while the main feature is a reinforced concrete suspended ‘drum’ housing the fitness suite within a glazed steel framed ‘box’.

WORK Construction is underway on the new Barclays HQ on the banks of the Clyde, for Drum Property Group. In the centre of Glasgow we have three office blocks underway; the second office building on Bothwell Exchange for HFD Group and two buildings on Cadogan Street, one for M&G Investments and one for FORE Property. At Edinburgh Park the first office we have designed for Parabola with AHMM Architects is just about to start on site.

We are also busy in the industrial sector, with a new office building in a Chemical Plant in Runcorn and a new distillery in Arran. Our projects for Shurgard Self-Storage in London continue at a pace, as do out of town ’sheds and distribution facilities’ with a number just outside Manchester and Glasgow keeping us busy.

COMMUNICATE

Woolgar Hunter’s Telecom Infrastructure team has seen a massive surge in work instructions over the last few months as mobile network operators compete to have their 5G network up and running throughout the UK. In addition to having teams of surveyors and engineers in London each week, we also have teams travelling the length and breadth of the UK picking off sites in the other major cities, one of them being Glasgow where we have completed surveys and designs on over forty 5G sites in the city centre. These are rumoured to be going live for 5G later this year.

CARE The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice opened

Furthermore, we have also just recently completed the design stage of a project with one of our main ADC contractors, which sees the installation of new emergency services base station sites which will bring much needed coverage to rural parts of Scotland and North of England. More details on this project in future issues of Layout.

its doors recently to much acclaim. The building not only looks fantastic but provides a wonderful environment and great facilities for staff, patients and their families. The ‘allyear round’ gardens are a delight. It really was a privilege for Woolgar Hunter to be involved with this project.

LEARN Our ‘schools’ team is

busy in the east coast with several schools in and around Edinburgh including a fascinating project in Winchburgh for two High Schools and two Primary Schools, as well as a new High School in Craigmillar.

News | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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Edinburgh Park

site location

Parabola set to deliver the final piece of the jigsaw In what is set to be the largest development Edinburgh has seen in over a decade, Woolgar Hunter is engineering a major expansion of the Edinburgh Park Business Park, to the west of the City Centre. As it stands, the Park, which is home to a number of high profile businesses, was masterplanned by Richard Meier in the early 1990s. Despite the success of its early phases, however, the southern end of the Park has remained undeveloped for years, leaving the original vision incomplete.

Woolgar Hunter is now working with developers Parabola and a wider design team to deliver a new masterplan for the site. Architects Dixon Jones have developed the masterplan to complete the Park in a manner that respects the original vision, while also updating the provision to reflect Parabola’s new vision for the site.

The new development will create a new urban quarter that will not only become an exciting place to live and work, but also a cultural destination and creative campus for Edinburgh.

The project includes: •

Up to 1,000,000 sq ft of commercial space.

•

Up to 1,800 homes, including sale, rent and affordable.

•

A civic square at the site’s heart with adjacent landscaped parkland.

•

Recreational areas for tennis and football.

•

A medical facility and leisure suite for Pilates, Yoga and fitness.

•

Additional amenities, including a 200-seat conference facility, café, bar and restaurant.

•

The first new crossing to be built on the Edinburgh tram network since it opened in 2014.

Woolgar Hunter Director Malcolm Buchanan says ‘This is a wonderful opportunity for us as civil engineers. There aren’t many large sites like this, so near a city centre, where you can plan and implement an engineering strategy to model the site, taking cognisance of the requirements of the earthworks, roads and drainage systems, and embedding them in the Landscape proposals.

Working with Gross Max (Landscape Architects) on this aspect has been very rewarding, and it’s exciting that the works will be starting later this year.

‘The first phase will be office buildings, and my team has been working on these with London architects AHMM. Their design calls for a stripped back aesthetic, which allows us to expose and feature our concrete structure – what more could an engineer ask for?’

Edinburgh Park | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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geo-environmental structural

civil

New Bits on the Block For Baby Boomers and Millennials alike, being connected to the internet is now an essential part of modern life. But, as much as it’s useful, it can be exasperating – dropped signal and blackspots send stress levels rocketing. Well relax, all that may soon be a thing of the past… 5G is coming.

Cameron Murray runs Woolgar Hunter’s Telecom Infrastructure Team, which is currently involved in designing 5G test sites, so he’s well placed to tell us a little more about it.

Not only that, but clever electronic designers have thought up all kinds of interesting uses for it. From fridges that can tell you when they need defrosted, to a car that can pick you up after a few drinks and drop you home (safely and legally) with no one in the front seats, 4G has facilitated more hi-tech, or ‘smart’, living than ever before.

I suppose the obvious question is ‘what is 5G and why do we need it?’

With the 5G rollout set to begin later this year, we will see networks operating up to 100 times faster than they do at present. It will also have a much lower latency, meaning you’ll see very little delay when you do things on your phone or device, which is good news for all the clever new uses.

5G is the fifth generation of mobile network and is set to be much faster than the previous generations. Unlike 4G, it will open up whole new uses for mobile data.

Additionally, 5G will also have a significantly greater capacity, meaning networks will be able to cope with increased demand from IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

First generation mobile networks were introduced back in the 1980s and were simple voice only analogue networks.

The 1990s saw the launch of 2G phones with the capacity for text messaging. The big leap forward came at the turn of the 21st Century, when 3G arrived and brought with it picture messaging, mobile data and video calling. Unfortunately, however, some areas of the UK are still using it today.

As every schoolchild knows, when you call someone on your mobile your voice is converted by your phone into an electrical signal that is transmitted to the closest cell tower via radio waves. It then passes through a series of cell sites before it arrives at the recipient’s phone. The same process applies to other data like photos and videos.

Ten years later we saw the arrival of 4G with a dramatic

2.4

Kbps Kilobits per second

64 Kbps

2000 Kbps

100 000Kbps

2 Megabits per second

2G 1G

3G

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More than Gbps 1Gigabits per second

4G

5G

increase in network capacity and speeds which can accommodate internet, video streaming and gaming.

However, the success of 4G has also caused its problems: we now all want to use the internet at all times and on the move!

5G will use new, higher radio frequencies, which are less cluttered, and able to carry information much faster. The downside, however, is that the higher frequencies don’t carry information as far. This means that 5G will see a greater number of smaller MIMO (multiple input multiple output) antennas being installed to boost signal and capacity. This, of course, is great news for our Telecom Infrastructure Team, as the demand for new and upgraded sites has required us to grow the team dramatically in the last 12 months – and we’re still recruiting.

With operators racing to have their 5G network up and running in time for the switch, we have seen an increase in our work instructions over the last few months. Our surveyors, engineers and CAD technicians are constantly under pressure to meet tight operator deadlines to ensure that sites are upgraded as quickly as possible and with minimal downtime.

We’re just hoping to get finished before 6G arrives!

Cameron Murray Telecom Infrastructure Engineering Team Leader

Environmental monitoring & smart cities

Large scale events, Thousands of users (High capacity)

Improved residential connections.

Smart Energy

Transport & infrastructure

Vehicle communication transport infrastructure

Why 5G? 5G | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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on’t d I e r u s n e How can I lem with have a prob n my new long vibration i floor plate? span office Clients are becoming increasingly aware of the sensitivity of floor slabs with regard to vibration, particularly in commercial buildings, where footfall vibration is being reported as an issue in some older buildings. The guidance seems muddled, so Layout took the opportunity to Ask the Engineer for some help on this one.

Peter Hendry and Kenneth Irvine from our Glasgow office and Neil Currie from our Manchester office all have good experience of dealing with long span floors in commercial office buildings and between them they have set down guidelines for our designers, so it seems sensible that we asked them for their thoughts.

Peter says, ’This issue has raised its head in older stock mainly due to office fit-outs moving towards a ‘defurbished’ interior design, more minimalist, open plan floor spaces and paper free offices. This greatly reduces the superimposed dead load on the floors, however, the downside is that it removes damping to the structural members which can lead to vibration issues.

In new buildings the issue is compounded by the current trend for long span floors; many of our current designs are 18m or so clear spans. This is great for flexibility of office layout, but can give vibration issues if not considered carefully; as with older buildings it is further exacerbated by fit-outs adopting the ‘defurbished’ look - no ceilings, lighter desks, limited storage shelving etc.’

The point Peter raises is well made; the reduction in load on the floor is effectively reducing the natural damping one would expect in an office. Kenneth has been looking at this and notes that ‘the reduction in damping needs to be considered at the design stage or office workers may experience distractions like vibrating monitor screen as someone walks by their desk.

woolgar hunter

‘This in turn is exacerbated by the trend of increasingly thinner and lighter computer screens. Add this to the fact that footfall is really the source of vibration and one can see the importance of where the corridors are; a corridor or open walkway running along the centre of a floor can excite the floor more than one nearer a support.

‘The speed of a walker is also important – the faster the speed the more it is an issue. We usually assume an average of 100ppm (paces per minute), but, if the layout encourages long uninterrupted routes, the speed of the walker will naturally increase thereby increasing the floor excitation.’

Figure 1 illustrates the levels of damping to be allowed with various floor types. A figure of 4.5% would have been common in offices in the past, and in recent times 3.0% was used, but there is opinion that this may be non-conservative and a figure of 2.0% may be more appropriate.

The damping ratio (ξ), in typical steel framed buildings depends on type of the connections, degree of fit-out, furnishings, etc.

Typical values which are shown in the table .

Neil, who recently spoke at a seminar on this very subject at the University of Cambridge, says ‘the problem is that vibration, natural frequency, damping and the like are tricky concepts for people to get their head around, especially for the layman, or at least the guy who is trying to write a brief!

‘The industry uses a ‘Response Factor’ (R) to give a target for designers to achieve, unfortunately the Eurocode does not offer any advice with regard to the acceptable limits on floor vibration. It places that responsibility onto both the client and the structural engineer.

‘The BCO guide, which is viewed as the commercial office design bible, has given guidance but is unfortunately a little woolly and recommends that a Response Factor of less than 8 is achieved in line with SCI Design of Floors for Vibration (refer to Figure 2). However, it also accepts that allowing a floor plate to have a response factor as high as 8 may cause ‘significant’ issues with comfort and experience in office buildings and notes that many designers use a figure of 6.

12 | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 | Ask The Engineer

‘Guidance published in ‘The Structural Engineer’ suggests that the response factor for offices be halved from 8 to 4. This would be quite a change and commercially worrying and does not really reflect what we have seen and measured in our recent buildings.’

Peter notes that ‘Woolgar Hunter has carried out research into this and relying on our experience designing a number of long span floor plates which are operating successfully, would advise that the targeted number for the Response Factor should be more akin to 5.5 than 4. However, we would note that during the detailed design stage of a project, a detailed assessment of the floor plates needs to be undertaken looking specifically at optimising the floor depth and beam depth for both performance and commerciality.’

At Woolgar Hunter we have been utilising finite analysis software to review excitation on response positions, along with circulation routes on the office floor plan. This allows our designers to ‘tune’ the floor structure to acceptable levels of vibration and natural frequency.

Often engineers instinctively increase the beam stiffness to try to mitigate issues with vibration response. In our experience, this can often result in the steel floor beams being significantly heavier than the base design.

A more effective method is often to increase to the depth of the floor slab. A change from a 150mm to a 200mm composite floor slab may initially sound a lot of additional load but our studies have indicated this adds in the region of 5% extra steel to the overall tonnage but with only a marginal impact on foundations.

Utilising the finite element software and our extensive experience on various projects including hospitals and laboratories where vibration response is especially sensitive, Woolgar Hunter has been able to fine tune the structure and achieve efficient designs which do not affect building layout or budget.

Figure 1: Damping ratio (ξ)

Floor finishes

0.50%

For fully welded steel structures, e.g. staircases

1.10%

For completely bare floors or floors where only a small amount of furnishings are present

3.00%

For fully fitted out and furnished floors in normal use

4.50%

For a floor where the designer is confident that partitions will be appropriately located to interrupt the relevant mode(s) of vibration, i.e. the partition lines are perpendicular to the main vibrating elements of the critical mode shape

Figure 2:

Response factors used in HTM 08-01 to specify satisfactory magnitudes of vibration in hospitals: Response factor for continuous vibration

Space Operating theatre, precision laboratory, audiometric testing booth

1

Wards

2

General laboratories, Treatment areas

4

Offices, Consulting Rooms

8

In summary, each case should be assessed individually, but the BCO guidance is not really applicable to a modern long span floor, especially if a stripped back or defurbished look is desired, but neither is simply halving it. Ideally, clients should speak to an engineer with a track record in office design and involve them as early as possible in the design process, enabling them to develop an appropriate, efficient structure to match the architect’s vision and the Client’s budget.

An image from a Woolgar Hunter analysis model to assess an office floor plate.

Ask The Engineer | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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Located at Queens Quay in Clydebank, the site of the former John Brown’s Shipyard, a new leisure centre sits proudly among the ghosts of the Clyde’s shipbuilding heyday.

The area has been through a lot. From enduring the worst of the Blitz to feeling the strain of both the post-war decline in shipbuilding, and subsequent economic difficulties, Clydebank has not had an easy history.

However, it seems that the area’s fortunes are changing. West Dunbartonshire Council and hub Scotland West are working together with private investors to transform the area. This change can be seen in many ways, but perhaps most visible is that the famous Titan Crane, a powerful symbol of the industrial past, has been

14 | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 | Clydebank Leisure Centre

refurbished by Clydebank Rebuilt and stands as a beacon to the area’s heritage. Nestling close to the famous crane is the impressive new sports and leisure facility designed by Irish architects Kennedy Fitzgerald. The building, which takes inspiration from its shipyard surroundings, proudly occupies a central role in the regeneration of the area.

Kenneth Irvine, lead engineer on the project revisits the building a year on from completion to bring us up to speed on this exciting facility engineered by Woolgar Hunter.

Kenneth Irvine, Project Director for Woolgar Hunter From the outset it was clear that this would be no ordinary leisure centre project. Kennedy Fitzgerald came up with a design concept wherein the overall shape of the building would resemble the bow of a ship and a portion of the building would be cantilevered to respect an old slipway.

presented problems. The high water flood level was circa 300mm below the ground floor level, however, due to the requirement for ground floor swimming pools and undercroft plant area, some 5m deep basement was constructed. The basement slab and retaining walls are subject to a significant hydrostatic uplift pressure which in turn meant the basement slab and piling system had to be designed to resist tension forces.

The concrete basement structure was formed in waterproof concrete.

We faced several engineering challenges on this design. The relatively complex architectural concept required a number of long span double Clydebank Leisure Centre cantilever trusses in order to generate the form of the building. was a very complex design On top of that, we faced working with significant challenges on a triangular site with difficult below ground. The Engineers ground conditions and had to provided an excellent service grapple with a complex pool area arrangement that includes with solutions for the many a wave pool, above which eight challenges including dewatering badminton courts sit.

Working with the larger triangular site, the architects developed a triangular plan shaped building, which over-sailed a historic shipyard slipway The planning conditions stipulated that no columns or foundations could be constructed in the zone of the slipway. The solution was to the site due to its proximity The structural challenge was to work put the sports hall on the second to the river. in harmony with the architecture floor over the pool hall. This was and building services of the project achieved by using four double Angeline Robertson, hub West Scotland to realise the desired aesthetic. storey steel trusses spanning However, on seeing the finished approximately 40 metres, allowing article, it was clear the challenges were worth the effort. the building structure to cantilever 7.0 metres over the slipway preventing impact on the historic feature.

The new facilities are fantastic and include a 25m, 6-lane swimming pool together with a leisure pool with This irregular building shape and requirement for large wave machine and interactive i-slide. In addition, there ‘column-free’ areas resulted in a highly complex steel frame is a teaching pool, kids pool and water features, above which would normally be a major detailing and drafting that, a sports hall with retractable seating that includes challenge. To deal with this, we modelled the structure badminton and 5-a-side courts. in 3D using Revit software as part of the BIM process, allowing early visualisation of the complex structure.

Creating this unique and bespoke building on the banks of the Clyde generated a number of challenges for The Structural, Architectural and Mechanical & Electrical the construction. Resisting tidal hydrostatic pressure models were then integrated into a federated design to the basement slab; a complex series of propping model by the main contractor BAM Construction. requirements to construct the frame; and excavation This worked really well and helped keep everyone for a significant basement close to the quay wall all sane – or just about!

Clydebank Leisure Centre | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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Gareth McKnight, Associate at Kenneth Fitzgerald Architects Having heard from Kenneth about the experience of working on this project as an engineer, Layout was interested in hearing about the project from an architectural standpoint, particularly given that this is a building with such a striking architectural design. Gareth McKnight is an associate at Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects. His portfolio includes a wealth of experience on Sports and Leisure developments which he brought to this project. Layout asked Gareth about how he found working on the Clydebank Centre, it’s unique challenges, and it’s tribute to the area’s history.

The chosen site on the banks of the River Clyde occupies a triangular section within the historic John Brown shipyard masterplan. The client’s vision was to provide the community with a building that links backs to the site’s historical past via its location and architectural form, whilst still providing exemplar sports facilities. The innovative design over six floors comprised of a pool hall, café, interactive area, eight court sports hall, fitness suite, various fitness studios and ancillary accommodation.

RMS Em press of Britain u nder co nstructi on - 193 1

16 | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 | Clydebank Leisure Centre

A significant initial design challenge was that the eight court sports hall, the largest element of the brief, could not be accommodated within the footprint of the site.

This channelled us to question the low, horizontal building typology traditionally employed for the design of sports centres and to explore instead a stacked approach to the site. The design concept was therefore borne as a pragmatic approach to the tightly bound triangular site, resulting in a unique sculptural form of two clearly defined yet interlocking elements, each with its own distinctive material.

This approach also yielded benefits for the design, resulting in compact and legible circulation, dynamic internal spaces and rooms at high level which take full benefit of the panoramic views over the River Clyde.

It also gives the building a form and scale which references its maritime past, symbolic of its site and environs.

The sheer size of the pool and the sports halls dictated that these volumes be located on separate floors. The ground floor therefore accommodates the pool hall and changing village , together with the entrance foyer, cafĂŠ and staff accommodation. Elevating the sports hall to second floor above the double height volume of the pool required this level to cantilever over the slipway, creating the dynamic and visually striking form of the building. Functionally, this also allowed for wet facilities to be contained at ground floor, dry facilities to be accommodated on the second and third floors and general sports slotted between. This split of functions also provides for a compact, clear and legible vertical rational rising through the six storey building.

stacked and cantilevering to form the shape of the building. This drastically reduced the number of column locations; instead the loads are transferred down the building via a series of trusses. This allowed the architectural design to be quite free internally with a reduced number of fixed elements. With the use of BIM on this project, we were able to co-ordinate the structure, services and architecture to a very high level of accuracy. This was invaluable on a site with such a complex geometry, Woolgar Hunter played an invaluable role within this offering innovative solutions to any issue found.

The envelope reinforces the two simple elemental forms, enhancing the sculptural nature of the building, whilst referencing the site’s industrial past. The black glazed brick to the base affords a visual richness, accentuating the colours of the sky, surrounding buildings and landscape, whilst providing a durable finish. The anodized aluminium cladding provides a unique quality to the upper levels of the building, continually changing, dependent on the weather and time of day.

The design set a very complex structural engineering challenge, with large clear span spaces

Clydebank Leisure Centre | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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our teams In previous editions of LAYOUT , we have highlighted one of the four divisions within Woolgar Hunter, Building Structures, Civil Engineering, Geo-environmental Engineering and Telecom Infrastructure Design. In this issue we turn the spotlight on our Civil Engineering colleagues.

Our Civils Team consists of two elements: the Infrastructure and Development team, run by David Campbell, and the Building Civils Team, led by Andy Ross. layout asked David a little about how the civils team work: ‘Our team’s role is to provide the earthworks, roads and drainage elements of any project, working alongside our Structural colleagues – or, actually in front of them! We need to get in early, especially on large projects to set an engineering strategy that efficiently and sustainably manages the development proposals, in this the infrastructure is key. Working closely with Patricia Bryson and the Geo-environmental Team, we can efficiently masterplan the engineering works to create platformed sites which allow the structures team to expand on the engineering strategy, embracing sub- and superstructures.

‘The aim is to develop a single strategy which addresses the engineering issues with the site. This allows us to efficiently deal with any contamination or levels issues and sustainably tackle site drainage as part of a wider landscape design. It also ensures we provide safe access to and through the site

catering for all users, including public transport, and recognises ever increasing issues with parking. Oh, yes, and did I mention creates platforms for the structures guys too.’

That all makes sense. But if that’s infrastructure and Development, then what is Building Civils?

David explains ‘Through our work we realised that some building projects have a larger civils content, continuing beyond the placemaking involvement, where we create platforms or pods.

In projects like large schools, sports facilities with playing fields and NHS campuses, the civil engineering element is high. We find it makes sense for these projects to be run by someone with a real grounding in civils. Andy Ross and his team design the structure for these buildings from their position in the civils team, allowing us to streamline the design for the project as a whole, and cater to its additional civils needs. Thus, they’re known as our Building Civils Team – well, you can’t expect us to design buildings and name things creatively!’

Both elements of the Civils Team are certainly busy. A number of high profile projects in the Glasgow office have a large civils element such as the Public Realm works for the new Barclays HQ and the greater site at Buchanan Wharf, and Edinburgh Park (featured on page 8/9). The team is also kept busy from the Manchester office, working on large projects at a chemical plant in Runcorn and residential developments in Halifax.

David Campbell joined Woolgar Hunter from a Multi-National engineering consultancy and has over 28 years experience in the planning, design and management of civil infrastructure projects across a wide variety of sectors ranging from Major/Minor Highways, Rail, Healthcare, Education, Custodial, Commercial/ Retail, Energy and Residential. David has been fortunate to have played a part in the delivery of some truely iconic projects including Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

David prides himself in adding value through his drive to achieve team and client satisfaction via the successful delivery of high quality well engineered projects. He takes a great interest in delivering projects within the Built Environment through successful placemaking and the promotion of green-blue infrastructure

Our Teams | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

19

unforseen

site conditions Patricia Bryson, who heads up our geo-environmental engineering team, is fond of saying ‘one of the certainties of a construction project is that once you are in the ground the uncertainty increases!’. To be fair, Patricia is usually using this as part of her argument to be allowed to investigate sites thoroughly, but she has a point, the phrase ‘unforeseen conditions’ can strike fear into contractors and developers alike!

LAYOUT

decided to seek a legal view on this issue and spoke to Jane McMonagle, a Partner at Brodies LLP and asked for her thoughts on an issue faced by many contemporary construction projects. Jane is a transactional lawyer who provides advice on all types of construction and engineering projects. She has extensive experience of advising clients in the public and private sectors, having acted for employers, consultants, contractors and funders; and has worked with Woolgar Hunter on a number of our most high profile projects.

She kindly shared her thoughts on the issue with us.

In recent years, we at Brodies have seen a significant increase in negotiations surrounding the risk of existing and unforeseen site conditions in construction contracts. Typically, a Developer will attempt to lay such risk at a Contractor’s door, at least in the first instance, and will often come under pressure from risk-averse Funders to do so.

If unforeseen site conditions are encountered on a project, the consequences can be very financially significant. Depending on the conditions encountered, the proposals may require to be re-worked or an entirely different suite of tools and machinery required, resulting in the project schedule and budget being stretched. The reality is there are now many leading Contractors who appear to have adopted a blanket approach in rejecting this risk.

The general common law principle is that the Contractor will bear the risk of any unexpectedly adverse site conditions where there are no provisions to the contrary. A Contractor is deemed to be the expert,

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determining the “buildability” of a project and there is no implied warranty or undertaking which it can rely upon from the Developer as to the state of the site or the feasibility of the design. An important consideration is the need to ensure any appended technical or supplementary documents to the contract mirror the desired approach in terms of risk transfer.

There are, however, a few practical steps which can be taken to assist parties in reaching a position on site condition risk, which may make acceptance for the Developer or Contractor more palatable.

Firstly, an Environmental/Engineering Consultant might be engaged at an early stage by a Developer to carry out investigations and prepare a report on the site conditions.

They can be required to provide a Reliance Letter relative to such report to the Contractor and/or a Funder (who will likely insist upon one). This provides parties with a clear indication as to the condition of the site from an early stage, and can assist the Contractor when it comes to pricing and programming.

Additionally, if a Contractor agrees to carry the risk, it should be given ample time and opportunity to inspect the site and satisfy itself as to the condition. Adequate access should allow the Contractor to carry out its own investigations, and the Developer should share all site information in its possession (albeit the Contract will likely state that the Contractor has been provided with such detail for information only, with no entitlement to rely upon anything shared).

In conclusion, Site Risk continues to be a hot topic in construction contract negotiations. In order to avoid any stalemate, parties should obtain as much information as possible at an early stage in order to make a clear commercial assessment of the potential consequences of acceptance of such risk.

Jane is a Law Society Accredited Specialist in Construction Law and is dual qualified in Scotland and England & Wales Contact details: Jane McMonagle (Brodies LLP) jane.mcmonagle@brodies.com

Albany Hotel

Woolgar Hunter is working on the redevelopment of the site of the old Albany Hotel in the centre of Glasgow to create an exciting new two-building commercial development called Bothwell Exchange. An icon of Post-War Glasgow, the Albany has a special place in many people’s memories of the City.

Featured in the postcard above, the hotel was for a while one of Glasgow’s main landmarks. While the building was of no great architectural significance, the fact it was advertised alongside the University and the Cathedral shows its importance to the city at the time. After all, when you’ve got your own postcard, you know you’re really iconic.

Albany Hotel | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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how do you replace an icon?

It’s not an easy one, but that was the question facing HFD Group, the developers of Bothwell Exchange in the heart of Glasgow. The site fronts onto Bothwell Street, which is fast becoming known as Glasgow’s ‘Commercial High Street’.

Considering its position in the city, it’s easy to see why.

Bothwell Street is the first street you meet when you enter the city from the M8, which places the gateway to the city in the centre of its commercial district. The street is lined with commercial office buildings, including the former Britoil HQ. But it wasn’t only the site’s location that the developers had to consider, they also had to deal with replacing a Glasgow icon – the Albany Hotel. Although not particularly notable architecturally, the role the hotel had played in the city’s recent history had given it a real place in the hearts of the people of Glasgow.

Rather than replicating the hotel, the developers decided to bolster the city’s commercial property offering by providing two new large ‘Grade A’ commercial office buildings to meet urgent demand for quality space in Glasgow. The first of the buildings is now complete and occupied by Morgan Stanley. Construction on the second building – some 300,000sqft of space – commenced recently, and the piling works are underway.

Here we take a nostalgic look back at the Albany Hotel, whose former site is now occupied by two new buildings, both engineered by Woolgar Hunter.

The Albany provided 1970s Glamour to Glaswegians.

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In its time, the site of Bothwell Exchange has played host to several different buildings. Although located in the heart of what is now Glasgow’s commercial district, the plot once held a mechanic’s garage, servicing the cars of the city’s pre-war population – a much smaller market than today. It went on to house a car showroom before being acquired for development as a hotel at the end of the 1960s.

Built between 1970 and 1973, The Albany Hotel was designed by Birmingham architect James A. Roberts. It was one of a number of landmark buildings he designed in cities across Scotland and the North of England in the late-Sixties, most significantly the distinctive Birmingham Rotunda. At the time of its construction, The Albany was only the second major hotel to be built in Glasgow since the end of the Second World War. For many years, The Albany was at the forefront of Glasgow’s hotel market. Considered one of the most modern hotels in Europe at the time of its opening, it boasted the hi-tech honour of being the only hotel in Scotland to have a colour television in every room – 250 of them. It’s lavish interiors, two bars and two restaurants soon made the hotel a popular location in the city centre.

In addition to providing accommodation, the hotel also featured a 700-person capacity conference centre and housed the St Andrew’s Sporting Club. The Sporting Club was the venue for major boxing matches, like Scottish World Champion boxer Ken Buchanan fighting future world champion Jim Watt.

Countless British titles were won there and in the late-Seventies it became known as the home of Scottish Boxing.

The 1980s saw a major upturn in Glasgow’s fortunes.

Inspired by the success of the ‘I love New York’ campaign advertising NYC, Lord Provost Michael Kelly launched the ‘Glasgow’s Miles Better’ campaign.

Advertising the city as a modern, cosmopolitan one, the campaign emphasised Glasgow’s

cultural heritage and made use of extensive PR opportunities to gain international coverage – even the Queen was photographed under a branded umbrella.

The Albany played a key role in this new promotion, held up as evidence of the quality of Glasgow’s facilities and its capacity to accommodate new visitors to the revitalised city. The campaign proved an enormous success and in the next chapter of its life, the Albany welcomed guests coming to visit the SECC (opened in 1985); people attending the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988; and performers and audience members alike when Glasgow served as European City of Culture in 1990. Glasgow was experiencing a cultural renaissance and The Albany Hotel was a major player.

Over time the hotel began to face competition, both from the arrival of the Hilton and the Marriot that shared it’s Anderston location, and from the rapid growth of the Glasgow hotel market more generally. The hotel changed hands several times before becoming a Holiday Inn and eventually closing its doors for good in 2007.

The Albany has been replaced by a new generation of hotel, and there is no shortage of them in Glasgow, with Woolgar Hunter fortunate enough to have engineered three that opened recently – the Ibis, Motel One and the Radisson Red. However, with HFD Group’s development of Bothwell Exchange, the site of the old hotel, such an important part of Glasgow’s past, can take its place as an important part of Glasgow’s future.

Motel One, Glasgow Engineered by Woolgar Hunter

business travel

As Woolgar Hunter continues to grow, travel is increasingly a part of the job, both for management, and engineers. Whether attending the BCO conference or MIPIM, viewing a reference project, meeting a client or liaising with our recently opened Manchester office, our teams are often on the move. Through trial and error, we’ve put together a list of the Dos and Don’ts of business travel.

The first question is whether the journey is long or short haul and whether your budget stretches to that reassuring left turn as you board the plane!

It may seem an extravagance, but if your staff are travelling a distance and they’ve been stuck in cramped quarters over a long flight, they’ll likely not be at their best when they arrive, which is not best for you. At Woogar Hunter we follow the general four-hour rule: staff fly premium if the flight is four hours or longer. So best avoid Bucharest – an agonising 3 hours and 30 mn from London.

When flying, it’s also helpful to organise airport parking in advance which can be done easily online. This keeps costs down, but it also streamlines the airport process significantly, especially if you’re travelling at a peak time.

On the ground, an option that is proving popular with our staff travelling domestically is the Caledonia Sleeper. The overnight train allows the team to leave Glasgow at a reasonable hour and arrive in London well rested and in time for early morning meetings. Anything that cuts out queuing for airport security at 5 am must be a good thing.

Keep your receipts, nothing spoils a trip more than coming home to realise you’ve done it all on your own dime.

When choosing accommodation, a centrally located hotel is important to save time wasted in taxis or on trams, especially in cities where you’re fined if you fall foul of the ‘pay before you board’ rule. More and more people like brands like Motel One where they know what they’re getting: simple and clean rooms with access to a decent bar and lounge area. But beware, they rarely provide an iron, so a travel iron is a useful addition to your case – realising your shirt or blouse is horribly creased moments before your meeting is certainly not a confidence booster.

Obviously, chargers, adaptors, power bars and the like are important for any modern business traveller, but thankfully coffee shops provide wi-fi and charging points pretty much as standard now, so they can be a handy place to take refuge in between meetings.

Luggage, and what you put in it, is a big tester, and usually separates the seasoned traveller from the newbie. Where possible, sticking to cabin baggage allows you to avoid baggage reclaim which can be time consuming and stressful, and eliminates the risk of losing your luggage. There has been a move recently towards wheeled rucksack bags, the type that can be shouldered and carried easily when required but can be wheeled through long airport queues to spare you some back pain.

Simple mix and match outfits are ideal, ones which allow you to ‘front up’ meetings, but for evening drinks that are still ‘business casual’ – shudder, that horrible phrase. Remember, footwear that matches your meeting garb but that is comfortable enough to track through airports/train stations is important. Usually the rule is ‘pack light, move fast.’

Finally, and most importantly, remember to keep your receipts. Nothing spoils a trip more than coming home to realise you’ve done it all on your own dime!

Business Travel | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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welcoming new partners T. Lawrie Engineers join the Woolgar Hunter Group

Woolgar Hunter is delighted to announce that they recently welcomed T. Lawrie Engineers, an engineering firm that specialise in residential design, into the Woolgar Hunter Group.

Founded in 1992, T Lawrie Engineers have an enviable reputation in their specialist field, providing engineering advice to the residential sector.

Their experience in providing civil and structural designs for large volume traditional low-rise housing developments, flatted developments and student accommodation projects fits perfectly with the wider engineering experience of the Woolgar Hunter team.

To learn more about both this exciting move and our new colleagues, Layout sat down with Tom Lawrie, the founding partner of T Lawrie Engineers to get his thoughts.

LAYOUT: This is obviously a busy time for you Tom, and certainly an exciting one for everyone at Woolgar Hunter, so thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I suppose the first question might be how did this deal come about and why?

Tom: Let me take your second point first – the ‘Why’. The residential market is buoyant; read any Sunday newspaper and you quickly get a feel for the demand for housing right across the sector, whether that’s privately funded low rise housing or apartments for rent or sale. The public sector is also very busy with large urban projects providing much needed homes for people. We have great experience in this sector but to take advantage of the market we needed to grow. I was of the opinion that the best way for us to do that was to join someone with similar values and complimentary strengths. Woolgar Hunter are known as excellent engineers with a busy practice, and their experience in the residential sector is in the larger scale PRS market, making it a perfect fit.

26 | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 | New Partners: T.Lawrie

LAYOUT: And what about the ’How’?

Tom: I worked with Billy (Woolgar Hunter MD) when we were graduates and we stayed in touch as our careers developed. I reached out to Billy when I was looking to expand our outfit and here we are!

LAYOUT: In practical terms, what will the deal mean for T Lawrie Engineers?

Tom: Well, we’re actually tweaking our branding a little. Previously we were T. Lawrie & Partners, but this change to T. Lawrie Engineers reflects this move to working as part of a larger community of engineers. The primary change this will bring will be the access to far greater resources. Our structural engineering capacity has greatly increased, and we now have the opportunity to work with Woolgar Hunter’s in-house Geotechnical team.

Additionally, David Campbell (who leads the Woolgar Hunter Infrastructure and Development team) has good

experience in the residential market, so being able to pool our knowledge will be a real benefit to all of us.

As well as engineering support, however, our staff will benefit from the culture of training and support at Woolgar Hunter more generally.

In particular, the work done with the Engineering Club looks like something really exciting to be a part of. Ian (Ian McIntosh, TLE Technical Director) and I are looking forward to the opportunity to develop our business with the help of the marketing team, and to explore the market in the North of England by working with the Manchester Office. All in all, they’re exciting times!

Exciting times indeed, and everyone at Woolgar Hunter looks forward to seeing what this new partnership brings. A big thanks to Tom for taking the time to speak to us. If you would like any further information on the residential experience or capabilities of the Woolgar Hunter Group, please contact Pamela Dool at pdool@woolgarhunter.com

Image above: Typical example of T Lawrie engineering project.

Greenfield site engineered into residential project in southside of Glasgow.

New Partners: T.Lawrie | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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the engineering club

At Woolgar Hunter we understand the importance of engaging with engineering in a way that goes beyond just our day to day work, we do this through our Engineering club. Our MD says of the club, ‘it is an opportunity to allow us to celebrate engineering, architecture, art, in fact anything that takes our fancy’ – so it’s a pretty open brief!

Through a variety of programmes and events, the Club lets us socialise within the industry and discuss our role as engineers in a wider context. It also serves as our vehicle for looking for new talent, working with schools and universities to foster the next generation of engineers. This year we have been fortunate to have had a varied calendar of events including both visits and in house presentations. At the start of the year we enjoyed a behind the scenes guided tour of Glasgow Central Station which included access to the below ground vaults and an abandoned Victorian Station. We learned about not only the engineering challenges

28 | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 | The Engineering Club

involved in constructing and maintaining the station, but also its place in the social history of Glasgow.

In spring, we hosted our first ‘Woolgar Whisky’ night and welcomed our friends from ThreeSixty Architecture who presented their Port of Leith Distillery Project which is set to become the first vertical distillery in the UK. In summer, Stephen Good from the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) talked to us about the work they are doing to promote innovation within the UK construction industry. This included showcasing the innovation factory in Hamilton, which we got to see for ourselves. At the end of summer, we were treated to an out of hours tour of the Glasgow Subway. We walked the stretch of tunnel from Govan to Partick underneath the River Clyde, taking in a section of tunnel which had been replaced after being destroyed in WWII, and the ‘lost’ Merkland Street Station.

Our thanks to Greg Charnley and SPT for facilitating the tour.

Our final event of the year saw four guest speakers tell us about how studying the multi-disciplinary degree Building Design Engineering had influenced their careers as architects.

This proved a fun and interesting night as we ran a Pecha-Kucha style presentation, with each architect having only 5 minutes to present.

It’s been a great year of events for our Engineering Club and we look forward to similar events in the future.

Securing talented engineers and technicians is a major goal for us, and one of the main ways we do this is by partnering with universities to mentor and work with talented students. The Engineering Club lets us introduce ourselves and our philosophy to undergraduates. This year, we are delighted to have recruited four excellent graduates, three in Glasgow and one in Manchester.

Additionally, we are committed to fostering the next generation of engineering talent, and work closely with schools to provide work experience placements to pupils who are interested in engineering as a career.

For this issue, LAYOUT chose to spotlight the work Woolgar Hunter does with Schools by following one prospective engineer - Ryan Glennie during his week as a work experience student.

Our goal with work experience placements is to allow them to get a glimpse of what we do by introducing them (gently) to our civil, structural and geoenvironmental engineering teams.

We do this by setting them a project that involves all the disciplines, allowing them to engage with each of the departments and develop their design sense as they go. In Ryan’s case our engineers devised a brief for him which was to design a house for his favourite footballer whom his local club had just bought – Messi to Glasgow, could happen?

Once he had his initial thoughts in place for Messi’s palatial living quarters, Ryan worked with Paula, a recent Graduate Engineer, in our Structures team. Paula ran through the design process with him to establish a support structure that works with the architectural layout, and discussed potential building materials for his design. He then

joined Emma, one of our Structural Technicians, and she explained how she would take architect’s layouts, along with some mark-ups from Paula, and develop structural drawings. A whistle-stop tour of Revit drafting software gave him the tools to start thinking about drawings for his own design.

Later he spent some time with Michael in the Civils Team, learning about taking a building layout and landscape plan and developing site levels and drainage plans. Then, with his superstructure starting to take shape, he spent some time with our geoenvironmental team who explained what site investigations are and how

we use them – building Messi’s house on peat will get your name in the press for the wrong reasons. Like everyone else Ryan met throughout the week, the geo-environmental team insisted that theirs was the most important part of the process!

Finally, the really fun part, Ryan met Senior Technician Matt, who drives our 3D software to allow VR images to be created. Using QR codes these images can be viewed in 3D on your smartphone – both a useful engineering tool and a bit of fun in the design process. Matt helped Ryan convert his work into a QR code so that he can have a record of his time with us - if you follow the QR code here you can see what Ryan produced.

Over his week at Woolgar Hunter, Ryan was able to get an insight into the work that each department does and, perhaps more importantly, how they cooperate to allow us to provide comprehensive engineering solutions!

Ryan Glennie is a fourth year Student at Lourdes Secondary School. As layout goes to press, Messi is still at FC Barcelona (the deal fell through as allegedly Pollok Juniors would not guarantee him a starting place every week).

Scan the QR code above with a QR code scanner on your phone to access Ryan’s work

The Engineering Club | layout Woolgar Hunter Magazine | 2019 |

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What’s on at Woolgar Hunter?

Layout

knows the best way to keep up to date with what is going on in an organisation is to have a coffee with one of its key players. In previous issues we have chatted to one of the Technical Directors and a Marketing Assistant. For this issue we have followed the money and asked Financial Director Moyra Skimming ‘what’s going on at Woolgar Hunter?’

As it turns out, Moyra’s tipple of choice is tea, and we hastily swap the cups as she gives us the dreaded ‘FD Stare’. Moyra launches in, ‘Well there’s a myth I can dispel for a start, there is no ‘FD Stare’. We’re a team here and, like in all good teams, everyone has their role to play. My role happens to be dealing with the money which can get an undeserved reputation. I have been here for a good while now and I understand the issues our team leaders face when dealing with clients and managing projects. I listen when they tell me costs and incomes don’t always align… at that point it’s more of an ‘FD Look’, never a Stare!

‘In all seriousness though, it is a dialogue between my team and our engineering colleagues, we monitor projects and speak to clients regularly – our mission is to avoid surprises.’

We ask Moyra how she sees the market and what changes have happened since she took up her role. She smiles, ‘I was told a long time ago that ‘Cash is King’ in this business, and that’s still largely true today. Pre-recession, we were involved in a lot of projects that required some early speculative input, but over the years that has changed, and it’s now the exception rather than the rule. Probably the most important issue for my fellow Directors and I is to maintain a balance of work, indeed this is a mantra of Billy’s (our MD). We seek to create a balance between Public and Private sector procured projects, and not to become too reliant on any one workflow, whether that be design of offices, hotels, healthcare, whatever. That’s where I can help, seeing the overall picture, what we have and what’s in the pipeline.’

Time for a refill and Moyra, warming to the topic, resumes: ‘What’s interesting for me is to see the trends in the commissions we get. Commercial offices have been our mainstay for a number of years and are thankfully still going strong, our recent Barclays commission is a good example of that. We had a strong run of student accommodation projects for a while and the last few years have been good for hotel commissions.’

And what about your public sector commissions? ‘Well the public sector presents challenges as different local authorities use different frameworks and first and foremost we need to make sure that we’re on them! Having a dedicated marketing team allows us to stay up to speed with this. What I find interesting is to see how different authorities and clients fund their projects differently. Whether a council, a healthcare trust or a Scottish Hub, all have slightly different rules and payment milestones.’

It sounds like a challenge for you and your team, but surely the guidelines are pretty clear? Moyra laughs, ‘Sometimes about as clear as mud! I’m being unfair, but sometimes a little confusing at first reading. But we always get our head round them eventually!’

We know we shouldn’t but we can’t help but ask, do you have a favourite client?

A long sip of tea this time. ‘In my role, I value repeat commissions. We get to understand the needs of the client and their ways of working. This might sound simplistic, but it’s exasperating to miss payments over simple admin issues.’

A diplomatic answer, certainly, but not the one we were looking for. We think of pressing again, settling into this Andrew Marr style interview business, but there’s that ‘FD Look’ – or maybe it is a Stare this time. Either way, we back off.

LAYOUT magazine is a Woolgar Hunter publication.

Concept, Design, Art Direction, uncredited photographs and Illustrations

by Samuel F. - Editor: Ashley Neilson. Copyright © Woolgar Hunter 2019 All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without Woolgar Hunter’s express consent. contact: info@woolgarhunter.com - woolgarhunter.com - +44 (0) 141 332 0471

Engineering Since

Originally formed in 1971 the company now has established UK offices in Glasgow, Manchester and London.

We are an independently owned company, commercially aware and design focused. Our core business is the provision of engineering solutions for civil and structural projects, particularly in the commercial office, residential, retail, industrial, leisure, healthcare and education sectors.

Our ethos is to work closely with the client, architect, extended design team and the contractor in a collaborative manner to deliver the most appropriate economic design solution.

In future editions of Layout we will provide information on our portfolio of work and ‘Spotlight’ trends and topical issues, as well as having guest articles from our friends and colleagues in the industry. If you would like to contribute; or for further information or feedback on any of the projects mentioned in this edition please contact us at layout@woolgarhunter.com

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