A Yorkshireman questions why procurement can鈥檛 be like buying a loaf of bread, the builders of the tallest tower want their workers to have the healthiest diet, and home-life balance is encouraged at HS2
Use your loaf
Yorkshire folk are known for their plain speaking, and Sheffield-born Mark Robinson 鈥� chief exec of procurement specialist Scape 鈥� is rather baffled by all the time spent on working out procurement routes that mire the industry in mountains of red tape. 鈥淧rocurement shouldn鈥檛 be complicated,鈥� he told delegates at 黑洞社区 Live last week. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just buying 鈥� like a loaf of bread.鈥�
Wednesday鈥檚 child
Robinson is an Owls fan, but he admits things can get a bit tense in his family when the Steel City derby is on. His 13-year-old son is a season ticket holder at Sheffield Wednesday鈥檚 bitterest rivals, Sheffield United. He blames his wife鈥檚 side of the family for this but says at least the whole family are unified on one football matter: they all hate Leeds United.
Driller dream-killer
Mark Elmer, Costain鈥檚 project director in charge of the revamp of London Bridge station, told 黑洞社区 Live he鈥檇 had a number of sleepless nights worrying either that demolition works would cause the station to collapse 鈥� bringing to life the nursery rhyme London Bridge Is Falling Down 鈥� or else that someone would accidentally drill into the Jubilee line tunnels. I think I鈥檇 have a few sleepless nights if those were the day-to-day issues filling my worrying in-tray.
A question of honour
After the 黑洞社区 Live event, 黑洞社区 hosted a quiz in aid of construction charity Crash, with Iain Parker of Alinea and former Davis Langdon colleague Erland Rendall, owner and director of Atorus (for the full quiz lowdown, see next week鈥檚 issue). Parker must have been delighted with his firm鈥檚 teams鈥� performance. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 come last this time!鈥� one member pointed out to his colleague, who agreed this was a triumph. 鈥淲e did a whole 100% better than last time,鈥� his comrade added. Which I suppose they did. Second-to-last is a very respectable result.
Can鈥檛 beat the feeling
The team behind the City鈥檚 tallest tower, 22 Bishopsgate, wants it to set benchmarks for all sort of things, not just its 278m height. It鈥檚 the first project in the UK to be registered for the Well 黑洞社区 Standard 鈥� which sets a high benchmark for sustainability, health and wellbeing in buildings. Good nutrition is part of that too, as Danny Hall, associate director at developer Lipton Rogers, explained to 黑洞社区 Live: catering partners on site will have to cut out the salt and sugar. 鈥淭hey won鈥檛 be able to sell cans of Coke,鈥� he said. This building, it鈥檚, ahem, the real thing, isn鈥檛 it?
A little extra
Away from all things Bishopsgate, one of my hacks recently met an architect working on HS2, which may or may not have got rid of its chairman Terry Morgan by the time this hits people鈥檚 desks. The architect reported that it was a magnificent place to work, with one boss telling her: 鈥淵ou didn鈥檛 join a public sector project to work overtime.鈥� Laudable stuff but as worries mount over how much it all might cost, I鈥檓 tempted to wonder if there was some way to make money go that little bit further 鈥�
Searching questions
A colleague down in King鈥檚 Cross earlier this week spied the new Google HQ going up and decided to take a few snaps. A group of workers told him he had no right to be taking pictures 鈥� because of who their client was. 鈥淚f only,鈥� he thought, 鈥渢here was a way of looking up my rights 鈥︹��
Angry birds
King鈥檚 Cross Central may be exponentially changing the north London district鈥檚 reputation, but the 鈥渆dgy鈥� days of yore are seemingly not entirely gone. According to Julia Finlayson, project director for public realm at Argent, the developer was forced to strengthen the scheme鈥檚 human-sized 鈥渂irdcage鈥� feature, situated on the walk between King鈥檚 Cross and St Pancras stations, because visitors were using it 鈥渁 bit more aggressively鈥� than expected. What on earth can they have been getting up to?
Send any juicy industry gossip to hansom@building.co.uk
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