黑洞社区

Mace鈥檚 Steve Pycroft has said the Shard was his favourite project and gave the firm the chance to put one over on its rivals who had dismissed it as a boutique contractor.

In an interview with 黑洞社区, the departing former chief executive, who is leaving the firm next month and construction in general, singled out the skyscraper as the best project is his near 30 years at the firm.

He also worked on the 2012 Olympics but said the Shard, completed for late developer Irvine Sellar in 2012, edged out the firm鈥檚 work on the games.

鈥淚t鈥檚 got to be the Shard,鈥� he said when asked to pick out a standout job. 鈥淚 know a number of others said Mace would never deliver it in the programme. We had constantly got this comment from other major contractors that we weren鈥檛 regarded as one. 鈥業t鈥檚 alright being a CM but you never take the risk. It鈥檚 all easy鈥�.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭here was a lot of verbals, lots of chit chat, 鈥榶ou never have skin in the game鈥� and for me it was, you know what, let鈥檚 just go and show them all what we can do.鈥�

Pycroft admitted the job could have sent the firm under and other members of the Mace board voted against doing the job as a lump sum bid. 鈥淭here was no doubt it was a massive surprise to some. How can Mace be doing a 拢500m job?鈥� But Pycroft stuck to his guns, adding: 鈥淭here was never a doubt we could build it.鈥�

The job catapulted the firm into the premier league of construction and Pycroft added: 鈥淣o one ever asked us again if we could do jobs like this.鈥�

Pycroft, who turned 63 last month, goes after joining Mace from Bovis in 1993 and helping lead an MBO eight years later. He will remain a director and is the company鈥檚 second largest shareholder with a 17% stake.

But he said he wasn鈥檛 enjoying work as much as he used to and added he was stepping back for good: 鈥淚鈥檝e done enough, it鈥檚 time to walk away. I鈥檝e put my heart and soul into Mace and it鈥檚 time to draw a line.鈥�