Google submits plans for new £1Bn Kings Cross HQ

Google has submitted plans for its huge new headquarters at Kings Cross.

The £1Bn project known as Zone A Building is situated just north of the mainline station.

Lendlease were appointed main contractor on the project back in January with the first raft of subcontractors set to be appointed over the coming months.

The building will be designed by Heatherwick Studios and BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) in collaboration with BDP.

The project stalled in late 2013 following Google’s decision to redesign the scheme.

The new plans were submitted to Camden Council this week.

The development will see all Google’s staff in the capital move under one roof. Currntly, the tech giant has staff dotted around in Covent Garden, Victoria and Pancras Square.

The Zone A Building will provide 80,819m² of space over 11 storeys with enough space for 4,000 staff.

Sitting on top of retail units the development includes a roof top garden with a running and walking track and a 25m swimming pool.

Joe Borrett, Google’s Head of Real Estate and Construction, said: “We are excited to be able to bring our London Googlers together in one campus, with a new purpose-built building that we’ve developed from the ground up.

“Our offices and facilities play a key part in shaping the Google culture, which is one of the reasons we are known for being among the best places to work in the industry.”

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Plans for first HMP Highlands of Scotland prison for more than a century

Colliers International plans for first new prison in the Highlands of Scotland for more than a century.

Commercial property specialist Colliers International has prepared and lodged a Planning Permission in Principle (PPP) application for an ambitious project that will see the first new prison in the Highlands of Scotland for more than a century.

The new HMP Highland will replace the 112-year-old HMP Inverness Prison, located in the city centre, with a new 21st century fit-for-purpose prison development.

Working on behalf of the Scottish Prison Service, the planning team at Colliers International, lodged the PPP for the new prison facility on land to the south of Inverness Retail and Business Park.

As the development proposal represents a technical departure from the Development Plan, Colliers’ work has involved significant pre-application discussions with The Highland Council in addition to the statutory pre-application public consultation.

Meabhann Crowe, Senior Planner at Colliers International, said: “Identifying a suitable site for a new prison facility is a rare task. Finding a suitable location was not as straightforward as with many other buildings. However, the Highlands, Islands and Moray areas need a modern, fit-for-purpose prison facility and we have found an excellent location for the impressive designs, which the Scottish Prison Service has commissioned.

“The new HMP Highland is proposed on a site which we believe to be wholly suitable to this development. It benefits from good accessibility and existing landscaping on the site will assist in creating a setting for the building. The response to the public consultation we carried out was overwhelmingly positive with a complete 100% of respondents in support of the Prison Service’s aim to create a modern, fit for purpose facility.”

Colliers International worked alongside the Scottish Prison Service and a specialist consulting team, including BakerHicks, ITP Energised, Fairhurst Engineers, TGP Landscape Architects, AOC Archaeology and ERM Consulting in bringing the planning application together.

As part of the process, Colliers International’s planning team coordinated pre-application discussions with The Highland Council, statutory pre-application public consultation on 30th March and submission of the overall planning application to The Highland Council on the 25th May 2017. The consultancy team involvement will continue as the application navigates its way through the application process.

The success of the application will be revealed next year.

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Balfour Beatty Joint Venture secures £200M water park project

Balfour Beatty’s joint venture, Gammon Construction has secured a contract worth around £200M to build Hong Kong’s first year-round, all-weather water-park at Tai Shue Wan for Ocean Park Corporation.

Covering an area of over 693,000 square feet, the Ocean Park Water World project includes construction of the main building structure and fit out and installation of various indoor and outdoor attractions.

Gammon Construction will also undertake mechanical and electrical services installation and other building services work to support the water park’s specialist systems including wave generators and a water filtration plant.

The park will exploit the stunning views of the South China Sea and maximise the amount of natural light reaching the interior by featuring extensive glass walling and shell shaped roofing with a translucent skylight system, which reduces the requirement for artificial lighting.

At its peak, a workforce of 750 will be active on the project.

Gammon Chief Executive, Thomas Ho, said: “We are pleased to have secured this exciting development, where our expert capabilities and experienced team provides our client with the skilled partner they need to safely deliver complex projects.”

Balfour Beatty said that Gammon would be proactive in the Value Engineering process working in collaboration with Ocean Park Corporation, in order to create cost-effective solutions.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) will be used to fully maximise efficient coordination.

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BIM for Site Managers launched

New online training course, BIM for Site Mangers, launched by BRE Academy and CITB

BRE Academy and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have developed and launched a new online training course, BIM for Site Managers, which aims to equip site managers with the appropriate level of knowledge in Building Information Modelling (BIM).

BIM is constantly evolving and changing the future of construction, from the way that people work and collaborate on construction projects, to lowering costs and delivering projects more efficiently. Although adopting software is a central part of BIM, site managers will need to adopt and apply BIM procedures.

The online course discusses the key principles of BIM and will help site managers understand their responsibilities and the actions they need to take.  It is also flexible, allowing participants to do it at their own pace, with the option to start and stop the course, redo parts if wished and refer to it as a point of reference.

Ben Lever, Future Skills Manager at CITB, said: “BIM is becoming ever more important in construction, which is why we are pleased to have worked with BRE to develop this course. Led by the forward-thinking team at BRE Academy, it provides the targeted and rigorous training that’s really needed.

“It’s right that this course is aimed at site managers because they have a key role to play in implementing BIM and ensuring successful adoption. We hope this course has a big impact and helps our industry raise its performance.”

The course covers:

• Defining the process known as BIM Level 2, definitions and terminology
• An understanding of how to improve workflows
• How to limit liabilities
• How to reduce risk on deliverables
• How BIM can reduce waste, improve accuracy and increase profit margins.

Pauline Traetto, Director of BRE Academy, said: “Our mission is to ensure that the whole supply chain is competent in BIM Level 2, and that both individuals and employers within the architecture, engineering and construction industries fit into the BIM Level 2 process. CITB has highlighted how key site managers are in delivering BIM projects, and we are delighted to have been their partner of choice for creating this course.”

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Mersey Gateway shortlisted for ecology award

Team behind new Mersey Gateway recognised for excellence in ecology and environmental management.

The team building Halton’s landmark new Mersey Gateway bridge has reached the final of a national competition that recognises excellence in ecology and environmental management.

This year’s Chartered Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) Best Practice awards highlights teams working on large-scale projects that have shown outstanding examples of environmental management. The project behind team for the Mersey Gateway project have now been shortlisted as a finalist for the stakeholder engagement award.

Dr Mark Hampton, the project’s lead ecologist, said the awards recognised the highest standards of professionalism in environmental management across the project site and from Merseylink and its partners AECOM, Kier and the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust.

“Preserving and improving the natural environment surrounding the project and wider areas was a priority from the beginning,” he said.

“Being shortlisted is recognition of everyone’s hard work, but we want to go one step further and win it, and demonstrate the work we’ve put in to engage with environmental stakeholders is the gold standard.”

In order to be shortlisted for the prestigious award, the team had to show how it met a number of criteria, including how sensitive environmental issues were resolved. They ensured that all information for stakeholders such as Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Marine Management Organisation, the Local Planning Authority and research institutions was easily accessed.

Through community engagement events, the establishment of volunteer groups and working closely with local students, the team prioritised engaging with organisations and including the local community.

Leader of Halton Borough Council, Cllr Rob Polhill, congratulated the team on being shortlisted.

“This is recognition of the extremely high standard of work that has been demonstrated from the project team since this project began,” he said.

“Any large-scale project has to pay careful consideration to its environmental impact. This nomination shows how important environmental and ecological considerations have been from the start.”

The CIEEM Best Practice awards will be held in London on 21 June.

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Nationwide report fall in house prices in May

House prices in UK fall for third consecutive month, according to the Nationwide.

Natwest has reported that for the first time since 2009, house prices have fallen for three months in a row.

Prices dropped 0.2% in May, while the annual rate of price growth slowed to 2.1% – the weakest pace for almost four years, with Natwest highlighting that this was further proof that the housing market was “losing momentum”.

However, it said it was too early to say whether it was more than a “blip”, and that the slowdown could be linked to the recent pressure on household budgets caused by the weakness of the pound.

Prices have been rising as the cost of imported goods goes up. At the same time, inflation has overtaken wage growth.

“Affordability pressures” across the UK could also be blame.

It is predicted that pressures on the market are likely to continue, but a shortage in the supply of housing is likely to support prices.

According to Natwest, property prices rose by 4.5% in 2016.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, also said he expected 2% growth this year, with house prices returning to a “slowly rising path”.

“Surveys suggest supply is tightening rapidly, employment growth looks set to remain steady at about 1% year-over-year, and mortgage rates still have scope to fall a little further,” he said.

“But the days of surging house prices driven by sharply rising loan-to-income ratios are gone.”

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First modular homes to be built by a housing association arrive

The first modular homes to be built by housing association Midland Heart have landed in Coventry.

The four, three-bedroom homes are situated on ‘Modular Mews’ in Foleshill and are part of a pilot scheme delivered in partnership with developers Central Site and Coventry City Council.

Construction on the project got underway at the end of last year before all four homes were craned in February following being manufactured offsite at a factory in Nueation.

Midland Heart says the properties have been built to a high standard of both design and environmental sustainability making them cost-effective to run and maintain.

Each property includes amongst other amenities an externally fitted electric car charging port and walls that can be removed so properties can be easily adapted.

Construction of the development was completed within six weeks.

Midland Heart’s Director for Development, Chris Miller said: “It’s been an incredibly interesting journey as we prepared the site and watched all four homes being built in just a couple of days.

“Modular homes are just one of the options we are exploring to deal with the effects of the housing crisis and are part of our commitment to build 2000 new homes across the Midlands over the next five years.”

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