I just had the opportunity to be part of the latest progress meetings which was a really interesting and insightful opportunity. It took place on-site, in the on-site offices with the architects, structural engineer, project manager, quantity surveyor, site managers all in attendance.
As it all stands we are in construction to mention the obvious. Though there’s been a bit of a hitch, an unexpected chimney related issue is holding things up. The progress meeting involved all department heads reporting back on progress in their respective departments getting up to date and also asking questions or putting forward concerns. All in all the meeting went quite well, I felt very welcome and understood what was going on quite well. The main point of discussion and concern are the potential chimney related delays, it is being dealt with and so hopefully in a month we’ll know where we stand!
See the captioned gallery below for more information:
- The basement space as it now is. A lot less muddier!
- The far end of the basement space, where work on the foundation to the lift shafts is taking place.
- Men working on taking down the chimney that is causing all the delays. Structurally it’s independent to the rest of the building and this was a problem found out at a later stage. This meant installing structural support beams along the building before demolishing the chimney. Also once it comes down, the entire whole in the wall will have to be filled up. At which point work on this end of the building (the cafe, main stairs and lift shafts to entire building) can then commence.
- A split view place the chimney and the current progress on it’s demolition in geographic context to where the current main exit is.
- Current entrance/exit which will change into the main glassed stair/ramp entrance into the reception and cafe area.
- The two media suites with the one connecting door. The other has been closed, filled with original brick from elsewhere in the building to keep the consistency and authenticity to the listed building. Most of the construction work here is done, what’s left is sanding the teak wooden flooring which will then be covered as work on the walls and so on carries on.
- The teak wooden flooring which will be sanded down soon.
- Once the teak wooden flooring has been sanded down, covered through all the remaining work, then uncovered. As a finish it’ll be coated bringing out the woods natural dark character to the surface.
- A view out the main staircase window currently overlooking the erected scaffolding.
- The front of the building, borded up with the prominent scaffolding and caution tapes and signs.
- I conclude my tour of the site with Richard the site manager as the two architects James and Simon begin theirs.
- The on-site office area with all the current plans and photographs of recent changes and charts of progress. This is where the Progress meeting took place.
- Information, plans and photographs, ofthe basement space.
- Plan of the basement space. The cloud circled section in the plan symbolises a recent change.
- The board containing health and safety information and gear. Also has the progress chart.
- The most current iteration, October process progress chart which shows the entire process progress in tasks and dates from commencement to completion (Proposed completion).
- October process progress chart showing the delays and new proposed completion date indicated by the red markings.























