News

A year on from the launch of our Edinburgh office, we asked Edinburgh Director, Stephen Osborne, to summarise some highlights from the last twelve months.

It has been a fast and exciting year and I have very much enjoyed the growth of our Edinburgh office, building on my own 30 years to date as an MEP Consultant in the city, as well as the wide portfolio of work completed previously by Wallace Whittle. There can’t be many new offices that can point to a development like Edinburgh St James Quarter and say, “we did that…”. I’ve had great support from clients, industry friends and colleagues, and the trust put in me and my team is hugely appreciated.

Our projects are diverse, spread across various sectors, reflecting the experience and flexibility of the team. In offices, we are delivering new workspace for Rathbones Wealth Management, for Burges Salmon solicitors, and at Rowan House where we are refurbishing four floors of quality Grade A office space. We are very happy to work beyond the confines of the city, and we are providing MEP design and Sustainability and Wellbeing consultancy for the new Royal London HQ, at 80 Fenchurch Street in London, as well as an industrial project for James Donaldson Timber at Ilkeston. In education, we are working on a comprehensive refurbishment of the Stow Building for Glasgow School of Art, and both Maybole Community Campus and Ardrossan Community Campus are being delivered from Edinburgh. Both campuses are sector exemplars in sustainable low carbon fossil-fuel free design, with Maybole achieving band A LEIP funding. Our residential commissions include Columba House, recently submitted for Planning, and the Dundashill residential development, comprising 79 new build exemplary low carbon homes.

We have provided professional services support in Technical Due Diligence, condition, and acquisition surveys, and undertaken a series of refurbishment works, including low carbon plant replacement at the Thistles Centre in Stirling.

Several other projects are currently at early stages and can’t be disclosed here, including new premises for a luxury retail operator and an innovative leisure project. We have even discussed conversion of a highland castle to five star leisure accommodation.

Our Edinburgh team has grown in line with the projects we have secured, and we now have twelve staff based in the Edinburgh office. This includes Sustainability and Wellbeing, as well as MEP engineering expertise, and our company marketing is led from Edinburgh, providing a strong, talented, and diverse team of people. We are closely integrated with the wider business and enjoy the support of resource and specialisms from our other offices as required. We are currently recruiting for Graduates and Degree Apprentices and we will continue to grow the team to ensure that we consistently deliver quality of product and service.

Our office at Spaces at Lochrin Square has been flexible and served us well as we have built our team, but we have now outgrown it and we look forward to moving into our new city centre office in early summer. We are fitting the office out to reflect our move to hybrid agile working and this, along with our additional staff benefits, underlines our increased focus and commitment to staff wellbeing.

Looking to the future, we are working on several exciting new projects which are all confidential at this stage. I look forward to sharing more news as these become public, and to continuing to build the Edinburgh office to serve the needs of our clients and collaborators. Please get in touch if you would like to hear more about what we are up to, and I would be delighted to meet to discuss any assistance we can offer you.

We are delighted to announce the internal appointment of Raymond Kelly as our Quality & Standardisation Manager, with responsibility for driving consistent and exemplary quality on all our projects, across all sectors. This is a new role within the business, and as a respected long term and highly valued member of the Wallace Whittle family with more than 42 years industry experience, Raymond has the full backing of the Management Board, and is ideally placed to drive our quality to even greater levels.

‘I am looking forward to this new role which serves to underline the Management Board’s commitment to improving already high levels of design standards and ensuring we maintain high quality of the product across the Business. We’ve got fantastic people in this company, and I’ve been very lucky to have worked alongside many of them and witness for myself how committed people are, and how willing Wallace Whittle are, to making things better, even when the pressure is on and in the face of the daily challenges we meet! I hope by providing a focus on quality and standardisation, that not only can we reinforce the Wallace Whittle brand, but we can also benefit individually and each get more personal satisfaction at the end of day’s work.’

We thank Raymond for taking on this key responsibility, and we offer him our support in this key area of our business.

Given the success recently with the likes of Amazon Prime and Netflix going behind the scenes for all access content TV programmes, We are excited to reveal that we will be starring in our own fly on the wall documentary called ‘We’re Going To Need A Bigger Plant Room’. The 2 part mini series will take you through the daily struggles of MEP engineers and their constant battle to convince the rest of the design team that we need more space. This hard hitting, emotional edge of your seat series will provide a never before seen account of the challenges facing the unsung heroes of construction. Episode one ‘Sky Hooks’ focuses on how engineer Rick Shaw deals with the difficult task of incorporating invisible supports for the MEP services. Episode two ‘Dark Arts’ follows Associate Mona Lott as she tries in vain to explain how exactly MEP services work.

One year to the day since we relaunched Wallace Whittle, we are delighted with how the past twelve months have gone for the company in a whirlwind of activity, and development.

The last year has been all consuming for me to say the least, and I simply would not have it any other way. I would like to make special mention of our fantastic staff and my fellow Directors, who have faced the challenge head on, sharing my drive and ambition to make Wallace Whittle market leading in every single area we possibly can while maintaining our key focus on quality of product and quality of service at all times.

Highlights of the year have seen the business firmly establishing itself once again across key sectors and regions, and also growing in terms of order book and in staff numbers and office locations.

Our celebrations include enhanced regional growth across England, while maintaining organic growth in Scotland, Ireland and the Middle East. We are also celebrating the growth of our market leading Sustainability team, headed by David Spiteri, as we and our clients face the global climate emergency.

In-house the development of our very own WW:BeneFIT portal, WW:Direct online shop and WW:Intranet have also been very important, as these platforms allow us to engage much more closely with our staff while also enhancing their overall package and providing additional benefits for them and their families.

Looking to the year ahead, we are again sitting with a very healthy order-book across all offices and we expect continued managed growth in certain key locations.

A particular focus for me is the internal appointments of Raymond Kelly to become our Quality and Standardisation Manager and Paul Hargreaves to become our Academy Manager. These internal appointments will allow us to put much greater emphasis to both of these massively important areas.

The WW:Academy in particular is a key company objective as this will allow us to attract and develop new staff, as well as providing a targeted focus on existing aspiring staff and the next generation, to let us develop and “grow our own” via various programmes over the coming months and years.

As always I’m only too happy to chat further about any areas covered in this newsletter or our business, so please get in touch.

Well that is the first quarter complete and I am delighted to say, “we are back”. We have also firmly delivered on our aims and objectives during the period and put some very strong foundations in place for the future.

A massive thank you has to go to all who have gone out of their way to greet us as a new-old business; in particular our staff, clients and fellow design team members who have welcomed back Wallace Whittle with open arms, while supporting us fully.

Quarter one was all about consolidation and setting up the business. Quarter two and three will be more focused on putting key longer term business objectives in place such as our staff benefits portal, staff online shop and our Junior Academy, with more details on these to follow.

However, a key company objective remains to become the number one MEP and Sustainability consultant of choice, with quality of product and quality of service being a primary objective for all at Wallace Whittle.

The last year and a half of Covid-19 has been a very challenging time for all. Our staff have been fantastic in adapting and responding to new ways of working and, again, I thank them all for that. As we emerge into the post-Covid world, we are optimistic for the future.

If you wish to discuss how we can support you please contact me at any time, and I will be only too happy to chat.

Allan McGill
Managing Director

+44 (0)330 460 5200
Allan.McGill@WallaceWhittle.com

Our expert application of Revit and Digital Engineering in the form of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a powerful design management and coordination tool. This advanced coordination in design minimises abortive work, site fabrication and wasted materials. Populating the modelled information in the later stages of design, fabrication and installation provides our clients with invaluable facilities management data for operation and maintenance.

It’s a common misconception that BIM is purely about the production of a 3D virtual construction model, but this is only part of BIM Level 2. Certification ensures:

• We have the necessary BIM capability, IT capability and available resource to deliver projects.
• That we evaluate our supply chain for the same capability.
• Necessary and regular training is in place.
• Project roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.
• Processes are in place for the production and monitoring of workload.
• A robust QA process is in place to ensure that all information issued has been validated and has passed through the appropriate QA checks.

We have achieved BIM Level 2 verification from the British Standards Institute, as a ”Tier 2 Appointed Party including MEP Building Services and Sustainable Design Consultancy complying with BIM Level 2 in accordance in accordance with ISO 19650-2:2018 incorporating the UK National Annex” for the 6th year running now.

This is testament to the expert skills and dedication of our BIM team, led by Paul Hargreaves. Great job Paul!

Our team of Sustainability Consultants is growing under David Spiteri’s leadership, with Scott O’Hara, Andrew Hogg, Ewan McCluckie and Chris Stevens all joining the team since our last newsletter. This significantly enhances our already strong credentials in energy, sustainability, wellness, BREEAM, modelling, analysis, and certification.

David and his team are leading the way in driving Net Zero Carbon solutions for our clients, cutting through the mystery and separating out the facts to realise and deliver practical and cost-effective solutions. We are also responding and contributing to the emerging trends in the market, as we look forward to COP26 in Glasgow, and we enhance social value and placemaking on our projects.

There is no one-size-fi ts-all solution when designing a Net Zero Carbon building. Wallace Whittle have worked with clients develop net zero carbon strategies and roadmaps across all sectors: from large masterplan schemes to re-purposing of existing buildings.

WW understand there are fundamental NZC design questions which need answering at early design stage, such as:

• What is the cost-optimal passive design solution for a development?
• What building services systems are considered viable and practical?
• What renewables technologies can I use?
• Which design options are affordable and maintainable for the end-users, whilst allowing for future flexibility?
• How can a Net Zero Carbo design strategy promote a healthy environment for its occupants?

David Spiteri will be delighted to discuss your thoughts and requirements, so please get in touch to benefit from the value we can add.