Proud to be a quantity surveyor
I recently chaired the first of the 2010 seminars on cost planning and life cycle costing and it made me proud to be a quantity surveyor...
...although whether or not all the participants would describe themselves as quantity surveyors is always a moot point.
The purpose of the seminars is to get professionals to share their experience in topics that relate to BCIS. To call them 'master classes' would probably embarrass the participants, but that is in effect what they are.
The enthusiasm of the participants for their work shone through. We heard about:
In listening to the presentations, I was struck by three things in particular:
So a big thank you and a round of applause to:
Gerard Clohessy, EC Harris
Andy Green, Faithful + Gould
Russell Symes, Partnership of Schools
Joseph Thornton, EC Harris
Brendan Patchell, Rider Levett Bucknall
The purpose of the seminars is to get professionals to share their experience in topics that relate to BCIS. To call them 'master classes' would probably embarrass the participants, but that is in effect what they are.
The enthusiasm of the participants for their work shone through. We heard about:
- EC Harris's approach to cost planning in the commercial sector that puts value to clients at the centre of the process, and how the future performance of the building in terms of its cost in use and energy consumption were increasingly part of the value judgment.
- Partnership for Schools cycle of data collection, analysis and feedback that allows them to set funding budgets for local authorities.
- Faithful + Gould's work with major estate holders using life cycle costing techniques to develop means of prioritising maintenance, refurbishment and replacement strategies.
- The work of BSi, BCIS and the RICS to bring standardisation to Life Cycle Costing.
- Rider Levett Bucknall's data base that provides, capital costs, replacement costs, maintenance costs, embodied carbon and energy in use and the potential to link this to building Information models (BIM).
In listening to the presentations, I was struck by three things in particular:
- Firstly, that these innovations were driven by a desire to improve the service to the client by understanding their needs.
- Secondly, that they all resolved around the use of data (someone once described quantity surveying as purposeful mucking about with numbers).
- Lastly, the recurrent thought, 'damn it! I wish I'd thought of that'.
So a big thank you and a round of applause to:
Gerard Clohessy, EC Harris
Andy Green, Faithful + Gould
Russell Symes, Partnership of Schools
Joseph Thornton, EC Harris
Brendan Patchell, Rider Levett Bucknall
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