Victory at the Construction Manager of the Year Awards

On Thursday 15^th September, Mace’s Project Manager James Williams won the prestigious Construction Manager of the Year Award for his work at 12-14 New Fetter Lane. 

James collected his award in front of over 1,000 construction industry representatives at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The Construction Manager of the Year Awards focus on people rather than projects and offer the opportunity for managers, from projects of all sizes, to receive recognition for their work.

James Williams took on an enormously challenging programme for 12-14 New Fetter Lane, with a tight budget in one of London’s busiest legal districts – but James wasn’t fazed. The commercial office building was delivered to exceptional quality and the client was able to sell on this 15-storey office block midway through the construction phase for a handsome return on its investment.

James handled supply chain deals to secure the core packages. By offering project deals as part of a batch of packages across other Mace schemes, he secured top suppliers eager to capture economies of scale. He drove the project forward through excellent sequencing and logistics. The original brief positioned one crane in the boiler room, severely hampering the effort to get the building weatherproof. James’s alternative solution was to perch it on a concrete cap on top of one of the low-rise lifts. He also modularised the intricate cladding and large sections of the services.

He streamlined the logistics by bringing the cladding panels through the floors and distributing them by the hoist, which were then installed from within the building floorplate by using a spider crane on the floor above. It was safer and faster than working at height above a busy pedestrian walkway in an area of dense commercial offices.

James also introduced extensive benchmarking with off-site mock-ups that set the quality standard. Combined with tablet-based snagging software that freed package managers from paperwork in the office and got them out onto site, it delivered an exceptional level of craftsmanship and quality.

Mace’s Chief Operating Officer for Construction, Gareth Lewis, said: “I would like to congratulate James for winning this coveted award from the CIOB. 12-14 New Fetter Lane is a stand out project delivered to the highest quality in one of the busiest locations in London. James should be very proud of what he has achieved and thoroughly deserves this recognition.”

James Williams, said: “Firstly, thanks to CIOB for this award and the great recognition. I also want to thank the whole team at New Fetter Lane that helped to make the project a success. I’m very happy of what we achieved because of the challenging aspects of the programme but it just proves that team work and dedication pays off.”