The Good Employer Guide 2009 is out and P+HS is the only company to be in the top five for all categories – Social Responsibility, Working Smarter, Feel Good Factor, Inspiration, Leadership, Ability to Contribute, and Current Market Conditions.

 

Editor David Rogers commented: ’Congratulations are owed to architect P+HS…this company made it into every top five for which it was eligible, the first firm to do so..the (architect) profession comes top of the feel good factor and also the smarter working index.   This may be explained in part by the fact that they have also come top of the new market condition index (a new rating, which measures how well employees believe their company is dealing with the recession).

 

Geraldine Pinder and Diana Cole were in London yesterday for this year’s Good Employer Guide announcements:  Geraldine commented:  ‘we are immensely proud of our staff and achieving this accolade from the industry is a mark of what can be achieved, despite difficult times within the construction sector, by sticking with an open, inclusive and team approach.’

 

Thanks to all staff who took time to complete the survey: the survey company tell us that they had a superb response from you and we are very grateful that you took part: results like this send out a clear, positive message to the industry about the strength of P+HS.

 

The guide is published with this month’s copy of Building and extra copies of the supplement are on order for both Leeds and Stokesley offices. A digital copy can be viewed here.

 

 

Barnsley LIFT has received Planning Approval! P+HS are currently working towards financial close on two LIFT projects in Barnsley - Hoyland and Athersley, New Lodge. Hoyland will provide excellent Healthcare and Council facilities including space for GP, PCT, library and Social services. Athersley, New Lodge will provide GP and PCT services. Both schemes will achieve a BREEAM excellent rating and form part of a wider regeneration for each locality.

P+HS were well represented at a recent conference from the Health Service Journal entitled:
‘Developing Primary & Community Healthcare Estates’. Chris Potter addressed the high profile audience on the subject of increasing the lifespan of buildings through flexible and responsive design. You can download all of the speakers’ presentations by clicking HERE

Recent success on the golf course has given me a free round of golf for 4 at Chester le Street. We have to give a few days notice, and it needs to be on a weekday to avoid competitions, but if anyone is interested please give me a shout. The voucher is valid until this time next year, so plenty of time! 

Names in a hat please…

Gill Traynor has just informed me that it is EIGHT YEARS to the day since she joined P+HS! When asked the secret of her long service, Gill said: ‘P+HS really look after their staff’. Nice to hear, and congratulations Gill.

Diana Cole, our Marketing Manager, has just achieved Chartered Marketer status.

Chartered Marketer Status is the benchmark for highly skilled marketers.Chartered Marketers status demonstrates ongoing commitment and competency. Many marketers have a relevant marketing qualification, but Chartered Marketers must ensure that they maintain and develop the currency of their marketing skills and knowledge. Chartered Marketer status is an effective measurement of business competency and expertise, which will ultimately contributes to better business performance. It is also a reassurance that the marketer will be ethical, experienced and can demonstrate first class marketing skills to give employers improved business advantage

Well done Diana!

 

The White Paper ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’ sets out a vision to provide people with good quality social care and NHS services in the communities where they live. In line with government policy to decentralise some healthcare services, P+HS has been working with its clients to deliver facilities for local communities which combine healthcare provision with services such as pharmacy, social care, housing, sport and leisure, and library resources. We have identified such developments as ‘ Integrated Healthcare’, and a new section on our website showcases these projects. Hope you like it.

Following a Planning Approval in June of this year for the above project, P+HS Architects have been working to a very tight programme with Simons Construction and the design team for an on-site start this month. The foundations for 7,000 tonnes of concrete, anticipated for the 3 Linac Bunkers are currently in progress. The steel frame has been designed and is awaiting fabrication.

The scale model provides some images of the final proposals in context. This has been a useful tool for helping the client and contractor understand the design and proposals along side the drawings at regular meetings up to present.

Planning minister John Healey has announced that 270 stalled development projects across the country have been shortlisted for a share of £925m which could help get building work on 22,400 homes back on track and create 20,000 jobs.

Every region has shortlisted projects and will benefit from this major cash injection, part of the Prime Minister’s housing pledge announced last month, that will help build the homes the country needs, help it through the recession and help people into jobs. The projects have been identified by the Homes and Communities Agency through the Kickstart programme.

Read the HCA press release.

The above was taken from the Planning Portal news round-up 30 July 2009.

The Regional Agricultural Centre has been short listed for the 2009 EG Green Awards in the category Retail/Leisure Development of the Year.

This is a fantastic achievement for the team (Yorkshire Agricultural Society, P+HS, Houseman & Falshaw, and DKP) who all worked so hard to make this highly sustainable building a reality. Other short listed finalists in this category are Land Securities,Tesco, and Hammerson - all £multimillion/billion operations with national and international presence: so I reckon our team from Yorkshire have done pretty well!

The building was conceived as a green development from the start and it’s about sustainability right through from its timber frame upwards; using local teams, skills and materials wherever we could, and incorporating more special sustainable features than you could shake a stick at, making it one of the most sustainable buildings in Yorkshire.

It’s now down to the public vote, so here’s the link for you to show your support for what small, regional alliances can achieve with vision, creativity and honest hard graft.
Vote Here.

We are delighted to share more news of our students. We first met Shoaib Mahmood when he spent a year with P+HS during his year out from University. Shoaib is now back in our Leeds office having completed his degree, and has just received his results: a First Class Honours Degree and the C.I.A.T. Award for Outstanding Achievement with the highest class mark this year! Congratulations to Shoaib and welcome back to the P+HS team.

I’m sure you all know we subscribe to IHS to provide us with access to the latest British Standards, Building Regulations, Health Technical Memoranda etc. If you have not looked follow this link http://uk.ihs.com/

Our user Log in is phsa and I’m sure a team member will give you the password!

Having just renewed our subscription we have been given the data on just how often it has been used.
Back in April of this year for example The Construction Information Service was accessed 66 times which as expected our far biggest use of the portal. Specify-it being the next highest accessed at 7 times last December.

Overall we have accessed it 589 times in the year, and viewed 1113 documents.

Richard Waite, AJ News Editor, has noticed that Leeds Met has changed its approach to teaching architecture and the shift is bearing fruit. At the recent select exhibition for the school’s end-of-year show, Richard said “the projects closest to the door, drawn up by post-graduate students, are impressive…Tom Potter has created a sweet, colonnaded Chipperfield-esque model for a micro brewery in Leeds.” Nice one Tom

In a follow up to our initial post some months ago, Nottingham City Council has recently granted full planning permission for a new radiotherapy centre at Nottingham University Hospital.
Due to start on site mid July this year, P+HS Architects have been working closely with Medicinq Simons under a ProCure 21 contract.

Breeam target - Excellent
Contract value - approx £12 million
Completion date - October 2010

If anyone is interested, Leeds Met University is holding its annual Arts Festival at the moment, with the architecture section opening this weekend. The exhibition is split over three sites (all in and around Leeds city centre) and includes selections of work from a whole range of creative disciplines, including graphic design, art, architecture, landscape, film making and performing arts. More information can be found on the LMU website.