Matty Hall, Fred Smith, Stacy Gaskill and Eamon Shutt of Team Pallion

Thanks  to everyone who sponsored Team Pallion for the Pier to Pier Race on Sunday supporting Cancer Research and local charity Kidsmatta.

Braving strong winds and uneven terrain, I flew the flag for P+HS to run alongside Laing O’Rourke’s Fred Smith, Stacey Gaskill, Martin Edwards, Matty Hall, Barry Edwards and team friend Kurt Berwick. 

The 7.5 mile race runs from South Shields Pier to Roker Pier following the coastal path via Souter lighthouse and Marsden Rock and covers cliff paths and sandy beaches – not the easiest underfoot! The whole team completed the race and so far have raised over £600 for the charities.

P+HS attended a factory visit with Nottingham Critical care staff to assess the flexibility and performance of the Drager Movita ICU Medical Pendant. As a part of the proposed scheme for NUH Adult Critical Care unit, it is the design intent to deliver all critical services from specialized medical pendants in place of the current bed head panels. This will afford the Staff greater flexibility and working efficiencies.  In combination an additional Guldmann Hoist will be fitted to a 3rd arm of the pendant, this will allow any members of staff to easily move and physically manage patients in and out of the bed, catering for weights up to 350Kg / 55 stone.

Drager Movita brochure (pdf)     Guldman lifting modules

Drager development time tunnel

Drager demonstration Theatre

Drager Movita ICU Medical Pendant

Guldmann Hoist being put to the test

Medieval town of Lubeck

Some decent photographs taken recently by Chris Lawes of the new Radiotherapy Centre at Nottingham (LINACCS). Now fully operational, the building has bedded well into the site and the external materials appear to be complimenting its surroundings.

Adrian Evans MCIAT and Paul McNeil MCIAT

Adrian Evans and Paul McNeil attended their Professional Practice interview in London on Monday.  I’m delighted to report that both were successful in achieving their Membership of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists.  Congratulations to both!

Easter creations from P+HS

Once again our talented and creative staff have produced some interesting takes on egg decoration. Entries to this year’s contest ranged from intellectual, to whacky, but this year’s winner was the mouthwatering Willy Wonka creation from Jamie Taylor. Well done to everyone who entered!

Congratulations to Martin Anderson on achieving his Part III qualification to become another fully fledged Architect on the P+HS Team.

Martin Anderson who has recently achieved his Part III qualification.

While downloading OS maps I recently discovered there’s an option to download them in dwg format. I understand that in the past we have mostly used the dxf format, but I found several advantages to the dwg file.

The dwg maps have more logical layer names and have coloured layers for areas that can be turned off and on as necessary which makes colouring drawings in photoshop a dream!

As you can guess I’d recommend using this format in future unless anyone has found a good reason to use the dxf file instead.

Artwork depicting local landmarks and colourful kites was celebrated at a tea party at Rivendale this month.

Glass Art at Rivendale Extra Care: images courtesy of Gavin Marshall

The glass art, running along the front elevation of the building, was created by Newcastle-based artist Gavin Marshall who worked with local school and college students as well as representatives from Broadacres, the Alzheimers Society and other stakeholders to develop the design.

Rivendale is an Extra Care facility in Northallerton developed for Broadacres Housing Association. Opened in 2010, the scheme provides high quality extra care accommodation and includes 51 individual 2 bedroom apartments plus bistro, hobby room, gardens, laundry, hair salon and bookable guest accommodation. The recently installed artwork was made possible with an Arts Council grant and is proving popular with residents and visitors.

As you can see, Mr P is settling into his new job following his retirement from P+HS! He is of course enjoying his retirement gift and learning to use the knives professionally in the kitchens at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, under the watchful eye of Raymond Blanc and his team.
Tuesday was fish day. Chris and his colleagues have to prepare their own lunch each day and yesterday’s was Moules with curry leaves.
Today he will be cooking the French classic beef bourguignon without the aid of a Knorr packet mix! There are people running around looking after him, measuring for him, tidying up after him allowing him to concentrate on the difficult important stuff……….hmmmm…Retirement doesn’t sound very different Chris!

This development of 10 apartments for Broadacres Housing Association is now complete. The building achieves Code Level 3, was completed on time and within budget. RBA Moody Bros were the principal contractor.

Each flat meets Lifetime Homes standards, features solar water heating and charging space for a mobility scooter.

The team for Houghton le Spring Primary Care Centre are celebrating the achievement of BREEAM Outstanding at the Design stage: the first Outstanding awarded for a Health building in the UK. Designed by P+HS, the development for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust is being constructed by Willmott Dixon and is due for completion in Summer 2011.

First BREEAM Outstanding for UK Healthcare Building

It’s been a while since the last photos, but Ireland Wood Surgery is now fairly well progressed on site. The external rendering is now virtually complete and all the glazing is in place. Coloured Trespa panels will soon be fitted over the timber battens you can see in the bottom image, to complete the external appearance.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council have updated their Validation Requirements.  The new list will be brought into effect on 1st February 2011.  All planning applications recieved after this date will be validated based on the National and Local Validation requirements.

The local list has been added to the Intranet and can also be found on the Councils website at – http://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/main.nsf/Web+Full+List/D301681525DC741D802577CA004ACBE0

This development with Cumbria Partnership Foundation Trust will extend and remodel an existing mental health facility in two phases. Procured through P21 with Mansell the development will create a 20-bed Adult Acute unit and a 15-bed Dementia Unit.

James, Ryan, Tom and Anna - Part 3 Success

It just goes to show that blood, sweat and tears do pay off in this industry.

I’m delighted to report that all of our Part III students have excelled themselves in their recent exams, and P+HS will have no less than FOUR new architects to add to the team.

Hearty congratulations to Anna Holden from our London office, and James Park, Ryan Meadows and Tom Potter from Leeds.