The Shard

Tall Standing

It’s all about the details,” says Robert Deatker, Turner & Townsend project director at the Shard and London Bridge Quarter.

Having been involved in statement projects like Canary Wharf, he is currently at the helm of creating the tallest building in Western Europe. The 310-metre (1016ft) structure will comprise a hotel, office space, exclusive residential apartments and London’s highest viewing gallery. It will feature the core-construction technology developed in response to the lessons from 9/11 and ticks a number of green boxes due to its multi-use layout.

Due to finish in June this year, the site team – led by Sellar Developments – has already overcome some pretty major challenges, including dealing with the constraints of a congested capital city without causing disruption to the 54 million people who travel through the area each year.

He says: “The area is a very congested space and with both London Bridge mainline and underground stations we have to ensure people are safe and having a comfortable journey. The last thing we want is for people not to be able to access the station. Once complete, the office floors will give people the opportunity to move straight from the train to their desk. It will be a world-class building where people can live and work, and one taht everyone can enjoy.”

Realising this vision is no small feat. In a role he describes as ‘knitting things together’, Robert works closely with the client, main contractor and various third parties to talk through design and technical details and make sure they are resolved, and the product is of the right quality.

Unlike dealing with some larger clients who surround themselves with large teams managing large project portfolios, working with the developer Sellar is more intimate, with a small team based on site, who have an in-depth knowledge of the building process.

“They are an intelligent client who understand construction. We sit with them as an extension of their team. This has allowed quick decision-making to happen and the client’s aspirations to be clearly communicated.”

That’s all well and good but from the outside looking in it’s easy to underplay the ‘everybody together’ policy. I mean, who out there really knows who the project manager is and more importantly, what it is they do? Not many, says Robert, but that’s the way it should be. “You should almost not even feel the project manager and at the end, they should come out and say that project went smoothly, we resolved the issues, the client is happy, the contractor is happy and the team is happy. That is the sign of a successful project.”

He may have a point. The only time we seem to hear about project management is when things go wrong – massive overspend, lengthy delays etc, so donning the cloak of invisibility in this respect is no bad thing. But there must come a point when even the most media-shy PM wants to shout about their achievements and grab a slice of the limelight. It’s human nature, right? “People can relate to a building and the vision of a building. They don’t find it interesting to hear about how you resolved a thousand snags on a job or a time constraint or a logistical issue. The PM should operate in the background and help knit it together.”

There it is again, the word knit. ‘The PM knits things together’; they bring together the constituent parts, follow the plan, put A with B, and hey presto, a building appears. But this isn’t any old building, nor is it any old plan. This is the tallest building in Western Europe, the UK’s tallest skyscraper, built at a time of severe economic hardship, offering up a vision of a bright new future, a symbol of hope, perhaps.

Think big

In other words there’s an awful lot riding on this – a lot to knit together, if you like. So is Robert comfortable with the timing of the build and what it represents? “I’ve worked on a number of big projects and they’ve all felt right at the time. Canary Wharf, for example, transformed the fortunes of east London and Al Raha Beach is now doing the same for Abu Dhabi. Sometimes it takes time for the true benefits to be fully realised.”

Success is undoubtedly a tough thing to quantify and in this particular case, it is difficult to gauge the impact that the ‘vertical city’ will have on the local community. Some have remarked on the obtrusive nature of the design but if it delivers growth, jobs and a sense of pride – does it really matter? And that’s the point. Everybody has their own definition of success.

“It’s very hard to define,” says Robert, in answer to the success question. “But I do think developments of this nature have to be sympathetic to the community.

“When the Shard is complete there will be a lot of community aspects to the build – the public restaurant, public viewing gallery, the better links between the stations, but the real legacy is in the statement it sends out.

“The Shard is the most unique building in London and it will probably be seen as a landmark in time. This will stand as a building that people remember. It also shows confidence, and cities don’t build buildings like this if they aren’t feeling confident,” remarks Robert.

But none of this happens unless the vision is properly understood. The ‘golden rule’ for project managers, says Robert, whether managing mega projects or mini ones, is to fully understand the brief and what the client is trying to achieve.

In other words pay attention to the small things and watch it grow tall. But who really owns the vision and how is this reflected further down the chain of command? The simple answer, says Robert, is that we all do.

“The developer has the vision that encompasses the London Bridge Quarter as a whole; the architect has a vision about how the building is seen and used; the main contractor, and others like them, all play a part in making that happen.

Our job is to make sure all the visions are aligned with the client.”

Learning legacy

The legacy for the Shard project team is the experience they will take away. Reflecting on the end game, Robert believes experience and ‘blooding’ new professionals will have a positive impact on projects to follow.

“Its legacy is in the team and the level of experience that we have all gained."

“It is very important that projects like this bring through new people. We actively encourage this so they can learn new skills while on the project.”

One of these skills is the ability to connect with the various teams. Robert explains how team members take a very ‘hands-on’ role, talking with the engineer, architects, contractors and sub contractors to understand the detail and the ins and outs of how the different systems work.

“These buildings have a lot of intricacies,” he adds, “and the PM who only does certain projects isn’t a true PM.”

The vision explained

Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the south London skyscraper is planned to rise to 87 storeys, 310m (1,016ft), becoming the tallest building in Western Europe.

Mr Piano has a clear vision of the positive impact he thinks the tower will have on the city.

“The building will be atmospheric. It will play with the city. It will be a symbol of lightness,” he said.

He said the tower was not meant to dominate the skyline and its sophisticated use of glazing would reflect light and the changing patterns of the sky.

 “After a shower it will be blue. In the evening it will become warmer and more red,” he said.

The building was designed to be a 'vertical city that has many functions', he added.

“It will be living 24 hours a day and intensify city life.”