Laura Jevons is a director in our Cost Management team in London and has been with the business for almost eight years. Having worked across a number of sectors in the early part of her career, she specialized in the Culture sector just over 10 years ago and now works with a number of ‘household names’ across the U.K. including the British Museum, the Science Museum Group, the Natural History Museum, the Barbican, the Eden Project and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

I think I was always destined to be a quantity surveyor (QS). My father started out his career as a QS too before going on to be the Managing Director of a contracting firm in the Midlands which he retired from last month. As a young child I would play ‘offices’ with the rolled-up drawings, scale rule, calculator and take off paper that he brought home from work. I also remember helping him sort out subcontract tenders one weekend at his office.

When I left school, however, I went on to study Biochemistry at The University of Leeds but fairly quickly realised that wasn’t the career for me. So, after seeing an opportunity advertised at the careers fair in my final year, I reverted to what I knew and went to play ‘offices’ for real, doing bills of quantities working for a small QS practice in Leeds, who also sponsored me through a master’s degree in quantity surveying and Commercial Management.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why?

I love the iconic and brutalist architecture of the Barbican Estate in London, especially the way that the 44-story residential towers still dominate the surrounding skyline and the maze that is the Highwalks. I’ve always said it was one of my favourite buildings. So when the RFP for the Barbican Renewal Project came out, I was quick to offer to lead and, naturally, was excited when we were appointed to deliver the cost management.

The project is a masterplan development that will see the refurbishment of the 40-year-old, Grade II listed Barbican Arts Centre so that it continues to meet the needs of 21st century audiences. The aim is to bring the deteriorating estate up to the modern standards required for world-class cultural venues, improve accessibility, energy performance and sustainability and connect better with the City and the local community.

I lead the cost management team, coordinating a number of workstreams for the first phase of the project including the foyer refurbishment, the redevelopment of the restaurant block, renovation of the Lakeside Terrace, renewal of the conservatory, the largest Glasshouse in London, plus a major infrastructure replacement program.

As the building is Grade II listed, one of the main challenges in refurbishing and modernising the space has been ensuring that the original design intent of the architecture is maintained and that interventions are sympathetic to the building’s heritage status. An example of this is the bespoke design being developed for the light fittings which are being upgraded from tungsten to LED. They will be specially manufactured to match the existing, original fittings while improving energy efficiency. Further, the façade design has been carefully considered to ensure that u-values meet current thermal insulation regulations but that the slim profile of the glazing frame is maintained to match the existing facade. As cost consultants we have therefore had to ensure that budgets are appropriately set, engaging early with the specialist supply chain to market test our rates and also consider the impact on procurement, ensuring orders are placed to meet long lead times for specialist and bespoke manufacture.

As with any cultural institution, funding is a challenge. Having initially developed an aspirational long term masterplan scheme at RIBA Stage 0/1, we have worked with the Barbican and the design team throughout Stage 2 to prioritise key works for the first five years. We therefore divided our cost plan up into smaller packages of work, assessing issues such as operational criticality, audience experience, sustainability enhancements and logistical implications, then produced a cashflow forecast to help consider affordability. This process has ensured that critical works are being addressed first and having supported the Barbican through the business case development, we have just been awarded funding from the City of London for the first phase of work. We’re currently progressing through RIBA Stage 3, hoping to see the first projects start on site in 2027.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.

Working in the Culture sector, most of our projects provide a positive impact on the community. Through either placemaking or through improving accessibility to both performing and visual arts, we help to build community, provide education, strengthen social cohesion and support economic growth.

One project in particular though stands out in this regard and that’s the Eden Project Dundee.

We are appointed as cost managers from RIBA Stage 2 onwards, to support this transformative project to provide a new visitor destination, which will see the remediation of a former gas works in Dundee, Scotland into a biodiverse attraction. It also acts as part of the Dundee Waterfront masterplan helping to regenerate the old, industrial, Dundee waterfront, addressing local challenges outside of the site boundary including public access and lack of amenities. Extensive public realm surrounding the site, a pedestrian bridge joining the Eden Project to the waterfront and improvements to transport connections will catalyse wider transformation within the area to create a vibrant local community, grow the economy, provide new educational opportunities and promote health and well-being for both residents and visitors to the area.

The attraction itself also provides community benefit, seeking to engage people with the wonder of our living world, our dependence on it and the threats that it faces. New, iconic venues, including a re-purposed gas holder will help fuse experience, performance, education, art and research aiming to encourage reflection and action in relation to the climate emergency our precious planet faces.

Sustainability has been the key theme for the project, which will be an exemplar of regenerative design, achieving carbon neutrality, delivering net biodiversity gain and strengthening the health of the natural world. The design therefore maximises circular economy principles and includes for both in-situ and ex-situ re-use along with the use of recycled materials obtained from other projects such as structural elements and glazing. To allow for this, grid sizes of the buildings have been safeguarded to accommodate the type and dimensions of these recycled units. Options are also being considered to sustainably grow timber, locally for use on the scheme. As part of the process, we have therefore had to engage with the local supply chain and sustainability consultant for advice, and market intelligence and testing of these innovative solutions.

The collaborative efforts made by the project team saw planning permission for the project granted in June 2024 and we continue to develop the Stage 3 / 4 design while investment and funding for the project is secured.

Share a piece of career advice.

Try to enjoy work as it’s a major part of your life. It is more fulfilling and rewarding if you are passionate about what you do. So do something you love if you can. I feel very lucky in this regard!

And always remember — it’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.

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This substantial of a capital outlay is not easy to come by, however. Each regulatory period brings new cost pressures as water regulators continue to push down the cost of water and wastewater services to consumers. To eliminate excess spending, water companies are compelled to reassess their operational strategies and find more efficient ways to deliver their capital programs.

Reducing the cost of capital investment can be a difficult task. Standardization is playing an ever-increasing role in reducing design costs, but people and plant machinery on the ground still make up the biggest portion of expenditure and present the biggest risk. If they’re not fully utilized, then they will become overheads, or expenses that are not directly contributed to producing a product or providing a service. These added expenses mean that the cost of every meter of pipe laid or every cubic meter of concrete poured would inevitably increase.  To prevent this, many water companies have put efficiency targets in place to address this risk, like the South Australian Water Corporation, which has set a capital delivery efficiency target of 5 per cent for the 2020 – 2024 period.

Keeping the contractor funnel filled is key to meeting capital delivery efficiency targets. The easiest way to do this is to make effective and timely decisions in every stage of the project. Achieving this  requires a solid governance structure and process – from portfolio-level investment decisions to program and project initiation, design, delivery and change control – as each stage of the decision-making process can negatively impact the continuity of work on the ground and the output costs.

As programs managers, we help our water sector clients lay solid foundations for successful program delivery by defining the operating model before the initiation stage. This ensures that the governance structure is articulated clearly, together with defined terms of reference as well as roles and responsibilities. Laying the right framework enables the contractor funnel to be filled with the right work, minimizing overheads or on-costs so that clients can deliver their capital investment programs with greater efficiency and reduced cost.

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ArchTam was brought on board to survey the condition of the battleship, provide preliminary design concepts for a dry berth, and conduct the studies necessary to comply with federal environmental and historic preservation regulations.

This exposure was taken at 1/8th of a second, at f 5.6 at ISO 800 on a Canon 1Dx camera with 17mm tilt-shift lens on a tripod.

Photo © Robb Williamson / ArchTam

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ArchTam acted as the Prime contractor and program manager. The team provided specifications on the work to the contractors and evaluated their work. ArchTam’s staff of engineers provided field work oversight with reporting, supervision and coordination. The team measured the weight of soil removed to verify the work completed. ArchTam supervised the health and safety of the work site and contractors and also conducted soil, water, air and noise monitoring.

This exposure was taken at 1/250th of a second, at f 5.0 at ISO 100 on a Canon 1Dx camera with 70-200mm lens with Heliopan circular polarizing filter.

Photo © Robb Williamson / ArchTam

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ArchTam’s effort involved investigation, forensic analysis, identification, and design plans to eliminate exterior envelope leakage, abate all hazardous materials, upgrade mechanical and electrical systems, bring the Chapel up to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Anti-Terrorism/Force protection (AT/FP) standards, comply with building codes and Air Force Sustainable Design and Development criteria.

One item of particular concern is the building envelope which is comprised of aluminum panels and a 32-mile glazing system attached to 17 interconnected structural frames consisting of tetrahedral truss systems. These 32-miles of glazing has continued to fail after past repairs – primarily due to the cyclic movements associated with thermal expansion and contraction as well as movement as a result of the Cadet Chapel being located in a high wind speed region. As a result, the Cadet Chapel has leaked for over 50-years, resulting in stained interior plaster finishes, falling plaster panels, damage to the pipe organ, and damage to wood finishes on the pews.

The principle design elements will consist of designing the repairs to the exterior building envelope, repair by replacement of the mechanical and electrical systems, repair of the exterior snow melt systems, and repair of the architectural interior finishes. The goal is to restore the Cadet Chapel to be LEED Silver certifiable, meet current code requirements, and to comply with the AT/FP Standards by incorporating new technologies all while maintaining the original aesthetics and preserving the historic nature of the building.

This exposure was taken at 1/50th of a second, at f 5.0 at ISO 800 on a Canon 1Dx camera with 24mm tilt-shift lens on a tripod.

Photo © Robb Williamson / ArchTam

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