Architect BDP and consultant CH2M have won the contract to manage the £4bn restoration of the Houses of Parliament.
BDP will provide architectural and building design services while CH2M will be in charge of programme, project and cost management services.
The £12m deal will include detailed exploration of the condition of the building, a building-wide security strategy, planning for a major programme of asbestos removal, and fire safety improvements.
The firms will lay the groundwork for a longer-term strategy that will see around £4bn spent on a full restoration programme.
Brian Finnimore, managing director of Parliament’s Strategic Estates team, said: “We are delighted to be making these contract announcements, as an important step towards our goal of preserving the Palace of Westminster for future generations.
“We welcome BDP and CH2M on board, and the expertise they will bring in architectural and engineering design and in delivering projects.
“We have seen from other major public projects that effort put into early planning is rewarded later with financial savings, so this appointment now will help put value for money for the taxpayer at the heart of this essential work.”
The announcement was made amid reports that CH2M, an engineering consultant at the heart of a host of Britain’s key infrastructure projects, is understood to be in advanced talks to be taken over by Jacobs, an American rival, The Times reported.
CH2M is an employee-owned business based in Colorado that boasts 2,500 people in the UK, more than half of whom have a stake in the company.
Meanwhile BDP, which beat Foster + Partners, Allies & Morrison and HOK to win the prestigious contract, said in a statement accompanying its latest report and accounts, that it wanted to “establish more BDP studios outside the UK. Our ambition is not only to increase the volume of work we deliver in the UK market but to increase the overall proportion of work we do internationally.”
The practice, which was bought last year for £102m by Japanese engineer Nippon Koei, said it was looking for more work in the transportation and infrastructure sectors and added: “We will also look to establish a strong foothold in the burgeoning Asian commercial markets combining our strength in the commercial sector with Nippon Koei’s extensive geographic spread across south-east Asia.”
It has six offices in the UK and said it was looking to carry out more work here in education, health, retail and office design, adding: “We have a particular ambition to expand our engineering offer across all of the key UK market sectors.”
In the year to 31 December 2016, turnover stayed flat at £82.5m, but the firm, which employs just over 900 people, saw pretax profits jump from £4.9m to £8.5m.
Image: Fenlio Kao/Dreamstime
