Date: 6th November 2020

Report Launch: Future of the Workplace webinar

ACE Emerging Professionals

Have you considered what the major issues might be facing the traditional workplace and what changing expectations of the next generation are?

On Wednesday 11^th November from 12.00-1.30pm, Rebecca King, Head of Learning and Development at Curtins, plus other emerging professionals and stakeholders, explored this issue and discussed how we can build more welcoming, productive, healthy and flexible workplaces post-COVID.

Hosted by Georgia Hughes, Chair of ACE Emerging Professionals, she was joined by Mark Naysmith, Lesley Hume and Jordan McGlacken of WSP, as well as Simon Innes of Goodson Associates, Martin Silvester of Arcadis, Nikhita Kumar of Department for International Trade and Rebecca King of Curtins.

Construction Minister Nadhim Zahawi MP delivered the keynote introduction at the event.

To catch up on the webinar and view the report click here.

Date: 3rd November 2020

Curtins Podium Live – How to Unlock Site Value Through Effective Due Diligence

Thursday 26th November, 11.00-11.45

We are delighted to announce the next instalment of our Curtins Podium Live webinars, which will be on How to Unlock Site Value Through Effective Due Diligence.

Registration is FREE – Book Online here.

In this Podium webinar, three senior specialists from Curtins’ transport planning, geo-environmental and infrastructure teams will take you through the steps that can be taken to unlock site constraints and realise land value potential in the pre-planning phases, by identifying and minimising risks.

Today, sites are more constrained and challenging than ever before. Development and planning issues are becoming more complex and require greater expertise and experience to identify issues, maximise financial return, manage liabilities, reassure investors and ultimately deliver the optimum solutions. This webinar will demonstrate how this can be achieved through a unified approach across transport planning, geo-environmental, infrastructure, structural engineering services and the rest of the design team (you!).

Curtins’ Podium live series embraces the culture founded by Bill Curtin of sharing expertise and prompting conversations in the construction industry.

How to Unlock Site Value will be presented by Head of Geo-environmental North, Matthew Lomas, Head of Infrastructure South, Tom Leake and Transport Planning Associate, Carl Peers. They will each share insight into how site potential was assessed for viable and cost-effective developments or to support land transactions, drawing on their own experiences with challenging project examples.

The Podium talk will include a Q&A at the end and we invite you to share your thoughts and questions with our panel. You will be able to submit your questions during the webinar through the chat box, or you can send them ahead of the event to events@curtins.com and we’ll do our best to cover as many as we can.

This webinar is part of a series of Curtins CPDs. Click here for more information and to watch previous episodes.

BOOK ONLINE

Date: 27th October 2020

Climate Crisis Webinar Series

Coordinated Action Across Construction

Wednesday 25 November 2020 11:00am

The Central Scotland Branch of Women in Property is launching a trilogy of expert webinars on how to make a meaningful impact to carbon reduction in the built environment, from Structural Engineering, M&E and Contractor professionals.

The trilogy commences on 25th November, 11am with structural engineer Stephen Beggs, Technical Director at Curtins. He will discuss why we need to act, compare our personal and professional carbon impacts, demonstrate the tools Curtins has developed to measure carbon and set out 7 practical steps for reducing carbon impact.

Details of the future webinars in the series will be released by Women in Property in the coming weeks.

For more information and registration please visit the Women in Property website here.

Date: 20th August 2020

Curtins is appointed as leading consultancy on new Procure Partnerships Framework

We are proud to share the news of our appointment on the Procure Partnerships Framework Professional Services Agreement, having been selected as one the highest rated consultancies in all 11 regional framework lots. Successful in every bid, our appointment comprises Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering across all UK regions, and Principal Designer for the North West and London.  

Designed to simplify procurement in the public sector, the professional services framework sits alongside the recently launched Contractor Framework and will similarly provide clients with a compliant but flexible solution to their procurement needs. It will run from 2020-2024. 

The framework has been structured to provide public sector users with four OJEU and PCR15 call-off methods. These include two-stage mini competition, single stage tender, direct award and mini competition express.  

Curtins are now extremely well-placed to work with the appointed contractors as part of multi-disciplinary teams on behalf of the public sector client. 

Robbie Blackhurst, Framework Director comments: “We are delighted with the response we received for our Professional Services Agreement with over 420 individual companies applying for places across 11 regions. The standard of tenders was extremely high with is a credit in itself to the companies who were awarded places. We are delighted to have Curtins onboard who have a demonstrable track record of successfully delivering complex projects for the public sector across the UK.”  

Find out more about our other framework appointments here.

Date: 10th August 2020

Curtins appointed on EN: Procure Consultancy Framework

Curtins has been appointed by EN:Procure as one of 70 construction consultants on their new framework.

The framework has an estimated total value of £10.4m across its 4-year lifetime, with 8 lots offering the following range of construction-related consultancy services. Selected from over 600 consultant tenders, Curtins has been appointed on both Lot 4 (Structural and Civil Engineering Services) and Lot 6 (Principal Designer Services) in all three geographical regions.

The framework will provide a full range of leading edge, cost effective and easily accessible consultancy services for Efficiency North’s clients in the social housing and wider public sector in northern England. Designed predominantly for social housing, it can also be applied to other public buildings or premises owned and/or managed by public sector organisations, including, but not limited to, schools, universities, infrastructure sites and offices in Yorkshire & Humber, the East Midlands and North West.

For more detailed information about framework lots and appointed contractors click here.

Date: 7th August 2020

Curtins Podium Live – Carbon: A New Currency for Construction

We are launching a new series of CPD webinars, commencing with Carbon: A New Currency for Construction on Thursday 3rd September, 11.oo-12.oopm. 

Technical Director, Stephen Beggs presents this live CPD webinar with Q&A on using carbon as a new currency in the construction industry, with 7 practical steps on how to achieve carbon reduction in building design.

On the topic of carbon as a new currency for construction, Stephen Beggs, Technical Director at Curtins, will discuss why we need to act, compare our personal and professional carbon impacts, demonstrate the tools Curtins has developed to measure carbon and set out practical steps for reducing our impacts.

During the 45-minute presentation, the notion of ‘carbon as a currency’ will be introduced and compared with our other currencies of cost, quality and time. The session closes by considering the resolutions we all need to make to accomplish real change.

Curtins’ series of Podium live webinars continue the culture founded by Bill Curtin of sharing expertise and prompting conversations in the construction industry.

Stephen Beggs has almost 30 years’ experience in the field of civil and structural engineering. He leads Curtins’ Bristol office and has spearheaded Curtins’ national initiative on carbon measurement and reduction.

The Podium will include a Q&A at the end. You will be able to submit your questions during the webinar through the chat box, or you can send them ahead of the event to events@curtins.com.

This webinar is the first in a series of CPDs that will also cover Managing Site Constraints through Technical Masterplanning, Curtins’ bespoke pre-planning service Foursite and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA).

Register for the event here.

Date: 7th August 2020

Curtins staff complete a Samarathon

Members of our team have been pounding the pavements by walking, running and moving their way to a total of 26.2miles last month; raising money, awareness and their spirits in aid of Samaritans.

Just a little bit of exercise every day has a positive effect on mental wellbeing, so we’ve been encouraging our staff to get active to help take care of their own mental health.

Samaritans is the Curtins Care nominated charity of the year. They provide 24/7 support to anyone in emotional distress or who is struggling to cope. At a time of impacting change, the covid-19 crisis is the biggest challenge Samaritans has ever faced. It is therefore more important than ever to support Samaritans so that they can continue to be there 24/7, 365 days a year for those who need them.

Together, our team have reached a total of 247miles and raised more than £560 for Samaritans, which will go towards funding over 100 calls.

For more information about the Samarathon, please visit https://samarathon.samaritans.org/about

Date: 28th July 2020

Curtins and CIRIA publication shortlisted for Brownfield Award

The Brownfield Awards 2020 shortlist has been announced and Curtins has been nominated for our work with CIRIA in preparing the CIRIA report C785 – Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Risk Management Guide for Land-based Projects. The work has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Scientific/Technical/Digital Advance’ category.

The publication provides advice and guidance on UXO risk management – one of the many hazards affecting land-based projects in the UK – and is intended for use by those who work takes them into the ground or requires them to assess UXO risk.

Matt Lomas, Head of Geo-environmental North at Curtins, comments, “the guidance was written to help those in the built environment navigate UXO risk, and we are delighted that the publication has been nominated for this prestigious award.”

The Brownfield Award winners, split over 14 categories, will be announced in a live virtual ceremony on 19 November 2020 as part of Brownfield Development Festival.

Date: 24th July 2020

Curtins launches STEM careers inspiration on website

We’re pleased to share news of our latest addition to our website – a new section aimed at providing careers inspiration for KS2 and 3+ pupils called Discover. We hope it will deliver insight into the roles our teams play with advice, blogs, videos, case studies and downloadable resources for parents and teachers.

The Discover careers pages have been launched in response to a realisation that not being able to visit schools and run STEM events, like we previously have done, could have an impact on how young people are inspired to become our team of the future.

We see the section as being a growing entity, and have plans to add additional content in the near future. For now, we hope the pages give a flavour of the wonderful world of construction and engineering in which we operate.

View the pages here.

Date: 14th July 2020

Suzanne Johnsen donates to Little Princess Trust

We would like to congratulate Graduate Engineer, Suzanne Johnsen for generously cutting and donating 35cm of her hair to the Little Princess Trust, and raising money at the same time.

Little Princess Trust provide real hair wigs for children and young people (up to 24 years) who have lost their hair due to a disease.

This is the second time Suzanne has donated her hair to the charity, and in doing so she has highlighted to us the difference a hair donation can make.

She comments, “I would like to challenge anyone who has not had a haircut due to the lockdown to please do not cut it – save it and make a donation.

“Hair is so important to making us feel ourselves, and a donation can make a child feel stronger, more self-confident and ready to battle whatever disease is mistreating them.”

As part of Curtins Care, our charity fundraising initiative, staff can apply for donations to be made to charities of their choice. Through this, we have donated £550 on Suzanne’s behalf to the Little Princess Trust, equivalent to the cost of making one wig for a child or young person.

For more information on donating your long, lockdown locks, please visit www.littleprincesses.org.uk/