David Cash is the Architect Director and Regional Northern Chairman for BDP in charge of their Manchester and Sheffield offices and is responsible for some 250 staff.


Mission Statement

"Our mission is to be Europe's leading building design practice providing excellence in design and service through partnership"

History

BDP was originally founded in 1939 by Sir George Grenfell Baines, based in Preston, and became a multidisciplinary practice in 1961 by diversifying into engineering and quantity surveying. Their office on Vernon Street in preston was the first Burolandschaft Office in the UK.

BDP Statistics

  • BDP designs 2% of all UK new non-residential buildings
  • They Employ 800 people and a further 400 overseas. This is down from a high of 1500 in the 1980s
  • They had a £50m fee turnover in the year to June 2002.
  • They have won over 300 awards.
Major Past Projects

  • Nottingham Hospital
  • Halifax Bank Headquarters
  • The Lanes, Carlisle
  • Martin Mere Centre, Lancashire
  • Refuge Insurance Headquarters, Wilmslow
  • Channel Tunnel terminal
Services

BDP provide a wide range of services to their clients:

  • Business Consulting
  • Procurement and Finance
  • Brief making
  • Design
  • Construction
  • Use
  • Operation
  • Appraisal
Current Projects

The following are some of the current projects in the office:

  • Opel HQ (near Frankfurt)
  • Grand Island (near GMEX)
  • Cribbs Causeway (Bristol)
  • Vasco da Goma (Lisbon)
  • Manchester City Centre (post IRA bomb masterplan)
  • Cathedral Gardens
  • Wimbledon Tennis club
Future Prospects

After his introduction to the practice, David went on to explain it's current focus. A current preoccupation is the opening of a new office in Liverpool, scheduled for January 2003. Mr Cash explained that Liverpool is an exciting place to be currently with the prospect of a huge amount of regeneration work taking place in the coming years. Another focus is the flood of work in the public sector, due to the huge increases in government funding for schools and hospitals. Whilst during the past two decades the practice has predominately focused on commercial work such as shopping centre's and offices, it is now looking towards these new public projects as it's major source of work over the coming years. Consequently it is putting a great deal of resources into getting the necessary experience in designing school and hospitals. that will enable it to compete effectively with the big American practices that currently dominate the field, especially as in the provision of health care buildings.

BDP aim to win 1 £100m hospital project each year for the next five years, and they would also like to win an RIBA award in the process. They are currently involved with the Romford Hospital PFI scheme which has a value of £150m. Schools and University's are also a major focus and their Hampden Gurney School in London was nominated for this years Stirling Prize.

However, the practice does many other types of project too. For example, Mr Cash himself has recently been closely involved in the new Piccadilly Station project which had to be delivered in a short time span in time for the Commonwealth games in 2002. The historic building restoration at Plas Mawr Conway is a good indicator of the breadth of the work they take part in.

Practice Structure

BDP is a limited liability Company - all shares are owned by members of the company - mostly by the 28 Directors. There are four regional offices, which each operate as separate profit centre's They cover London, Ireland (Belfast/Dublin), Scotland (Glasgow), Northern England ( Manchester and Sheffield) and offices in Birmingham and Liverpool are in the pipeline.
Hampden Gurney School was nominated for the Stirling Prize 2002.

BDP has offices across Europe

Tres Auguas is a recently completed project in Madrid

The above diagram illustrates the BDP sector structure

Manchester's recently completed Piccadilly Station