Hey All. I've just received planning permission for a mixed use development in Croy, Cumbernauld.
It would help me greatly if I could help the developer to fill the units. The units include dentist, retail (hopefully pharmacy) and a children's nursery.
If any of you know any operators it would be great if you could ask them to get in touch with me.
My contact number is 01698 422358/07795833675
Regards
Kenneth Martin
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
The back door is open at Building Control!
I have just completed a building warrant application for a lovely family for a simple extension on the side of their house. I wasn’t their first ‘Architect’ to receive a commission but I certainly got to the task at hand and rectified the initial ‘Architect’s glaring mistakes.
You see there are many ‘designers’ out there who are not qualified architects or qualified technicians and as such they do not have to register to a professional body. These ‘designers’ often have limited skill and knowledge but profess the world to their unsuspecting clients. Here’s the story.
The Client accepts a fee proposal for £1600+VAT for the ‘designer’ to prepare planning and building warrant drawings and then pays upfront including all planning and building warrant fees. After several months the client receives a set of drawings from the designer, which of course are not to their requirements and then begin the tortuous journey of trying to get the drawings changed whilst the designer ignores the Clients calls, emails and letters. Eventually the Client receives a set of drawings which are to their satisfaction and they instruct the designer to lodge the planning application. When the designer lodges the planning application the cheque bounces, much to the frustration of the Client who has paid the planning fee upfront. The Client, out of sheer frustration, directly pays another planning fee to the Council knowing fine well that the initial fee paid to the designer is lost. The designer then lodges a building warrant application using the planning drawings i.e. there is little technical information on the drawings and thereafter building control write to the Client with over 30 comments and observations on the drawings! What a pig’s ear!!! That’s where I stepped in.
The moral of the story or the important issue for discussion is simply that building control will happily request proof of competency from a structural engineer, gas engineer or an electrician but they do not expect the designer to have any professional qualifications.
I consider that the Scottish Planning & Building Control System should be changed such that only registered Architects (ARB) or registered Technologists (CIAT) be allowed to prepare application drawings and packages. As such all application will then be produced by professionals who belong to professional bodies.
It is not acceptable that the Planning & Building Control System will accept sub standard applications from designers, draughtsmen, ex building control officers, surveyors all of whom have a little knowhow of considering the complexities of design, construction, and delivery as a homogenous whole. I do believe that there are some out there who are good and committed to service but to date the most that we have found are only interested in taking the money and running.
Will the Scottish System be reviewed to insist on qualifications for those acting as the lead designer? I think that it should.
Kenneth Martin
Block Architects
You see there are many ‘designers’ out there who are not qualified architects or qualified technicians and as such they do not have to register to a professional body. These ‘designers’ often have limited skill and knowledge but profess the world to their unsuspecting clients. Here’s the story.
The Client accepts a fee proposal for £1600+VAT for the ‘designer’ to prepare planning and building warrant drawings and then pays upfront including all planning and building warrant fees. After several months the client receives a set of drawings from the designer, which of course are not to their requirements and then begin the tortuous journey of trying to get the drawings changed whilst the designer ignores the Clients calls, emails and letters. Eventually the Client receives a set of drawings which are to their satisfaction and they instruct the designer to lodge the planning application. When the designer lodges the planning application the cheque bounces, much to the frustration of the Client who has paid the planning fee upfront. The Client, out of sheer frustration, directly pays another planning fee to the Council knowing fine well that the initial fee paid to the designer is lost. The designer then lodges a building warrant application using the planning drawings i.e. there is little technical information on the drawings and thereafter building control write to the Client with over 30 comments and observations on the drawings! What a pig’s ear!!! That’s where I stepped in.
The moral of the story or the important issue for discussion is simply that building control will happily request proof of competency from a structural engineer, gas engineer or an electrician but they do not expect the designer to have any professional qualifications.
I consider that the Scottish Planning & Building Control System should be changed such that only registered Architects (ARB) or registered Technologists (CIAT) be allowed to prepare application drawings and packages. As such all application will then be produced by professionals who belong to professional bodies.
It is not acceptable that the Planning & Building Control System will accept sub standard applications from designers, draughtsmen, ex building control officers, surveyors all of whom have a little knowhow of considering the complexities of design, construction, and delivery as a homogenous whole. I do believe that there are some out there who are good and committed to service but to date the most that we have found are only interested in taking the money and running.
Will the Scottish System be reviewed to insist on qualifications for those acting as the lead designer? I think that it should.
Kenneth Martin
Block Architects
Monday, 13 July 2009
Does social media work?
You may wonder about the value of Block Architects having a blog or, the value of social media in general. Social media is comparatively new so it's natural that there may be some scepticism out there however, I just came across a story that clearly demonstrates how social media is changing the way we communicate and, how everyone now has the power of communication at there fingertips. In fact, in one week this video has been viewed over 2,500,000 on YouTube, that's impressive and should make United Airlines Customer Relations department take some notice.
A band called Sons of Maxwell have produced the first of three songs about the fact that American Airlines broke his guitar whilst he travelled with them on a tour. The band witnessed baggage handlers throwing their guitars about while they were sitting on the plane and when they retrieved the baggage a $3500 Taylor guitar was badly damaged. American Airlines didn't deny it happened but they appeared not to care about it and the Band were getting nowhere with their complaint.
Here is the post on band member Dave Carroll's blog:
"In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise."
You can watch the video here.
Not too long ago this would not have been possible, people simply didn't have this type of voice. Yes, I think social media works very well and I imagine United Airlines have similar views.
A band called Sons of Maxwell have produced the first of three songs about the fact that American Airlines broke his guitar whilst he travelled with them on a tour. The band witnessed baggage handlers throwing their guitars about while they were sitting on the plane and when they retrieved the baggage a $3500 Taylor guitar was badly damaged. American Airlines didn't deny it happened but they appeared not to care about it and the Band were getting nowhere with their complaint.
Here is the post on band member Dave Carroll's blog:
"In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise."
You can watch the video here.
Not too long ago this would not have been possible, people simply didn't have this type of voice. Yes, I think social media works very well and I imagine United Airlines have similar views.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Why don’t all Planning Departments work to the same Planning Guidelines?
I love it when a project starts on site. It’s always refreshing to see the ground breaking with the first cut. Let’s face it the drawings and planning permissions and building warrants etc are all just a formality to get us to the stage that we all want to get to and that’s the start of the build. This is what the Client really wants to see. It’s like Christmas morning for the Client. The arrival of the JCB marks the first tear of wrapping paper.I’ve attached a few images of a new bungalow build for a farmer in Strathaven, South Lanarkshire. Block Architects didn’t design the house we simply negotiated a design through the Planning and Building Warrant Process. The house was supplied by a local timber kit designer/manufacturer and we were happy to assist.
The Planning Process on this house was interesting in that National Planning Policy required the Council to condition us to improve the Carbon Footprint by an increase of 10% over and above the requirements of the current building control regulations. I have been involved recently with other similar builds in other local authority areas and yet we haven’t been asked to meet the same regulations. This is no slight on South Lanarkshire Council. At the end of the day this has the overall benefit to the environment and as Architects I am wholly in support of getting Client’s to think positively of these extra ‘burdens’.I suppose the question of reaching congruency between and within local authorities departments is difficult to answer but surely if this edict comes from high it is a no brainer that all authorities should adopt it?
Monday, 6 July 2009
Update
Hi there
Just to say, lots of posts coming soon, people coming back from holidays now so much to talk about at tomorrow's new media meeting.
Clare
Just to say, lots of posts coming soon, people coming back from holidays now so much to talk about at tomorrow's new media meeting.
Clare
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