SUNDERLAND
EDINBURGH
THE CHISWICK CENTRE
I had a really enjoyable and interesting time at Richard Ellis. I had left Stone, Toms and Partners and travelled overland to Australia on a motorbike (another story), returned to UK , done a degree in Urban Design and there was a slump on. The only people I could get a job with were Richard Ellis, a high faluting firm of surveyors. I had no idea what surveyors were, I had come across quantity surveyors, but this lot turned out much more interesting. They had a big architects department (at one time architects outnumbered surveyors) and they were very clever. Led by Peter Williams, probably the best designer I have ever worked with, their architects were producing some stunning architecture and were not frightened of the most complex refurbishment schemes. More over, because I was interested in the whole development process I was encouraged to mix with the agents, the valuation and funding surveyors, the management team, the building surveyors and see the whole property game in action. And I loved it!
My favourite scheme was the Chiswick Center. A quite frightful 60's office block, from this:-
into this:-
I was both the architect for, and project managed with outside architects, a huge range of office projects at Richard Ellis. Gold Fields and the Clothworkers Hall were immensely challenging and with a talented team of architects like Ray Elliott and Neil Diplock we really achieved a great deal.
But I had the urge to be a a developer. Richard Ellis had whetted my appetite, so I made the career move of my life. To join Gerald Ronson and the Heron Property Corporation.