monday morning ingenium - files.ctctcdn.comfiles.ctctcdn.com/92a776ee001/5057f83e-c06b-4c44-b... ·...

Monday Morning Ingenium 25th May 2015

IN REVIEW

Too Many Meetings

by: Victor Smith

Last week was a short one for our Canadian staff as Monday was a statutory holiday in this country. Our U.S. and U.K. offices will enjoy a similar day off this week. It’s a good opportunity to rest up and prepare for new challenges ahead.

Indeed, the rest of last week was a busy one, punctuated by many, many meetings.

Tuesday began with our regular weekly calls to the Middle East and the U.K. We typically spend the best part of an hour with each group to review current operating

issues, business development prospects, financial status and regulatory activities.

We had undertaken detailed Q1 reviews with each of these groups only two weeks ago so there were no big surprises.

It was interesting, though, that several of our staff had visited Qatar a day or so before and reported a growing trend for new development in response to the upcoming 2022 World Cup. Yahya Jan, in fact, stayed on for an additional day to meet up with past clients and business partners in order to explore the prospects in more detail.

Sadly, over the previous weekend one of our resident site staff passed away at home. Syed Arifuddin was a mechanical inspector on the Boulevard Address site. We’ve been working with his family since them to help them deal with their affairs.

In the U.K., we are seeing continuing signs of strength with new project awards and earned revenue at the highest level since we acquired the business back in 2010. As a result, we have the usual growing pains of recruitment, office accommodation and recognition for those employees who have worked with us over the past 4 ½ years to turn the business around.

We’re still waiting for news on several large projects that will hopefully take us to the next level again. It’s an exciting time for Archial NORR.

Next on my agenda was the weekly call to Pat Blais in Westpro’s Calgary office. Again, the discussion focused on the completion of current projects and opportunities for new work. All seems to be going in accordance with our plan, in spite of bad news in the oil and gas markets. Pat has progressively built up our Alberta operation over the past few years and is increasing its profitability. We have seen success not only in the groups traditional small scale municipal infrastructure sector but also now with commercial and institutional design-build work. Look for an announcement about Pat later on in the MMI. Once again, this is very much a good news story!

On Tuesday afternoon, we held our weekly Corporate Activity review meeting, in which a small group of us attempt to coordinate all of the major corporate events that are happening within Ingenium. This includes everything from banking, bonding, insurances, real estate, investment opportunities and legal issues. Currently, we are in the process of renewing our overall banking facilities with HSBC, extending our bonding capacity with Marsh and reviewing our professional liability insurance terms and conditions with our policy providers.

On Wednesday, I met with Jacqui Souter to discuss our staffing needs in various offices and her upcoming visit to Dubai to roll out the new payroll program. We also talked about amendments to our

MMI – 25th May 2015

medical benefits plan for the Middle East group which promises to offer better service at a reduced price.

There has been a tremendous amount of activity for Jacqui and her team lately, as our staffing needs have been extremely dynamic across all of Ingenium, to put it mildly.

That afternoon I met with Colin Soule, Silvio Baldassarra, Dave Barrington, George Bitsakakis and Glenn Ackerley from our legal firm, WeirFoulds. The meeting was to review contract issues surrounding some of our larger projects. What is very clear to all of us is that as project size and complexity increases the liability to our firm becomes far greater than ever before.

From here on in, the review and negotiation of contract terms and conditions will become a critical part of our future success and we need to increase our ability to manage this activity.

Thursday was relatively meeting-free and was spent developing the presentation for our upcoming Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. Those of you who are shareholders should have received, by now, your copy of the Annual Financial Statements and the Report to Shareholders. The meeting is intended to provide a little more insight into last year’s results and our forecast for 2015, as well as provide an opportunity for discussion and questions.

The formal meeting will be held on June 4th at 4:00 pm in NORR’s Toronto offices. Earlier web conference versions of the same material will be conducted on June 3rd at 8:00 am and 11:00 am Toronto time to allow people in other time zones to receive the same presentation.

On Friday morning, Silvio, George, Jonathan Hughes and myself held our regular weekly get-together to go over the status of our Ontario operations. There are a large number of major new pursuits either underway or scheduled to commence over the next few months and all of these have their unique staffing requirements.

After that Marc Turcotte and I caught up with Gord Mann at Westpro’s Vancouver office as we do most weeks. Gord has had some recent new awards and is seeing other interesting new tender prospects on a regular basis a well. The year is now beginning to look much more promising.

Then a quick meeting with Ileana Dudu and Marwan Afara to review the progress of our transition away from TIMS. As you can imagine, this is a major initiative and needs to be adapted to the specific needs of each of our business units. Our concern at this point is about doing this as well as we can, rather than meeting an artificial timeline.

Finally I spoke with Brian Gerstmar at length about our U.S. operations. In spite of a relatively weak showing in Q1, we now believe we will see much better results for the rest of the year. Everyone is busy and the pressure is on again!

That was the week. I didn’t necessarily get to touch base with every part of our business, yet I got a pretty good sense of the pulse of the organization. Overall, I’d say it’s in pretty good health.


IN THE FIELD

North East Priority School Programme well into construction

John Baird – Director (Archial NORR Newcastle)

Archial NORR, Newcastle, UK – Archial NORR are part of the Kier Construction team for the Government’s Priority School Building Programme (PSBP). The £64m contract includes 4 secondary and 3 primary schools as part of the PSBP commission (North East Priority School programe). The schools are:

Secondary Schools St Anthony’s Catholic Girls’ Academy, Sunderland (1,500 pupils and a 400 pupil sixth form)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_form Grangefield Academy, Stockton-on-Tees St Michael’s Catholic Academy, Stockton-on-Tees Manor College of Technology Hartlepool

Primary Schools Barnard Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, Hartlepool Grove Primary School, Hartlepool Handale Primary School, Redcar and Cleveland

The first school to start construction was the £15.4 million St Anthony’s Girls’ Catholic Academy which is being constructed on the grounds of the existing Thornhill Road school to provide places for 1,050 pupils and a 400 pupil sixth form. The ground breaking ceremony initially appeared in the April 24, 2014 issue of the MMI.

MMI April 24, 2014: http://goo.gl/ccjzRT

St Anthony’s Catholic Girls’ Academy


Because of the location of the school, in the middle of a residential and conservation area, the development will be phased over two years while the school remains in full operation.

Phil McDowell, project co-ordinator for Kier Construction said: “It has been a really complex project and has taken an awful lot of planning.”

The listed buildings at the front of St Anthony’s, which celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2014, will be kept and refurbished in keeping with the historic nature of the area.

All 7 schools are to be complete by September 2016.

Grangefield Academy under construction


IN OUR OFFICES

Babraham Biotech Research and Development Campus

Archial NORR London, UK – Archial NORR have provided ongoing architectural design services for the Babraham Institute, Cambridge Biotech Research and Development Campus (BRC) for over 12 years.

In the March 10, 2014 issue of the MMI we reported on Archial NORR’s work on buildings – B580, B930 and B920. MMI March 10, 2014: http://goo.gl/JpQYWX

Since then buildings B580 and B930 have been completed and B920 is well into construction. Click on the attached image to view photos of the 3 buildings.

B580 Babraham Institute

Both the site plan and aerial view below, will help to highlight the overall scope and magnitude of work that Archial NORR have been involved with for BRC.

The buildings highlighted on the attached site plan indicate the projects that Archial NORR have been involved with for the past 12 years. Buildings B580, 930 and 920 are the most current projects and B910 The Jonas Webb Building being officially opened in June 2013.

B580

B920b

B930b

B930d

B920a

B930a

B930c

B930e


THE INSIDE STORY

Carling Campus team celebrates next phase of work Jonathan Hughes Vice President, Public Buildings (NORR Canada)

NORR Ottawa / Toronto, Ontario – In the January 5, 2015 issue of the MMI, I announced that Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) selected NORR as the successful consultant team for the 3500 Carling Avenue (Carling Campus), a three-phase, 2.5 million sf project.

Last week the Carling Team celebrated a new start to Phase 2 of the Carling Campus project. We have increased our scope significantly on this project having taken over all of the interior design and fixtures, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) work.

Over 24 people attended the celebration, half from NORR and half from our client, Brookfield Johnson Controls.

In the photo, you will sense the team’s optimism and professional collaboration.


In the first 10 months of Phase 1 we have learned a lot which will be applied to Phase 2.

These large projects need constant attention to team dynamics to ensure everyone is performing well and that the client is satisfied with the overall results. Strong leadership and open and consistent communication is the best way to ensure a good team dynamic. Celebrations such as these help with team-building and overall group dynamics.

The cost to re-fit the Campus is expected to be approximately $506 million over 6 years. This includes pre-planning studies, design and the construction of the necessary base building upgrades, special purpose space, IT, security, and re-fit of the buildings.

The total cost of this consolidation is estimated at $755.5 million (GST/HST excluded). This includes the purchase price of the Campus ($208.3 million), re-fit costs ($506 million) and the transition costs ($41.2 million). To read more about the PWGSC Carling Campus Initiative click on the attached link.

http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/biens-property/carlingcampus-eng.html

MMI January 5, 2015: http://goo.gl/J4AS9s

About Brookfield Johnson Controls: https://goo.gl/Lji1Qz


INGENIUM PEOPLE NEWS

New Promotion – Director of Construction Victor Smith – CEO (Ingenium)

I’m pleased to announce that Pat Blais has been promoted to Director of Construction for Westpro’s Alberta operations. Pat has been progressively growing our presence and our reputation in the province over the past few years, and has demonstrated a strong ability to win, perform and successfully complete a wide range of infrastructure and building projects.

Most recently, he was responsible for leading the Design-Build proposal for a new municipal facility in Okotoks, in partnership with NORR’s Calgary office. The project was awarded to Westpro earlier this year and is currently under construction.

Please join me in congratulating Pat for his contribution to the company and for continued success in his new role.

-------------------------------

Employee Anniversaries Leslie Andrade – Human Resources, PR Coordinator (NORR Dubai) Caroline Belgado – Human Resources Administrator (Ingenium Rexdale) Beth Sheppard – Payroll & Benefits Manager (Archial NORR UK)

Toronto, Ontario – Today we would like to recognize the following individuals who have reached specific employment anniversaries with Ingenium in the month of May. At the end of each month we recognize those employees who have reached either their first three year anniversary or a five year incremental anniversary (5, 10, 15 years etc.).

Congratulations and thank-you to all of the dedicated people listed below.

20 Years Thomas Dreesen (Giffels Toronto)

10 Years Dale Hough (Archial NORR Leeds)

5 Years Rio Antao (NORR Abu Dhabi) Barat Binish (NORR Calgary) Lawrence Kowalski (NORR Detroit) Rejean Sabourin (Giffels Montreal) Yolanda Wong (Ingenium Toronto)

3 Years Jeffrey Brock (NORR Detroit) Gabriel Colombani (NORR Toronto) Gerard Dessureau (NORR Ottawa) Julia Gankin (NORR Detroit) Kalena Haddad (NORR Ottawa) Rachelle Lacasse (NORR Detroit) Nam Nguyen (NORR Detroit)


-------------------------------

New Hires Leslie Andrade – Human Resources, PR Coordinator (NORR Dubai) Caroline Belgado – Human Resources Administrator (Ingenium Rexdale) Beth Sheppard – Payroll & Benefits Manager (Archial NORR UK)

We are happy to welcome the following new members to our teams in Dubai, Newcastle, Calgary and Leeds.

Name, Title: Group: Started:

Sabeesh Baskaran, Document Controller NORR Dubai, UAE May 10h

Sabeesh, (ex-employee of NORR, India), has joined the Construction Services Department and is working on “Al Zorah Resort Hotel” Project in Ajman. Sabeesh holds a Diploma in Software Engineering. He joins us with 12 years of experience in Document Control and Secretarial work.


Joseph Curtis, Architectural Assistant Part I Archial NORR Newcastle, UK May 5th

Joseph joins Archial NORR as an Architectural Assistant Part I. Joseph has a BSc (Hons) Architecture, from Queens University, Belfast. Joseph has previously worked at Napper Architects and JDDK Architects.


Jarrid Hrupp, Architectural Technician NORR Calgary, Alberta May 25th

Jarrid joins NORR as Architectural Technician. A recent graduate of the Architectural Technology program at SAIT Polytechnic, Jarrid is proficient in AutoCAD, Revit, Google SketchUp, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Lumion. While at SAIT, he was involved in the design of buildings that conformed to building code, design guidelines, city bylaws, and appropriate building science techniques. In addition to this he worked as a Draftsman for Waste and Water Tech Ltd where some of his responsibilities included utilizing AutoCAD to draft waste water lift stations, using Google Sketchi to create 3D pump renderings.


Jeremey Klassen, Architectural Technician NORR Calgary, Alberta May 25th

Jeremey joins NORR as Architectural Technician. With extensive experience in the construction industry and in design and drafting, Jeremey brings to NORR knowledge of Provincial and Federal building codes and industry standard practice and proficiency in AutoCAD and Revit drafting software. In addition to this Jeremey has experience in the preparation and revision of drawings, submission of plans for architectural control and permit applications, drafting finalized design into working drawings, and in preparation of contract, quote, and design information for client review. Jeremey has most recently worked at ATCO Structures and Logistics.


Matthew Naylor, Senior Architectural Technologist Archial NORR Leeds, UK May 11th

Matthew joins Archial NORR as an Senior Architectural Technologist. Matthew has previously worked at John R Paley and Associates, Stephen George and Partners and Watkins Gray International.



Joseph Noronha, Senior Site Architect NORR Dubai, UAE May 5th

Joseph, (ex-employee of NORR, Dubai and India), has joined the Construction Services Department and is working on “The Address Boulevard Hotel” Project in Dubai. Joseph holds Diploma in Architecture and has 35 years of international experience in supervision of Architectural site works.


Adam Pearson, Senior Structural Engineer NORR Calgary, Alberta May 20th

Adam joins NORR as Senior Structural Engineer. Through extensive experience in residential and commercial projects, Adam brings to NORR knowledge and experience in concrete steel, steel structures, wood, steel design, structural analysis engineering, and detailing. Some of his responsibilities at his previous roles have included project management, business development, and analysis and design of building in all major materials. Adam has worked at Entuitive, Halsall Associates, and Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd.


Islam Shafei, Senior Resident Engineer NORR Group Consultants International Limited May 24th

Islam is our new colleague and will be joining Construction Services Department and working on “SkyView” Project in Dubai. Islam holds Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural Engineering and has 21 years of international experience in Contract Administration and Site Supervision.


IN THE INDUSTRY

2015 BOMA Awards Toronto

The BOMA Toronto Awards program recognizes excellence in buildings, their management teams and individuals and companies that have contributed to the betterment of the industry and the Building Owners and Managers Association.

This year SNC-Lavalin O&M and Infrastructure Ontario won an Earth Award for the Waterloo Regional Consolidated Courthouse (WRCC). The Award recognizes buildings and their teams for excellence in environmental management in the real estate industry.

The 7-storey WRCC is one of the largest courthouses in Ontario housing 30 courtrooms, 2 Intake courtrooms and 6 conference settlement rooms to service the Criminal, First Appeal, Jury, Family/ Civil and the Multiple Accused High Security Court.

NORR provided Architecture, Interior Design and Structural Engineering services for the project.

http://www.norr.com/projects/waterloo-region-consolidated-courthouse-39

The overall top scoring building is eligible to move on to the BOMA Canada National Awards and if successful, on to the BOMA International Awards.


IN THE NEWS

New urban resort – Hotel X – rises at the Ex Globe & Mail, May 18, 2015

Featured in the MMI April 20, 2015, the recently topped off, five-star, 406 room Hotel X, was featured in the Globe and Mail on May 18, 2015.

To read the full storey and what David Northcote, Principal Hospitality, NORR Toronto had to say about the project, click on the attached image.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/new-urban-resort-hotel-x-rises-at-the-ex/article24455668/

monday morning ingenium - files.ctctcdn.comfiles.ctctcdn.com/92a776ee001/5057f83e-c06b-4c44-b... ·...

Documents