Rob Brown

Design & Project Management

Portfolio

Please note – All addresses and names of Private clients have been excluded due to standard discretionary practice.

Client side & Contractor side

Redesign and installation of a new concept

within existing trading environments.

This project brief included space planning store

layouts, display stands, new lighting, flooring

and numerous break out areas, some of which

being under the operational control of the

Costa franchise.

Scope of works included all M&E, joinery &

decoration. All works were carried out during

normal opening hours.

A typical project time was 3 – 4 weeks with a

typical cost of £150k, producing a 33% margin.

Leisure, Retail & Military Installations

Contractor Side :- Costa Coffee, USNavy establishments throughout the UK, Randstad various sites across Europe, Kall Kwik, Blackwells Book stores, Coca Cola, Camelot Lottery, National Trust, all big 4 Banks, Marks & Spencer and food preparation establishments have had installations with myself as PM or Designer / PM. It is with great pride I am pleased to say over an 18 month period, not one of these installations had on going maintenance requirements. Again I achieved this by using the utmost attention to detail at all levels of the process.

• I have installed many sports and leisure facilities for Top 100 organisations, council leisure facilities, private clubs and domestic installations. Project values ranged up to £8m.

• I have completed numerous “behind the wire” installations for the Ministry of Defence and the US Navy. These included installations at the Nuclear Research Establishment, Porton Down and the American Global Military Command Centre, Northolt Airfield, Aldershot & Lyneham Military bases.

• Due to the nature of these establishments, re-entry after installations became all but impossible. I am advised the reason behind my selection was down to my known reputation of attention to detail and on site quality inspections. Over a 5 year period, I had no maintenance requests other than client damage.

Client Side :- Pets at Home, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Shaw Trust, MoD, various Independent Restaurants & Coffee Houses.

Project to create fit outs and modifications to existing Specsavers throughout the South West.

Modifications usually consisted of store space planning leading to the creation of new consultation

rooms. Works were carried out in a mix of during normal and out of hours.

Project to construct new VE retail units in out of town shopping centres, including Cribbs Causeway,

Metro Centre, MerryHill & Trafford Centre. All units constructed while shopping centres were open to

the public.

Project involved providing a dedicated area within a BMW showroom, giving totally unique “vibe” for

potential purchasers. As you can see, the use of strong colours & creating a café area provides complete

contrast to the pure white and black used within BMW showrooms.

Projects had to be completed during normal opening hours, without effecting existing trading operations.

Existing BMW display cars were to remain in showrooms while project works were being carried out. More

than 35 installations came under my Project management leadership.

The installation of numerous 20002ft self contained sales area for Sharps Bedrooms within existing and

new Homebase DIY stores Nationwide.

Homebase trading was not affected during the typical 3 week installation. I was personally responsible

for the installation in 90 areas within existing stores and a further 10 inside stores under construction

across the United Kingdom.

Scope of works included all M&E, data, joinery & decoration. All works where carried out during normal

store opening hours.

Position - Installation / Maintenance Manager

• Annual regional turnover circa £26m with direct line management of 60 self employed contractors and 8 PAYE surveyors.

• Sharps had an annual Remedial and Maintenance cost of £1m. Once control of this department was passed to myself to oversee, I reduced costs by £400k, year one, and a further £300k year two.

• I achieved this by ensuring quality of installations became paramount, this included more accurate surveys, designs & incentivising tradesmen to produce best quality workmanship and onsite customer services. I arranged for retraining, where needed of all departments.

• Implemented quality checks throughout every stage of the process, holding people and departments responsible.

• Carried out regular quality inspections.

• Implemented improved Customer expectations throughout all stages.

Being the No1 Project Manager for the

Limelight Group, which owned Sharps

Bedrooms, Mobem, Dolphin Bathrooms,

Alpine Glazing & Kitchens Direct, I had full

responsibility of ensuring products &

stages were complete for 6 consecutive

Ideal Home Exhibitions in Earls Court,

London.

Total project time was 14 days, while

having direct responsibility for a self

employed workforce in an extremely

unionised “Closed shop”.

After the closure of the exhibition on the

final day, it was my responsibility to totally

clear stands within a 6 hour period.

In total more than 300,000 visitors came on

stands I constructed for each of the 6 years

Scope of works included :- Joinery, M&E, data & voice, decoration, Union negotiations & out of hours

remedial works.

Charity work

Shaw Trust Employment and Marie Curie Cancer Care. I was responsible for the designs, maintenance and implementation of fit out and remedial works throughout most of England,

Lancashire to Cornwall, Cardiff to Brighton. This included some 185 fund raising offices, cafes, retail outlets and Hospices

Client Side Contractor Side

Client Side NHS - BHFT, Frimley Health & HWPH Contractor Side NHS (BRI)

Client side, working for BHFT, HWPH & more

recently Frimley Health, Project Managing numerous

Health Care improvements across multiple sites

throughout Surrey and Berkshire.

Bristol Royal Infirmary

(BRI) design and

construction of Paediatric

Intensive Care Unit.

Design and Project

Management of Sterile

Services & Laboratory

clean rooms.

St Marks Hospital – Community Health Clinic, Eating Disorders and Complex Needs.

A visit from the Chairman and the Chief Exec of the NHS England & a visit from Theresa May MP.

Made the national press, Telegraph and Observer. I designed a building for teenage girls with eating

disorders, elderly people with severe physiotherapy needs, & Complex Mental Health problems. The

success of these areas meant since end of Feb 2014, reduced hospital admissions by more than 900

people. This was achieved in part by simple use of colours & fabrics, which produced positive vibes

and a lot of self help.

The out door space, previously derelict, was

covered in a tile system which was made

originally from plastic bottles, which were

recycled into office furniture then into porous

flooring tiles.

Companion Care Veterinary Services

• United Kingdoms largest team of Veterinary surgeries. Usually based within parent company Pets

at Home.

• Following years of relying on inexperienced individuals to advise on Maintenance problems, some

long term, I joined the company to advise on all Building related & maintenance projects and to

provide new practice standards and products which improve the client experience, reduce costs

and to reduce staff turnover. I am pleased to say I have succeeded on all counts.

• I achieved these improvements by changing lighting layouts, using better space management,

using new colour schemes, lighting systems designed to reduce SAD & staff absenteeism.

• I increased quality control over the installation and maintenance processes. Currently a number

of nationwide maintenance service organisations are used. I find these to be generally ineffective

often resulting in numerous repeat visits with little control of costs and onsite quality in terms of

workmanship and staff satisfaction.

• This process has now changed to using more experienced contractors, which is showing

expected savings.

• Installation costs have been reduced by 8 – 9%, which equates to an ongoing annual saving of

circa £350,000 with typically refurbishment / installation times being reduced from 6 weeks to 4.

• 2012 my design of Companion Care first stand alone surgery in Ayr won Gold Award for best

design throughout UK.

Client Side

Animal welfare facility, Paderborn, Germany, for use by NATO forces. “Behind the wire”

facility mainly for use of treating working dogs injured in operational works.

I have also worked in animal welfare facilities

at Porton Down, MoD facility in Wiltshire.

I have also been No.1 PM for works in many clean rooms, surgical theatres and laboratory

environments throughout the UK and mainland Europe.

Project & Maintenance Manager

• A company where quality of service and product was paramount, clients included members of the

Royal Family (UK & Worldwide) & “A list” celebrities from around the world. Customer satisfaction

had to be at the highest possible standard without compromise or exception.

• My “region” was stated as Northern Hemisphere.

• Projects, often overseas, where cost of installation and maintenance could easily run to 300%

greater than similar installations in the UK. To ensure this uplift was kept to an absolute minimum,

I increased the attention to detail of materials, workmanship from all stakeholders ensure design,

surveying and installation was at the highest possible standards. I implemented strict supplier

service agreements.

• With these processes in place, remedial works fell to below 2%

Senior member Royal family. Private apartment in Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge.

Brief – to refurbish private apartment lounge, kitchen and bathroom.

Budget to be under £100k. Timescale – 12 weeks maximum.

Scope of works – Remove existing floorboards, install a fully sprung flooring system to all areas except kitchen. Install pure silk wall coverings to lounge, Italian marble to kitchen walls, bathroom floor and walls. Kitchen splash backs to be Welsh slate. Bespoke units made from reclaimed English oak.

Rewiring throughout, refurbishment of all existing doors, skirting boards and windows. Windows to have bomb proof security film installed.

Suppliers – I contacted numerous High End supplier MD’s or Sales Directors, explained the job. Obtained discounts down to material costs.

Decorators were from previous projects, widely known to

be in the World’s top ten artists at the time.

All works completed with in house staff except window

film, which was solely due to project insurance policy.

Project cost – £48k – Timescale 9 weeks

Camelot – Lottery, Marketing Suite, Head Quarters, Watford

• Client brief – To design / produce large area,circa 3000 m2, where designers canproduce new scratch card & standard lotterygames. Area must have numerous chill outzones, play rooms, kitchen, daylight lighting,Feng Shui feature in the manner of a 3dimensional water feature, bespoke joineryand hot donut / pastries vending machines.

• In addition to above, area is to be occupiedby up to 60 full time staff with desk modulesand full office furniture features with 3 touchdown areas.

• Project duration under 8 weeks, after week5, area is to be partially handed back toMarketing Department for daily use.

• Week 7 and 8, entire area will be handedback to client

Feng Shui feature.The concept of the design feature came about after numerous conversations with Feng Shui experts in order to understand the concept behind this method of design.

I decided on the design shape to be that of the £ symbol which was to have flowing water over the vertical and curved elements of the symbol. The water was to flow away from the large double door entrance lobby, and force “positive energy” towards the working area of all staff, as is recognised by experts of this design principle.

Clear acrylic and stainless steel formed the bespoke feature with water being captured and recycled from a aerofoil shaped trough filled with Icelandic and Hawaiian volcanic rock.

Touch down zones - Three individual areas created using different materials, curved glass, hardwood & natural stone.

Flooring was a mix of carpet tiles, copper tread plate and Ice effect laminate.

Lighting installed was a mix of wall wash, recessed modules, up lighters & colour changing feature lights.

Bespoke Joinery, a mix of poplar, ash & teak. Manufactured off site.

Staff kitchen – Full working kitchen including food prep areas for large meetings.

Ideas room – One main feature of the design was to construct a room which would inspire creative designers to produce newgames and revenue streams. The walls were covered using material commonly used in construction of dry wipe boards. Thismaterial was floor to ceiling, with bespoke informal soft seating for 8 individuals.

The ideas room has proved to be a great success, as it was in this area the Euro millions lottery, Thunderball and numerousscratch cards were conceived.

Project budget was £200k. Project cost £120k. Original timescale was 8 weeks, project completed in 6 weeks.

Full refurbishment of private residence – Little Venice, London.

Brief – Refurbish large family home in

Central London retaining original features

of the Edwardian period with 21st century

“twist”.

Budget £1,400,000 – Project Duration 5

months, Strip out by others.

Kitchen

40mm Limestome flooring throughout

basement (kitchen) and ground floor.

Hand made bespoke sinks & taps, Bespoke kitchen units - Hand painted.

Installation of antique fire surround, Granite worktops, voice activated refrigeration system

Source and supply / installation bespoke soft, window furnishings.

Drawing Room/ Summer Room/ Morning Room and Lounge

Installation of sprung load floorboards prior to installation of handmade Wilton monogrammed carpets, rugs and stair flooring. Commissioned 3 bespoke chandeliers.

Bedrooms and Dressing Rooms

6 walk in dressing rooms with bespoke British Columbia Cedar furniture. Bespoke monogrammed 24 carat gold and platinum signage to 7 walk in bespoke hand painted wardrobes.

Bathrooms

Installation of 4 two man whirlpool baths & Installation of 2 four man steam rooms. One with moonstone designed hidden lit ceilings featuring the astronomical skies as seen from Southern California*.

Design and Installation of matching Murano glass bowls.

Miscellaneous

Full rewiring and lighting throughout property.

Full sound / media system to all rooms / areas (B&O supplied media).

Restoration of existing internal fire sounds, doors and door furniture throughout property.

Installation of Panic Room & typical home security.

Purchase and installation of soft furnishings.

•One steam room was in the client’s teenage daughter. She requested the steam room was to have a moonstone ceiling with an exact sky map of stars visible on her birthday from their home in Beverley Hills. In order to achieve this, I met with experts and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. A detailed map was produced and used as a template for holes to be drilled on site using different size drills and varying lamps giving the appearance of stars being bigger or closer to Earth.

Cost of project £1,050,000. A further 5 projects were as a direct result in testomy to the quality and customer satisfaction I provided throughout this and following projects / designs.

Grade 2 Listed properties Central London.

King Hussein of Jordan & Sheikh Mohammed Crown Prince of

Dubai.

Project briefs –Duration 12 – 14 weeks per project. Spend £400k & £450k projects.

Bespoke Joinery, furniture and decorations throughout all bedrooms in both properties.

Both properties very similar in style overlooking

Hyde Park.

One project was to design and install full range of bedroom

furniture was produced using English Oak with teak & maple

interiors. All fittings solid (not plated) 24 carrot gold, hand produced handles to

all doors and drawers.

Safe rooms installed.

The other project was to replicate Louis XIV furniture with

concealed compartments and entrances to en suite

facilities. To ensure scaling and construction methods were fully

accurate, specific trades spent time in Paris at the client’s insistence.

Numerous areas were hand painted using the best available artists known from previous contracts.

Project margins over 60%, with both clients placing many repeat orders.

Rothschild Bank

Full fit out of executive floor.

Project brief – 4 weeks duration, £125k, all

works to be undertaken during normal hours.

A mix of individual offices, meeting rooms,

and reception suite.

Scope of works, supply raised access flooring with data and power supplies back to Comms room.

New decoration, silicon jointed single and double glazed partitions, touch down and chill out area.

Independent lighting with PAR sensors. New door entry security system. Terrorism evacuation system.

New flooring. Office furniture and soft seating throughout.

Project was completed in 4 weeks with 42% margin. Following the success of this project, I was

awarded all UK maintenance & “minor” works of Rothschild properties without having to tender.