LABC Building Excellence Awards 2021 winner: Best Non-residential Extension or Alteration

27.01.2022

Press Release

More than 750 leading construction industry figures attended the LABC Building Excellence Awards at the Westminster Park Plaza Hotel to acclaim best practise, quality and standards in construction.

These were the first Building Excellence Awards since 2019 following the global pandemic and LABC has revised the awards to focus more on professional skills and competence – dividing the awards into two: ‘people’ and ‘places’.

A panel of industry experts judged a list of the highest quality projects and teams from around England and Wales to showcase solutions to complex technical or construction issues, site constraints, technical innovation and the building control professionalism that leads to safe, sustainable and high quality construction projects.

LABC is delighted to announce the winner of the Best Non-residential Extension or Alteration is the new General Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital, Southampton.

The project to deliver a new Intensive Care Unit was started pre-pandemic when no-one realised just how important the new facility would prove to be. When COVID-19 arrived, suddenly delivery of this facility became ultra-critical and the whole team had to pull together to get it handed over to the NHS as quickly as possible. With little time for pre-planning, operating procedures were adapted to be Covid secure as possible, a one-way route around site was introduced as was social distancing, along with a mandatory mask policy (long before this was mainstream) and the office and canteen significantly adapted. It took a monumental effort to do this, including significant personal sacrifice by everyone involved, but the project was handed over earlier than planned, giving the NHS critical additional Intensive Care beds at a time when they were needed so badly.

Congratulating the team, Lorna Stimpson, LABC Chief Executive said,

“These new style awards reflect LABC’s new focus on skills, quality and competency and reflect the best in construction from a technical perspective. The team faced – and overcame – the most extraordinary circumstances – a crumbling supply chain and anxious workforce when COVID first hit. They pulled quickly together as a team, introducing COVID secure measures and motivating the entire supply chain. The NHS was delighted and relieved to take ownership of the new facility, delivered on budget and ahead of time”.