A £2m office refurbishment converting 23,000 sq. ft. to high specification work space.

The project to refurbish Wakefield House, the former Burmah Castrol UK headquarters built in Swindon in the 1970s, involved the strip out of a ground floor restaurant area and fitting out to form a new call centre and offices for Nationwide Building Society. 

Strong teamwork, a professional approach and the benefits of adopting a negotiated contract meant the Beard team could be proactive in finding specialist solutions and start on site quickly with comprehensive planning and programming.  Co-ordination and communication with the design team was vital for Beard to develop a buildable solution and keep expensive changes to a minimum.  This also enabled all subcontractors to have uninterrupted access on this potentially congested site.

Despite having to incorporate an extra kitchen and re-position a communications room, the team finished under budget and importantly nearly two months early – enabling Nationwide Building Society to move into their new offices before Christmas.
 
The customer and his agents were so pleased with Beard’s professional approach, good relationships with other neighbours and lack of disruption, they have both since awarded Beard further work elsewhere and on other floors of the building.

Challenges & Solutions

Managing and co-ordinating the customer’s own subcontractors with the Beard team.

Working on and around shared ‘live’ systems which had to be isolated and shut down at agreed times.

Planning for noisy operations to take place outside of office hours.

Dealing with customer changes during the project and incorporating them seamlessly, while keeping to schedule.