- Client: The Royal Bank of Scotland
- Role: Quantity Surveying Services
- Value: £400 million (all phases)
- Programme: 2001 – 2006
- Procurement: NEC Option A
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Project Description
Headquarters Building of 700,000sq ft including a 200m long covered street with retail outlets for the enjoyment of the 3,500 staff, a Conference Centre including a 600 seat auditorium, a Leisure Building, a staff social building created from the existing Gogar Burn House integrating existing sandstone outbuildings and estate walls, Nursery and Crèche facilities, an iconic bridge provides access to the Estate from the A8 – Edinburgh Road, the Estate has been developed sympathetically in terms of the soft & hard landscaping with several hundred mature trees planted to provide woodland walk areas for the staff, Strategic Executive Building creating from existing Gogar Park House, RBS Business School (based on Harvard Business School), opened earlier than the Client’s brief and within budget.
This was a bespoke development for RBS Headquarters. The vast majority of the development was new build including the new build main headquarter building and the Business School. However there were also several existing buildings which were incorporated into the development either in entirety and subject to a complete refurbishment and some that were existing facades that were incorporated within a redeveloped building.
The main building was built to have 3,500 staff. Although the project was completed in 2008 we have been involved in several further phases since including the changing of the Executive Block to general offices and the redevelopment of the toilet blocks. Due to the changes internally at the Royal Bank, Doig+Smith through our Framework Agreement have also been involved in rationalising resources from a larger estate into a more streamlined set of buildings across the UK including Gogarburn as its headquarter building.
Technical Capacity
The team comprise of the following:
- Project Director;and
- Lead Quantity Surveyor
Our Role / Scope
Full Quantity Surveying/Commercial Service including Detailed Cost Planning, developing the Procurement Strategy, preparation of contract documentation and commercial management of the works on site through to successful completion.
Awards Achieved
- Scottish Quality in Planning Award 2006
- EAA Awards 2006 Top Prize
- Scottish Design Awards
- Best Commercial Project
- Best Interior Commendation
- Property Executive Magazine Awards 2006 – Office Award
- BIAL Landscape Award 2006
Benefits To Client
- Innovation & Sustainability: Doig+Smith brought considerable innovation to its delivery on this project. The initial delivery was during boom times. Thus, as well as having to provide robust Cost Management services in the cost planning our brief was clear which was to deliver to a completion date and to a budget for the original scheme of £350M. How to procure to deliver these targets was key. Key was to understand the critical path and the drivers that existed. The frame elements (substructure, superstructure, roof and envelope) and the building services were all competitively tendered through 2 stage tenders and then converted to Design & Build.
- Excluding building services there was approximately £30M of works. In an already busy market there was a worry that we would not secure the high quality tradesmen and companies that was required for this prestigious project. We thus, developed a bespoke ‘Framework’ agreement for the Fit Out elements and secured the Fit Out contractors required 9 months before they were due to commence on site. Sustainability was key on this project. ‘Daylight’ lighting was key. Reed-beds were integrated into the soft landscaping for the surface water run off.
- Phot voltaic panels and a significant area of green roof was also introduced.
- Partnering and Collaboration: It is fair to say that Gogarburn would not have been built without a partnering approach. The backdrop to that project was that it was being built just after the Scottish Parliament had been completed and the focus was on the team to deliver the programme and on budget. Thus, the initiative around developing the Fit Out Framework and ensuring value for money both in a cost and programme manner was imperative.
- By developing Frameworks and transparent procurement routes follow on work elements were able to be procured and contracted on quickly thus ensuring continuity throughout the delivery.
- In the subsequent years the works have been delivered through the RBS Framework Agreement including the alterations to the Executive Block, alterations to toilets and migration of Departments into Gogarburn and other main buildings. These works have all been done in a collaboration with the RBS Project Team, Contractors and ourselves working together on these works.
- As noted above our key influence has been in our pro-activity around procurement and during the Supply Chain. It is important to have a detailed understanding of the market and how to achieve the best procurement route to achieve delivery. This we achieved on this project.
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