Celebrating the North East built environment

A prestigious project at Durham University took three awards – Value, Offsite Project of the Year and Building Project of the Year, at the Constructing Excellence North East Awards 2021.

The Durham University – Mount Oswald project was led by Tilbury Douglas, Durham University, Equitix, Willmore Iles Architects Limited, PCE Ltd, Campus Living Villages, BSAP, Jackson Coulson and Curtins.

The £80 million project involved the construction of a new location for the John Snow College and a new college, resulting in 1,000 student rooms at the Mount Oswald site, south of the city.

Tilbury Douglas, a leading UK building, infrastructure, engineering and fit out company, took home a further two awards for their work at Wolsingham Sewage Treatment Works Growth Improvement making it an impressive five awards on the night and two highly commended.

Headline sponsor at the awards evening was CDM Recruitment. Category sponsors were CIOB, DAC Beachcroft, Esh Construction, Faithful+Gould, Muckle LLP, Northumbrian Water Group, Tilbury Douglas and drinks reception sponsor, Turner & Townsend.

Other award category winners were –

Integration & Collaborative Working: Dame Margert Barbour Building, Newcastle. Led by GSS Architecture, Newcastle University, Robertson Construction, Couch Perry and Wilkes, Summers Inman, Billinghurst George and Partners, Identity Consult and Oobe.

Client of the Year: Teesside University.

SME of the Year: Applebridge Construction.

People Development: GT3 Architects.

Health, Safety & Wellbeing: Northumbrian Water Living Well.

Civils Project of the Year: Wolsingham Sewage Treatment Works Growth Improvement – Tilbury Douglas, Northumbrian Water Ltd, Wood PLC, Stortec, Aquardia, Intelect and Xylem.

 Sustainability: Core 364, Sunderland – Gentoo Group, Engie Regeneration Ltd, Hall and Partners, Kensa Heat Pumps, Armstrong Priestly, BA Electrical, DTA Consulting Engineers, Sunamp and Switchee.

Innovation: Wolsingham Sewage Treatment Works Growth Improvement – Tilbury Douglas, Northumbrian Water Ltd, Wood PLC, Sirius, Aquardia, Seepex and JHT.

 Conservation and Regeneration: Seaton Delaval Hall – Mosedale Gillatt Architects, The National Trust, Historic Property Restoration, Todd Milburn Partnership, Blackett-Ord Conservation Engineers, Sine Consulting and Southern Green.

Winners will go on to the national final in January at the London Grosvenor Square Marriott Hotel.

Tim Bailey, chair, Constructing Excellence in the North East, said: “Hats off to the Durham University, Mount Oswald project, led by Tilbury Douglas, which was a stand-out winner across three categories, highlighting the impact of forming strong collaborative partnerships.

“It was also clear to see the importance of emerging themes throughout all the awards, especially sustainability, people development, value and innovation.  As a sector, we are encouraging everyone to put their support behind our recently launched OneVoice campaign, where we will continue to inspire the cultural change necessary to ensure North East England is recognised as a beacon of best practice for construction delivery across the UK.”

Mark Gardham, regional director, Tilbury Douglas, said: “Mount Oswald is a game-changer, the new student accommodation and social and academic space is exemplar. The design, build, finance and operate team structure and nature of the work, provided an ideal opportunity to think and act differently. The Mount Oswald scheme directly addresses many of the current Government Construction Playbook themes by embracing digital and off-site technologies, supporting collaboration, driving efficiencies to provide sustainable outcomes, as well as delivering exceptional customer and student experiences.”

Chris Tyerman, managing director of Infrastructure at Tilbury Douglas, added: “We are proud that the team’s hard work on the Wolsingham scheme has been recognised. Utilising Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and off-site construction, we were able to efficiently deliver this project with additional cost, time and safety benefits.”