A best practice resource for FE property
Paul Allen
Paul founded AA Projects Ltd in 1999 as a specialist education consultancy and brings over 19 years’ experience of education property strategies and estate rationalisation. Paul’s particular specialist expertise is within the Further Education and Sixth Form College sector, where he is recognised for his expertise in interpreting college requirements into robust strategies and affordable business cases leading to the creation of inspiring learning environments.
During his career, Paul has worked extensively with the Principals, senior management teams and governing bodies of numerous colleges throughout the United Kingdom taking their visions and turning them into reality.
Paul and his team now play a vital role in assisting colleges with their area review preparation and in implementing the recommendations arising from the associated reports.
Paul has also been a member of the RIBA/AOC Further Education Forum since its early formulation, assisting with the dissemination of best practice and guidance within the sector.
AA Projects Ltd offers a management and property consultancy service delivering robust and innovative solutions, supported by best practice. We pride ourselves on achieving best value for clients, providing up-to-date knowledge of property solutions, procurement, financing and the complete management of the construction process. Our specialist services include strategic management, project management, quantity surveying, facilities management, building surveying, energy and sustainability consultancy, educational services, and health & safety expertise.
Melanie Brooke
Melanie Brooke is Vice-Principal of Kirklees College which is one of the biggest colleges in the country with a vast range of courses to choose from including part time, full time and HE. Based at the heart of Yorkshire, the college has a number of specialist centres including two new state of the art vocational centres which have opened in the last two years serving the local population, communities and businesses of Kirklees.
Melanie has contributed to the ‘Coping with Cuts’ Best Practice paper.
John Bryan
John Bryan founded Bond Bryan Architects in 1987, and over 20 years led the development of the practice and its specialism in FE strategies and projects. He stepped back from the leadership in 2007, standing down from the practice a few year’s later. Since then he has chaired several business’ and a cancer charity, and trained as a coach and mentor. He also provides consultancy in FE, and in practice management. He has been part of the Forum since its inception, and has been chair and convenor since 2006. He has overseen the Forum’s development in to a cross-profession knowledge community, and led on the recent best practice initiative
Philip Head
Philip J Head BSc (Hons) FRICS is a seasoned estates professional and Chartered Surveyor with over 40 years experience in industrial, commercial and educational property, much of it at senior management level for public sector organisations. These include Milton Keynes Development Corporation, the Welsh Development Agency and from 1994 the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) and its successor bodies the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and, most recently, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) as Director of Capital. Retiring from the SFA in 2011 he now specialises in advising and mentoring further education colleges and other educational bodies and institutions on devising, developing and implementing property strategies, capital programmes and projects and applying for grants. He is also a Governor of Gloucestershire College and a member of the AoC RIBA Forum and from 2012-14 was the non-executive Chair of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills Estates Transition Programme’s Executive Management Board and Steering Group.
Jonathan Herbert
Jonathan is Managing Director at Bond Bryan. He also provides Director oversight on some of Bond Bryan Architect’s more significant Further and Higher Education projects. He has over 20 years experience at Bond Bryan and has worked for a range of education clients as well as within other sectors. Jonathan is responsible for leading the development of Bond Bryan’s long-term strategy and overall performance; he also retains responsibility to our Board for the performance of our Research and Development Team; the team offers specialist advice to clients with large estates in the public sector as well as ensuring our Education Design practice is well informed.
Jonathan is principal author of the ‘Conducting Project Reviews’ Best Practice Paper
With UK-based design studios in London, Sheffield and Kent, plus representatives across the globe, our work embraces the worlds of Strategic Property Advice, Masterplanning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design. Our 100 strong workforce is highly skilled and experienced, all our senior staff have been with us for at least four years and the majority over ten.
Carol Lelliott
Carol Lelliott MA(Cantab) Dip Arch (Cantab) RIBA is a partner at Nicholas Hare Architects and helped set up the practice more than 30 years ago when she graduated from the University of Cambridge. She particularly enjoys education design and has been involved in a variety of FE and HE projects including the new Joseph Chamberlain College which won both the RIBA/LSC Design Excellence Award and the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award in 2009. Her most recent projects include the sustainable re-invention of an existing iconic sixties building as a collaborative learning and research campus for the University of Cambridge and a new student learning centre for UCL. She is also interested in the impact buildings have on public realm and has supported CABE as an enabler and the Civic Trust as an assessor.
Carol is principal author of the ‘Good Client Relationships’ Best Practice Paper.
Nicholas Hare Architects is an award-winning practice with special experience of designing for education. The scale of our projects ranges from renewals and re-inventions to major new college and university buildings.
We enjoy working collaboratively generating ideas that are inspired by the unique context of the site and our client’s aspirations that we analyse and evaluate together. The emerging designs are always fresh, responsive and thoroughly interrogated. It also means that our projects are quite different although guided by some consistent values and principles. Chief amongst these are a responsibility towards sustainable design and a determination to create buildings that provide exceptional living, learning and working environments.
We are committed to collaboration in our work with other consultants and constructors too as we believe teamwork and the development of fully integrated designs are the key to the successful delivery of projects.
Anne Tyrrell
Anne Tyrrell has worked in Further Education for over 30 years and is currently Principal and Chief Executive at North Lindsey College in North Lincolnshire. The large College campus based in Scunthorpe, combines buildings which existed when the College opened in 1953, to more recent investment in STEM and in the College’s University Centre. September 2015 will see the opening of a new Engineering Technology Centre at the heart of the campus. In her previous role at York College, Anne held responsibility for delivery of the New College Project, which included a £60 million new build. Anne is a member of the AoC Capital Reference Group and Vice Chair of the AoC RIBA Forum.
Andy Welsh
Andy Welsh is the Group Chief Executive Officer for Bradford College, one of the largest FE and HE colleges in the UK. The city-centre College campus combines heritage Victorian buildings with an ambitious construction programme to provide the best educational experience for more than 22,000 students.
Andy has contributed to the ‘Coping with Cuts’ Best Practice paper.
Martin Pritchett
A Town Planner by Profession but a practicing Facilities Manager. Martin has 26 years experience of the HE and FE sectors. The former Facilities Director at Kingston Polytechnic/University, he founded a self-help network of estates managers in the FE sector in 1992 as a key source of guidance on good practice. In 1998 he joined the AoC as part of their larger network of support services to the FE sector.
Over the past 20 years Martin has worked directly with over 50 FE Colleges with key spells of longer term employment with Newham College of FE, Redbridge College, Sandwell College and the Forest of Dean College, helping them review, reorganise, redevelop and manage their estates t promote and enhance the value of FE Colleges within the communities they serve. Martin was also a Governor at East Berkshire College where he served as Chair of the Corporation for 10 years. His work on behalf of Colleges has helped raise their profile as providers of quality education in quality premises.
A Certified member of BIFM, Martin played a key role in founding their Education Special Interest (SIG ) Group which aims to establish how a quality FM service can support quality teaching and learning. Martin served as Chair/Interim Chair of that SIG for a number of years.
