Focus Consultants is celebrating a bumper year for its clients after several won a clutch of awards and accolades between them – including the world’s largest and most prestigious museum prize.
In addition, many other schemes were shortlisted as finalists in awards ….making it a super successful year for Focus and its clients.
“We are proud to work on some incredibly high-profile, high quality, innovative schemes, and this year we have been delighted to see how many of them have been recognised as award winning,” said Focus Consultants joint managing partner Jason Redfearn. “Congratulations to our clients who have been so successful, and the other members of the teams who have helped them achieve such recognition.”
Nottingham-based Focus, which also has branches in London, Leicester and Newark, has worked on many award-winning museum, heritage and other schemes over the past 25 years but 2019 has seen a record number of accolades for the projects that Focus has supported.
The most prestigious win was for St Fagans National Museum of History in Wales, which took the title of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019 – winning a £100,000 prize. Focus project managed an eight-year redevelopment scheme at St Fagans, which was completed last year, providing a range of services including bid work for a Heritage Lottery Fund application, business planning, quantity surveying and project management.
It was the third time a scheme involving Focus had taken the top title of Art Fund Museum of the Year in recent times. Previously the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter won in 2013 and the V&A Museum in London in 2016.
Another finalist in the Art Fund Museum of the Year Award 2019 was the V&A Dundee where Focus has been undertaking project management and quantity surveying roles. The V&A Dundee had success by winning at the RIBA National Awards 2019, along with Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, which Focus was also involved in – providing project management support on the exhibition and interpretation at the Grade I-listed manor. Pitzhanger went on to take the title of listed building over £5m in the AJ Retrofit Awards. Portsmouth’s D-Day Story – also a Focus scheme – had been a shortlisted nomination at the awards too.
Also winning at the AJ Retrofit Awards was the £4m development of The Engine Shed, at the University of Northampton, designed by MCW architects, which took top slot in the higher and further education category of the awards. Funding experts at Focus Consultants were involved in supporting the stage 1 and stage 2 Heritage Enterprise bids for the development, which has transformed a Grade II-listed derelict transport structure into a highly environmentally efficient student hub, as the home of the Students’ Union on the Waterside Campus.
Meanwhile, the Confetti Digital Media Hub in Nottingham won the Sustainable Development of the Year Award at the East Midlands Bricks Awards 2019. It was also shortlisted in three categories at the East Midlands Property Dinner Awards. Focus Consultants was the BREEAM Assessor and the BREEAM Accredited Professional for the scheme, providing the design team with expert advice on built environment sustainability, environmental design and environmental assessment.
Also shortlisted in three categories at the East Midlands Property Dinner was Trent Basin in Nottingham – a scheme to deliver hundreds of energy efficient homes in a sustainable neighbourhood beside the River Trent. Focus is carrying out a number of roles on the development, including project manager. Trent Basin went on to be shortlisted in the East Midlands fbe Awards 2019 too.
Two other shortlisted nominations at the East Midlands Property Dinner Award were a scheme at the University of Nottingham and Modwen Homes, who Focus has both worked with.
Finally, the Aerospace Bristol Learning Programme and also the project’s gift shop were named as finalists in the Museums and Heritage Awards 2019, along with the D-Day Story in Portsmouth and St Fagans National Museum of History.
“It really has been a bumper year for Focus clients, when it comes to awards,” added joint managing partner Keith Butler.
Focus Consultants is a multi-disciplinary company providing a range of services, including project management, sustainable development support, building surveying and quantity surveying.
The company also specialises in funding and economic development including area regeneration strategies, funding applications, economic impact appraisals, business plans, and research and evaluation. Since 1994 Focus has also secured for clients more than £1.1 billion of grants for projects and businesses across the UK and delivered more than £1.3 billion worth of projects and programmes – making it one of the most successful businesses of its kind in the country.
For more information about Focus Consultants, visit www.focus-consultants.com
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