But this is not the only RICS award Savills are a finalist for this year; - Penny Blunden is a finalist for The Woman of the Built Environment Award and Alex Kong is a finalist for The Young Achiever of the Year Award.
Each year, the RICS Awards showcase the most inspirational initiatives and developments in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure and recognise outstanding achievement, teamwork and companies.
Ken Ng, National Head of Project Management at Savills Australia said, “It is a huge honour to be nominated for not one, but three awards and is a true testament of the ongoing hard work and dedication that Penny, Alex and the entire Savills Project Management teams offer our clients on a daily basis”.
60 Martin Place, Sydney is the project nominated for the Project Management Team of the Year Award
which included the demolition of the existing 28 storey structure and the construction of a new 33 level premium grade commercial office building plus three levels of basement and roof plant areas.
The highly unique project was complex, particularly with restrictions related to heritage, services, infrastructure and others imposed by the City of Sydney on important public domain spaces.
Mr Ng said this new building was designed with careful consideration of its impact on surrounding architecture and overshadowing with the northern façade cantilevering and curving over the neighbouring heritage St Stephen’s Uniting Church.
“With excellent stakeholder management and dedication, Savills navigated this award-winning building through the efforts of our formidable team” he continued.
For the Woman of the Built Environment Award – Penny Blunden began work on the Lindfield Learning Village for SINSW 2 years ago and was given the near impossible task of opening Stage 2 of the school at the start of 2021 with an extremely tight programme.
Working collaboratively with the Savills PM team, contractor on site, client and school and providing critical advice Penny, and her team, were able to meet the difficult programme. Through her communicative style, Penny naturally became a mentor for a number of staff on the project helping them to blossom and take on more responsibility in other projects post completion.
As a Young Achiever of the Year – Alex Kong joined Savills three years ago as a graduate and immediately began working on the 388 George Street project in Sydney.
Alex was tasked with contracts administration for the project but immediately set about learning and taking on greater responsibility. His eagerness to learn and not be afraid to ask questions meant his learning trajectory was steep and unrelenting. Such was this eagerness to learn, on his own will, identified and secured credits against council contributions for the inclusion of ESD initiatives saving the clients tens of thousands of dollars.
Through his performance on the project, Alex was promoted to Project Manager and continues to be a highly-valued and well-respected individual that Savills Project Management are proud to call a colleague.
Paul Craig, CEO, Savills Australia and New Zealand said the strength and dedication of the entire Project Management business is further highlighted by these three well deserved nominations.
“We are widely recognised as one of Australia’s most experienced Project Management firms, and a testament to our performance is the high level of repeat business we receive from our existing clients and referrals” he said.
Savills has won the RICS Building Consultancy / Project Management Team of the Year in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020.