East Office Year Review 2020
The year that was 2020, and the eastern team’s first year in its new Newark office saw everyone’s day to day lives change and many of life’s activities cease or change pace as we have adapted to living amidst a global pandemic. Despite this disruptive event we were pleased that the surveying services of the H+R eastern office remained in demand and the office in Newark was open throughout 2020 with working practices adapted to meet the needs of our clients and undertake site visits safely. New skills, such as undertaking some meetings via Zoom and Teams, have been learned as we have sought to facilitate project requirements and keep going
The year saw the planned addition of a new surveyor to the eastern team. Katie McAndrew joined the team in July 2020 to assist David Watt. Katie worked as a local authority conservation officer for the previous 18 years and has brought to the team an extensive knowledge of historic building conservation and particularly its context within the heritage protection and planning system. As Katie develops her surveying skills alongside David Watt she has also been able to offer our clients additional heritage services in support of certain projects. In this respect she has prepared statements of significance and heritage statements to support some projects we have been engaged with where such information is required to take a project forward
The range of projects undertaken in 2020 have seen surveys and contract management services employed for a broad range of clients from private individuals, commercial clients, local authorities and heritage bodies such English Heritage and the National Trust. Our commissions include condition and environmental surveys, risk management surveys, pre-purchase surveys and the preparation of repair specifications for buildings ranging from a Roman wall, medieval bishops palace and Victorian workhouse to a 1920s water tank, churches and college buildings. Going into 2021 we remain busy and as we move out of the pandemic we are looking forward to an interesting year and maybe shaking hands with clients again