March 16, 2010
Harmonix Eastern Awarded Office and Warehouse at NX4, Skyline 120, Braintree
Harmonix Eastern Ltd, a subsidiary of Harmonix Construction Ltd announces today the award of a new build office and warehouse facility. The NX4 building forms part of the Nexus development at the Skyline 120 business park located to the South of Braintree. This project will be our fourth office/warehouse facility on the business park constructed for the client Countryside Properties. The project award strengthens Harmonix Eastern’s presence in the Essex, Hertfordshire and South Cambridgeshire area.
The £2.5m project was designed by Paul Johnson Architects and Tweeds are acting as the employer’s agent and quantity surveyor.
The works comprise the design and construction of a large warehouse building totalling 67,270 sq ft and gross internal areas, including ancillary internal partitioned space. External site works include car and bicycle parking, service access, service yards, landscaping, external refuse storage areas and associated services and drainage. The project is due to be completed in October of this year.
NX4 will be built on a clay greenfield site where lime stabilisation will be used during the foundation stage as a greener alternative to quarried material.
March 01, 2010
Harmonix fit out 127 bedrooms for new Macdonald Hotel in Windsor
Work has begun on a contract to fit out 127 bedrooms and associated corridors for Macdonald Hotels Ltd at their new 4* hotel in Windsor. The £1.7m contract is to be delivered to an 18 week programme.
Harmonix’ appointment on this project builds on previous hotel experience in the area, having completed the construction and fit-out of a new hotel for Bicester Golf and Country Club in Oxfordshire.
Commenting on the contract award today, Harmonix Director, John Farragher, said: ‘We are delighted to have been selected to help deliver this contract for Macdonald Hotels and look forward to strengthening the Macdonald Hotels’ portfolio with the opening of their new Windsor hotel.’
January 07, 2010
Harmonix awarded £2m Residential Project for Shaftesbury Carnaby Ltd
Harmonix has been awarded a £2m contract to renovate 10,800ft2 of vacant space at 37-39 Great Marlborough Street for Shaftesbury Carnaby Ltd.
The works consist of the conversion and extension of the five upper floors of an existing six storey mixed-use building into 10 apartments including the repair and recovering of a low level flat roof on an adjacent building.Further work is required to the ground floor entrance corridor, the basement stairs and basement stair lobby. The site is extremely confined and located just south of Oxford Circus. A coffee shop and pub on the ground floor will remain open during the works.
The 10 apartments were designed by Colwyn Foulkes, who have worked with Harmonix on a number of projects in the past.
Commenting on the contract award today, Harmonix Director, John Farragher, said:
‘We are delighted to have been selected to help deliver this contract, and look forward to working with the client Shaftesbury Carnaby Ltd as well as project managers, Single Point Project Management and quantity surveyors, Michael Edwards & Associates (MEA), for the first time.The challenges presented by this project involve providing a temporary roof, removing the existing roof and then constructing a new floor to provide further accommodation whilst working on an extremely tight site within the heart of London’s West End.’
December 18, 2009
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at Harmonix
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at Harmonix. We hope you received our Christmas eCard, if not please sign up to our eNewsletter on the link at the bottom right of this page.
Stan Ainslie one of our Construction Managers had his 5 minutes of fame on this programme shown on BBC1 on 8th December 2009. He bought a Hertfordshire house in an auction in June of this year for £231,000 which was only 12 years old but had been badly neglected and was very smelly! He redecorated, and replaced the carpets and bathroom fittings and then the house was revalued. You’ll have to watch the show to find out if he made a profit!
October 29, 2009
Works Complete at Access Self Storage, Wandsworth
Works are now complete at a mixed use scheme for Access Self Storage in Wandsworth. The work comprised the design and build of a new office and self-storage facility on a brownfield site. Once the basement shell was completed by the groundworks contractor, Harmonix constructed two upper levels of mixed use areas with serviced offices, showrooms and training facilities. Then fitting out of the basement levels began. An overlap of 7 to 8 weeks between the basement shell works and the rest of the construction was suggested by Harmonix in order to reduce programme. This facility is the largest underground self storage facility in the UK with three basement levels.
As with most Access Self Storage projects the site is located in a residential area and between two busy roads. The local council required the pavement that had been closed off outside the site to be re-opened for the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
The Project Manager, Graham Thompson sent letters to local residents to introduce the company and provided a contact number for residents who had concerns during the construction period. Harmonix also liaised closely with the Environmental health department.
Daily meetings took place between the groundworks contractor and Harmonix to ensure that close communication between the contractors was maintained during the handover period.
A phased handover was arranged with Access Storage in order that some of the completed bins could be handed over earlier.
Harmonix is considered to be the Market Leader in the UK for fitting out storage facilities and the team was able to bring their extensive experience to the Wandsworth project.
September 21, 2009
Little Britain 2009 : Less Starboard - More Port
Harmonix took to the seas for the 8th year running in September in an attempt to hold on to the title of winner of the J109 class. We achieved third place which is still a commendable achievement. (We kept quiet about the fact there was only 6 boats in our class this year!)
Little Britain was my first time sailing in a race and any pre-conceptions I’d had of relaxing on deck cocktail in hand vanished as soon as we left port for our first race on the Thursday afternoon.
The sea was blue, the sky was blue and the air was certainly turned blue once we attempted to put the spinnaker up! I was tasked with writing down the course as it was announced over the radio which was a challenge in itself when the boat was tipping at an 80° angle.
With Nick Foulkes of Colwyn Foulkes as helmsman and Giles Holder of Laxton Properties getting soaked on the foredeck that left Giles and Troy on the ropes while the rest of us had the most crucial job of weighting the boat.
After an afternoon of sailing it was swiftly onto the ale – ing part of the weekend. Ron Coll from Tweeds and Graeme Hodgkinson from Cushman and Wakefield joined us for the next two days of sailing.
On Saturday’s gala dinner, John Farragher and our guest Nick Mayger of Peter Lawrence Stallworthy won a skydive with the red arrows, after winning the bids in the silent auction. We are all looking forward to watching them both jump out of a plane at 13,000ft next May!
We were pleased to collect our third place trophy and will be at Little Britain 2010 to reclaim our rightful position as winners.
2009 is a significant year for Harmonix. We are proud to say that we’ve been in business for ten years. Ten happy years of controlled growth and contented clients.
In 1999 Harmonix Construction came into being, set up by three directors who have worked extensively for major contractors. From its inception Harmonix broke the mould with a flat, management structure and open lines of communication. ’We wanted to be different!’ We were tired of the way the industry was perceived by many of our clients. Large contractors had lost their way, becoming adversarial and confrontational. We called ourselves Harmnonix to emphasise our desire to work in harmony with all members of the project team.
So who’s going to buy us a drink?
July 21, 2009
Right on Time Again
Three more satisfied customers, one new and two repeat business opportunities converted into successfully completed projects. Many thanks to both the Consultants and Construction teams involved in these buildings.
- Access Self Storage Wandsworth Phase 1 – June 09
- 37-39 Lime St, Bank – July 09
- Access Self Storage Stevenage – May 09
July 07, 2009
Harmonix Supports 'Get Britain Building'
Harmonix fully supports the ‘Get Britain Building’ Campaign. Go to http://www.getbritainbuilding.org/ to join the campaign.
Hot off the press this is the official response from the government from the petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to get Britain Building.”
“The Government is acutely aware that economic conditions are difficult at the moment and that the construction industry is finding this particularly challenging on a number of different fronts, and is doing all it can to create the conditions in which the UK construction industry can flourish and succeed.
The Government is aware of the proposals put forward under the “Get Britain Building” campaign. Ministers have frequent contact with the industry, largely through the Strategic Forum for Construction and the CBI Construction Council, which enables constructive strategic dialogue to take place on the issues which need to be addressed.
On 2 September the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) announced a package of measures to stimulate the housing market including, among other things:
an offer to housebuilders to buy up new properties that they are finding hard to sell;
CLG has also looked at investment in social housing and regeneration programmes – to support those projects which may be at risk. CLG has brought forward £400 million to invest in new social housing over the next two years; and
the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that, for a one year period, stamp duty land tax will not apply to purchases of residential property of £175,000 or less and this was extended in the Budget to the end of 2009.
More information on the packages can be found on the Communities and Local Government website at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/950558 .
On construction projects generally, in the Pre-Budget Report of November 2008, the Government announced that it would be bringing forward £3 billion of public expenditure to be spent on motorways, schools, GPs’ surgeries, flood defences, and improving the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock. In addition, the Government recently announced a scheme to help PFI projects, already in the pipeline but encountering difficulty obtaining finance, to access appropriate finance. This will ensure that £13 billion of public investment infrastructure projects will be protected.
The April 2009 budget itself also included nearly £600 million to help housing with the addition of up to 10,000 new homes. Of this, £400m has been allocated to assist stalled housing developments and development finance through reducing up-front costs; £100m to local authorities for energy efficient housing; and £80m for the HomeBuy Direct mortgage equity scheme. In addition, £50 million has been allocated for armed forces accommodation.
On the Olympics, The Olympic Delivery Authority, a non-departmental public body, are bound by EU public procurement rules which require that Olympic contracts are open to all suppliers irrespective of country of origin. That said 98 % of the 800 + companies that have won £3.5 billion worth of work directly supplying the ODA are based in the UK.”
June 29, 2009
Harmonix Construction Unveils New Brand Identity
Harmonix has launched a new corporate identity to reflect the company’s evolution and to bring a visual unity to branding across all parts of the business.
John Farragher, Harmonix’ Director says: ‘Harmonix Construction has grown over the last 10 years. It is therefore fitting that our market-leading reputation for hassle-free contracting, innovation and success is reflected in a new corporate logo that represents the company’s progress and even in these bleak economic times, confidence in our future’
As well as a new logo we have also launched our ‘less is more’ philosophy which really sums up Harmonix’ approach to business. We have put these straplines on everything from our business cards to our hard hats. A taster of our straplines follows, but there are many more:
Less opaque – More transparent
Less maybe – More definitely
Less hassle – More harmony
Less shirking – More working
June 25, 2009
Amruta Chandorkar is an Inspirational Woman in Construction
Well we all knew it at Harmonix but it has been confirmed – Amruta is an Inspirational Woman in Construction! WISE (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction) collaborates with industry and education to encourage UK girls of school age to value and pursue STEM or construction related courses in school or college, and to move on into related careers. After completing a questionnaire about how she got into the construction industry and who her role models are, she now appears in their inspirational women section on their website. Hopefully Amruta will now be an excellent role model to girls who are thinking about a career in construction. See the full interview at www.wisecampaign.org.uk
June 25, 2009
Harmonix 10 Year Anniversary Golf Day
A big thank you to all the attendees of Harmonix’ 10th annual golf day on Friday 19th June 2009 at the stunning Manor House Hotel and Golf Club in Castle Combe. Many of our Golf Day attendees commented on the picturesque village of Castle Combe which was indeed a beautiful setting. The day started with a big fried breakfast which was captured on film by Andy Shennan our photographer for the day. Nobody was allowed out on the course unless they were wearing one of our new Harmonix polo shirts displaying our brand new logo. Unfortunately for some, a large crowd began to gather around the first tee to watch the teams tee off, which was again immortalised on film by Andy.
Unfortunately the weather was not as sunny as we had been promised and a few emergency purchases of Manor House branded jumpers was required. A very quick break was taken at the 9th hole for sandwiches and a beer. The 17th hole offered a chance to win the new BMW Z4 if anyone achieved a hole-in-one. I ducked the golf balls to act as a witness on this hole but despite some bribing from less scrupulous golf players unfortunately the car was not won.
After the longest drive competition on the 18th hole, everyone met up back at the clubhouse for strawberry and champagne before heading back to the hotel to change for dinner. Our delicious dinner was followed by further drinks in the bar and a very late finish for some of our staff and clients. We have had lots of positive feedback from our clients some enthusing that it was the best golf day they had ever been on! We had a great time and we are looking forward to next year’s golf day already.
