Briggsy’s property blog: Wind death investigation – too little too late?
NATURAL disasters, as we have seen with the horrific images being beamed from Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami in the country, are often virtually impossible to predict.
Much closer to home, I couldn’t help but be horrified by the death of 35-year-old Edward Slaney, who was crushed by a lorry that overturned in Leeds city centre last Thursday afternoon.
A woman was also seriously injured in the incident, which happened as strong gales hit the Yorkshire region.
As if the incident wasn’t tragic enough, it happened next to Bridgewater Place, a building that has been in the headlines fairly frequently since it was completed in 2008. And the major reason for its notoriety? Wind.
TheBusinessDesk.com reported shortly after the building’s official opening how pedestrians and cyclists were being almost blown over by the fierce gales being generated around the building.
And this correspondent can speak from experience. As our business is based nearby at the Round Foundry Media Centre our staff have both witnessed and been directly affected by the gusts, which are also strong around nearby Granary Wharf – home of Mint Hotel.
When TheBusinessDesk.com reported originally on the high winds around the building, Bridgewater Place’s joint developers Landmark Development Projects and St James Securities had employed BRE Group – a world leading consultancy on the environmental impact of buildings – to perform tests on the design for the 32-storey building, where firms including Eversheds, Ernst & Young and BDO Stoy Hayward have their Yorkshire headquarters, before it was constructed.
A model was made of the development and surrounding area which was placed in a wind tunnel to simulate the wind characteristics appropriate to the location of the development.
The wind characteristics measured the turbulence or ‘gustiness’ and the results of the study caused the design to be slightly altered.
Chris Gilman, director at Landmark Securities, said at the time: “The reality is it is getting windier and there are three or four other sites around Leeds which have the same problem with wind. After the micro climate study the design of Bridgewater Place was tweaked slightly to minimise the effects.
“We have asked BRE to come back to the site to measure the wind and to suggest ways to deal with the problems. We feel we have done all we can do.”
Bridgewater Place Ltd, the building’s owners, said this week all building and planning regulations were fully adhered to in the development of Bridgewater Place.
Following last week’s tragedy, Leeds City Council vowed to urgently investigate ways to make the area around the building safe.
Chief executive Tom Riordan said despite the original wind assessment finding the impact the building would have on wind speed would be “minimal”, there have have been “unforeseen wind-effect issues” around it since it was completed.
Mr Riordan said Bridgewater Place’s developers and architects were still working to “identify the most effective solution available to resolve the ongoing issues”.
The Council has installed railings around the building but calls from many in the business community for extensive wind breaks to be erected have so far not been progressed.
Let’s be clear here: no direct blame can be apportioned to Bridgewater Place for this tragedy.
But the frustration will be that whatever measures are taken to prevent a similar incident in the future will be seen as too little too late.
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Having arrived home from international property conference MIPIM at the weekend, I’ve had time to reflect on the annual industry get-together in Cannes.
Numbers were certainly up with delegates spilling out each day in Le Croisette in the French spot famed for being a base for the rich and famous and home to the annual film festival.
Many business professionals argue that MIPIM is a waste of time, and a three-day junket where blokes who already know each other down gallons of champers and do little else.
In fairness, many would admit that this approach was the norm at the height of the property boom in the middle of the last decade as the industry toasted its success.
However, the vibe this year was much more business-like, with most delegates spending the majority of their time in the vast exhibition hall taking in the many stands representing locations and schemes across the globe.
Meetings, schedules and making the most of the people there was certainly the order of the day.
TheBusinessDesk.com was media partner with the Leeds City Region delegation at MIPIM and the small party which officially represented the region must be pleased with the messages that they got across to potential investors.
The good thing for me is that the representatives from Locate in Leeds and Marketing Leeds (and those from the Sheffield City region who were at the conference independently) who travelled understand that MIPIM is only part of the jigsaw in selling the city region to a wider audience internationally.
It’s an approach to be applauded and shows what can be achieved from MIPIM.
