Alistair shortlisted for top construction award in England
WHEN Alistair McPartlin graduated from Waterford Institute of Technology ( WIT) in 2008 the recession was just beginning. His Honours Degree in Construction Management and Engineering, which just years previously would have seen him go straight into the workforce, appeared in danger of going to waste.
Yet today Alistair stands on the brink of being named the best Construction Manager currently working in the UK, having been shortlisted and interviewed for the prestigious award last week.
His work on No.26 Carolyn House, Croydon in London, a €32 million project which has already won the International Building Project of the Year at the 2019 Irish Building & Design Awards, saw him nominated for the 2020 Construction Manager of the Year Awards, the winner being announced at the end of next month.
It’s all a far cry from those worrying days in 2008.
‘I finished college in WIT in 2008 just as the recession was coming in,’ says Alistair. ‘I was working, doing bits in Enniscorthy for 18 months, but I eventually realised if I wanted to find work in the construction industry I needed to move abroad.’
That move saw Alistair relocate to London in 2011 for a role with Quinn London. He then worked on Battersea Power Station with the now defunct Carillion before assuming his role as a Project Manager with current employer, JJ Rhatigan, in 2017.
And it was there that he got involved in the project which has garnered so much attention across the UK and Ireland.
‘ The project at No. 26 Carolyn House involved the refurbishment, conversion and extension of an existing office block 16 stories high. We had to remove the facade and add an additional six stories,’ explained Alistair.
‘ The original building was converted into retail space on the ground and part first floors and residential accommodation to the second-sixteenth floors. The design also included the construction of a rooftop garden.’
Alistair’s interview for the award was held remotely on Tuesday, June 2. However, he could have been forgiven for being otherwise occupied on the all-important day.
‘My wife gave birth to our second daughter the day before the interview,’ he said. ‘She had been overdue by 10 days and went into labour on the Sunday night, and the baby was born the following day.’
Reporting that mother and child are both healthy and well, Alistair said he was looking forward to a time when he could return to Wexford to see parents Declan and Catherine in Ferns who he hasn’t seen since the start of the year.
And in the future, regardless of whether he wins the award, he has more ambitions he’d like to fulfil.
‘My ambition is to be a director in a decent-sized company or to maybe one day own my own construction company.’