Aurecon Industry Awards 2018
Engineers Australia
– Most Innovative Engineer – Building & Construction, 5 Martin Place, Sydney
My strongest attribute is engaging. I’m a firm believer, if you don’t communicate your vision, you’ve only yourself to blame if your team doesn’t deliver as expected.
For complex structures, you must engage the entire team. Team members must be able to reproduce your vision down to the most complex structural connections stripped back to show the direction of the forces in the system. I’m always confident that an engineer designing any element in a complex structure understands how that element fits into the overall structure and its criticality.
This was one of the most successful and satisfying elements of the team working on 5 Martin Place. One design report, in a blue binder in the centre of the office, contained descriptions in simple terms, with simple diagrams and values, of the basic structural design forces for this complex structure. Several times a day you’d hear “check the blue book” which meant checks of the simple model and vision occurred at a macro level before design commenced at a micro level.
The awards for 5 Martin Place have made me more fearless. I think in engineering a little of this attribute is a good thing.
