Member Article

Global engineers open Hoults Yard office

A GLOBAL engineering consultancy has opened a new office in Hoults Yard, Newcastle.

Red Engineering Design Ltd (RED), which has offices in London, Oxford, Dubai, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila, was founded in 2004.

RED is an international, award-winning building services consultancy, designing MEP services for infrastructure, new buildings and upgrade projects, with a focus on low energy solutions. They design for mixed-use projects, data centres, offices, hotels, residential, retail and high-rise buildings.

RED’s Regional Director Mark Smith, who was headhunted to launch the new Newcastle office, said: “When RED asked me to join them, they offered me a flexible approach to opening a Newcastle office. Having worked in London previously the prospect of sourcing and opening a local office with the flexibility to appoint my own team appealed to me.

“Due to continued growth in the UK and Europe the Newcastle office is the third UK office allowing us to provide service delivery in the north east, in addition to collaborating on a number of London based projects. The long-term strategy is to provide the same level of delivery to key clients within the north east.

“Hoults Yard was an ideal solution offering a flexible approach to office space and meeting room capability, allowing us to future proof further moves within the building as the office team increased.

“It’s close enough to the city centre without being in it and there is also plenty of room for expansion as we continue to grow the team”.

Mark has already been joined by Associate Michael Leadbitter, Mechanical Engineer Andrew Greenall and Office Manager, Louise Brown.

Mark joined RED from Parsons Brinckerhoff, where he was Technical Director. He was aware of RED’s reputation having worked alongside them on contracts with his previous employer.

One of the reasons why RED was keen to open an office in the region is its reputation for producing good quality engineers: “That was something we really wanted to tap into,” Mark explained.

Another advantage of Newcastle was its links to the wider world – Mark and his team regularly fly within Europe and internationally to consult with clients or colleagues. “Recent trips have taken us to places like Stockholm, Helsinki, Stuttgart, Dublin and Amsterdam,” he added.

“A large percentage of the work we do here is on data centres, be they for owner occupiers who own and use the centres, or co-location providers who rent out data centre services but we also do some hotel, education and commercial work from here. The plan will be to continue to increase delivery in these sectors.”

Clients include some of the world’s biggest banks and software providers as well as large national companies such as Royal Mail.

Mark and his team are currently working on a diverse range of projects, including construction of a helter-skelter around the iconic Orbit Tower structure left as part of the Olympics 2012 legacy in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Orbit, or the ArcelorMittal Orbit, was designed by Turner-prize winning artist Sir Anish Kapoor and is the UK’s largest piece of public art. The structure is being modified to incorporate the world’s tallest and longest (178 metres) tunnel slide. The slide, which will incorporate transparent sections to give a different perspective of the twisting red tower, is expected to be completed soon and will cost £5 a ride.

“It’s something a bit different for us to work on,” explained Michael who has previous experience in working on Olympic projects. “I helped design the Olympic toilets at Paddington Station,” he laughed.

* For more about RED, visit their website at www.red-eng.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Julie Kemp .