Week 2

Howdy from London!

This marks the end of our second week in London. This week was filled to the brim with exciting new ventures throughout the city. From construction site visits to British Life & Culture, we had a busy and educational week. Overall the weather was quite chilly, however it only rained on us once which was very nice. We are keeping our fingers crossed in hope that it continues to not rain. By now we have started to figure out how to prepare to dress for the frigid gusts of wind and figuring our way around town. As Professor Rodgers likes to say, “we are getting our London on”.

MONDAY (14 Jan 2019)  – Monday was our first encounter with Professor Alan Hertz. He is an American that has lived in London for decades, he knows just about everything there is to know about the city and its cultures. Throughout the semester he will be enlightening us on British Life and culture. We began our day in the classroom and got a thorough explanation of the history of London and how far it has come to being one of the most developed cities in the world. After lecture we took to the streets as a class, roaming for about two hours with Professor Hertz as he pointed out and explained the infrastructure throughout the city. Professor Hertz knows a story behind every building in London and is eager to share it with his students. We finished our first day with Professor Hertz at the London Building Center.

TUESDAY (15 Jan 2019) – Our day started bright and early at Goodman Derrick LLP, a law firm that handles many construction law cases. Graced with the presence of Richard Bailey, a partner at Goodman Derrick, who works specifically in the ins and outs of construction law. We were able to sit down with him for two hours and hear about his experience within the business. He deciphered some of the variances between English Law and US law. He helped enhance our knowledge on how the majority of the cases he deals with are handled, along with the typical outcome of these cases. After our meeting with Mr. Bailey we took the tube (subway) over to the Lloyds building. An absolutely incredible structure that houses the largest insurance market in the world. Containing 84 separate underwriting insurance companies, over 300 brokers, and the staff of Lloyds. Upon arrival we were greeted by a guide who sat us down for an hour long presentation on the business. It was an absolutely captivating display of Lloyd’s 300 year history within the building. After gaining a thorough knowledge of the businesses that operate within the building and the exchanges that take place, then we took a walking tour of the building. It was magnificent from an architectural standpoint. This wrapped up our business day of the week.

WEDNESDAY (16 Jan 2019) – Our favorite day of the week! We get to spend our afternoons in the classroom with Professor Rodgers. This week was filled with construction law in the news, risk management, and extensive classroom discussions exploring various topics in law.

THURSDAY (17 Jan 2019) – This was the most interesting part of this week, PPE! Nothing will make a construction student more excited than getting to walk through an active project. We had the privilege to meet with the construction contractor, Balfour Beatty. We were greeted with presentations on their current projects at 60 Curzon Street and Buckingham Gate. Both projects are super luxury flat (apartment) buildings, each project selling their spaces for upwards of £40 million! Each site is using the top down method of construction, which in summary is where one builds a couple stories up before excavating the basement levels of the building. Very intriguing, we were able to see the excavators digging while we were there three stories below ground and the structure atop was extending four or five stories. We were educated on something that is rather uncommon called “right of light”, which means that any new construction must take into account the amount of natural light that will be taken from the surrounding buildings. Another oddity of building in the city of London is that there are underground train tunnels running throughout the whole city and vibrations from the train tunnels must be taken into account for the pier foundations to ensure a proper foundation for the new buildings.

Following a safety brief of the projects we laced up our steel toed boots and did walkthroughs of both project sites. Technology at the site entrance requires fingerprint recognition (Insite software).  Our hosts had to scan their fingerprints in order to get the group through the security checkpoint of the site. We were also able to hear many interesting steps that the company is taking to keep up with the innovations in construction technology. One that we found particularly interesting was their implication of laser scanning technology to pinpoint the post construction surveying, making sure every column is in place correctly and every spec of the plans has been met. Thanks to our gracious hosts and guides we were able to develop a deeper knowledge of the applications of their designs and software, asking questions and seeing the actual excavation of the buildings’ footprints.

FRIDAY (18 Jan 2019) – This was another day back on the streets, we started our morning off at the Museum of London. Spending our time traveling back in time to 2000 BC as we walked through the extensive collection of artifacts that establish the foundation of the city of London today. We worked our way to the modern day history before we headed out to our next spot. A quick walk across town led us to the Mithraeum, a Roman temple buried 23 feet underground from the current street level. This was discovered with the WWII bombings, demolishing the existing structure and revealing this ancient temple. We spent our time there learning about the uses of the building and its recovery.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY (19 & 20 Jan 2019) – Our weekend was on us to decide, some of our group traveled to Bath, a Roman city centered around bathhouses, about an hour and a half train ride from where we live in London. The rest of us hung around London, touring and visiting quirky sights. Catching up on some sleep and working on homework to get ahead for the upcoming week.

We have been enjoying every day and it is crazy to think that two weeks have gone by this fast. As we look forward to the weeks to come, we’re remembering our family and friends back in Texas. Loving and missing you all every day, but we are blessed to have this opportunity. A cheesy line to end “together forever, never apart, maybe by distance, but never by heart.”

Thanks and Gig ‘Em

Morgan Chandler & Jake Claus