Week 4

Monday

This week continued with another exciting day in class with Professor Hertz as he walked us through late Medieval History. He taught us about Mozart growing up in London, the industrial aspects of the British government, and the cultural elements involved in the political system. He stressed that the queen has no power and is only there to “pardon turkeys”. After his informing lecture, we took to the streets to learn more about British Life and Culture.

Walking around London, Professor Hertz led us to Postman’s Park. This green space in the heart of London has The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice by George Frederick, a pavilion with tiles dedicated to ordinary people who heroically gave their lives to save others but were never recognized. From Postman’s Park we proceeded through an area of the city where the medieval guildhalls had been located. On the way, we passed a section of the original London Wall built by the Romans in 200AD. There are not many parts of it remaining which made the bit that we saw that much more stunning. We came to the primary Guildhall which was the center of trade for the city of London and still houses the official measurement of a foot and yard. The foot is embedded in the building of Guildhall and was established from the exact size of the reigning king’s (King Edward) foot. The Guildhall was also significant because it used to be the site of a roman amphitheater that seated 20,000. You can see portions of it in the basement of Guildhall Art Gallery. We wrapped up our extremely chilly walkabout with Professor Hertz in Paul A Young Chocolate, an award winning chocolatier.

Tuesday

Tuesday kicked off with a site visit to the former American Embassy in London. Our host, Casey Engineering, is currently doing the demolition of the building so that it can be turned into a hotel. They are keeping the exterior intact because of the architectural significance of it. In the 1950’s, the State Department had a design competition and architect Eero Saarinen was the winner. He is known for many other iconic building throughout the world including the Arch of St. Louis. After walking through this site with the project manager and community liaison officer, we headed to the offices of CBRE, a commercial real estate service and investment firm. There we were informed about their role as construction manager we were going to tour on Thursday. This presentation fit in with our construction science classes with Professor Rodgers as we had just covered construction management as a part of our study on alternative contracting methods. They explained not only the various kinds of contracts that they primarily deal with, but the severe impact and fluctuations that Brexit has had on the industry through an increase in public concerns.

Wednesday

Back in the classroom with Professor Rodgers, we discussed what we learned in the past week about risk management at lawyer offices and site visits. He emphasized the importance of contract administration for evaluating for evaluating all risks involved in a construction project and the work involved in mitigating them. As the class progressed and we continued to dive deeper into risk management and construction law, we gained a deeper understanding of the significance of understanding contracts in our future. When the class came to a close, we were blessed with a delivery of Mrs Rodger’s homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Thursday

Our first site visit of the day was with Sir Richard McAlpine construction company, a 150 year old company operating only in the UK. Their site is across from the Queen’s gardens where they are building a Peninsula hotel. They walked us through their project and we got to see another example of top down construction, something we are not familiar with in the States. Later in the day, Mace guided us through One Crown Place, the project that had been introduced to us by CBRE on Tuesday. Mace continued to impress upon us the importance of safety in the British industry as they had nearly double the required safety features throughout the entire project. Innovation was a large part of their work as well as they showed and explained how custom metal platforms with openings were poured into the slabs on each floor to facilitate placement of infrastructure. These helped to fast-track the installation of ductwork from floor to floor while also providing an additional safety advantage of scaffolding not being required for installation.

Friday

Friday was an adventurous day for the group because we got to visit Oxford while it was snowing. We met at Paddington Station where there is a statue of Paddington Bear located. It is found at Platform 1 where he would wait for Mr and Mrs Brown in the A Bear Called Paddington books. After arriving in Oxford, we walked through the snow as our tour guide, Heidi, led us through the historic town. She showed us many locations of filming for the Harry Potter movies, the street and lamppost that inspired The Lion The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, and a tavern that many famous people have visited, including Bill Clinton. After the quick tour, the group was left to split up and do as we please around the town until we were ready to head back.

This Weekend

Melissa and Shannon saw the two day Harry Potter play on Thursday and Friday nights and loved it. A group of students are taking off to Edinburgh, Scotland to explore, hike, and soak in the sites. Other members of the group are staying in London to discover different parts of the city, experience the museums, and get ahead on homework (yes, we actually do schoolwork). Every day keeps getting better!

Thanks and gig ’em!

Beka Graham ’21 & Ethan Ellis ’20