25 Years Young
Now is a moment to look back with gratitude to all the clients who have entrusted us with projects and surveys down the years and to remember the creative relationships we've enjoyed with so many great people. It is 25 years since the firm that subsequently (in 1996) became GLM opened for business at 46 Moray Place. It was established as the Edinburgh office of Povall Worthington, a Liverpool based firm of Chartered Building Surveyors with offices in Manchester, Leeds and in due course in London, Warrington, Birmingham, Belfast and Kendal and it was the first chartered building surveying practice in Edinburgh.
Our brand of building surveying was always very project orientated and we worked for organisations like Health Boards, the government's Property Services Agency, British Telecom, local authorities and housing associations - good bread and butter clients for building surveying services. It was natural, with our project orientation that we should soon take on architects.
Soon we had an office in Glasgow and we were working for national retailers like Dixons, Boots, Nationwide Building Society, Land Securities and other organisations with a high street presence. But we were also developing an expertise in private client work, restoring castles and country houses and becoming more and more enthusiastic about building conservation. We worked too for Historic Scotland on Edinburgh Castle.
The early 1990s recession put paid to many of our ambitions and we were forced to close the Glasgow office. In 1996 we parted company with Povall Worthington, keeping our clients, staff and offices which by now were in Thistle Street Lane. Povall Worthington took a very different course, first merging with a QS firm and then becoming submerged in a huge consultancy. We remained fiercely independent and determined to carve out a distinctive identity, in due course moving to our present offices at 58 Castle Street where we have a team that includes five chartered building surveyors and three chartered architects.
In the succeeding years GLM's unique character as both a building surveying practice and a firm of architects has developed and evolved. Architects love to look down their noses at building surveyors and building surveyors love to mock architects. Out of this rivalry we like to think that we have created a practice that makes great use of both types of expertise and that bridges the private and commercial worlds to their mutual benefit.
A fine example of this is a project we carried out in 1987; a wonderful castle near Wick, called Ackergill Tower required some extensive works. We helped turn this 15th century Tower into a 5 star venue that is available for corporate and private hire. More than 20 years later, we are working with the new owners, Clarenco LLP, to help develop the site further. Clarenco have ambitious plans for the site, but are very sympathetic to the heritage and majesty of the property. This is, for us, almost perfection, we love the pace, focus and energy of the new owners, and we love the challenge of working on a site that has roots back to the fifteenth century.
Our brand of building surveying was always very project orientated and we worked for organisations like Health Boards, the government's Property Services Agency, British Telecom, local authorities and housing associations - good bread and butter clients for building surveying services. It was natural, with our project orientation that we should soon take on architects.
Soon we had an office in Glasgow and we were working for national retailers like Dixons, Boots, Nationwide Building Society, Land Securities and other organisations with a high street presence. But we were also developing an expertise in private client work, restoring castles and country houses and becoming more and more enthusiastic about building conservation. We worked too for Historic Scotland on Edinburgh Castle.
The early 1990s recession put paid to many of our ambitions and we were forced to close the Glasgow office. In 1996 we parted company with Povall Worthington, keeping our clients, staff and offices which by now were in Thistle Street Lane. Povall Worthington took a very different course, first merging with a QS firm and then becoming submerged in a huge consultancy. We remained fiercely independent and determined to carve out a distinctive identity, in due course moving to our present offices at 58 Castle Street where we have a team that includes five chartered building surveyors and three chartered architects.
In the succeeding years GLM's unique character as both a building surveying practice and a firm of architects has developed and evolved. Architects love to look down their noses at building surveyors and building surveyors love to mock architects. Out of this rivalry we like to think that we have created a practice that makes great use of both types of expertise and that bridges the private and commercial worlds to their mutual benefit.
A fine example of this is a project we carried out in 1987; a wonderful castle near Wick, called Ackergill Tower required some extensive works. We helped turn this 15th century Tower into a 5 star venue that is available for corporate and private hire. More than 20 years later, we are working with the new owners, Clarenco LLP, to help develop the site further. Clarenco have ambitious plans for the site, but are very sympathetic to the heritage and majesty of the property. This is, for us, almost perfection, we love the pace, focus and energy of the new owners, and we love the challenge of working on a site that has roots back to the fifteenth century.