Graphics: Leyton summer & winter sporting options; St Pauls Sports Academy; The Trinity Centre
September is a special month here at gcp as it marks the company’s birthday! This year is our 32nd anniversary and to celebrate we will be reflecting on past staff events over on social media.
As part of this celebration, we have conducted Director-interviews to add to our meet-the-team series. Next up is Jonathan Platt, Architect and Director who, joined gcp in 1995 and became a director in 1997.
Upon qualification in 1989 Jonathan worked for the progressive JT Design Build in Bristol, the county’s first integrated services contractor. From 1992 Jonathan worked for the regional offices of a couple of London based commercial architectural practices before joining gcp in 1995.
Jonathan has developed the practice expertise in both inner city and rural regeneration projects through his understanding of the funding environment and by tailoring the businesses services to support clients accordingly. This work has included community consultations and engagement, site identification, planning analysis, partner brokerage and capital funding appraisals.
Alongside this, Jonathan pursued his interest in sport, resulting in the combination of inner-city regeneration with the development of new sports facilities. This included England’s first BREEAM Excellent sports centre in central Bristol, as well as The Urban Cricket Concept for the England & Wales Cricket Board, conceived to unite communities through sport.
Parallel to his speciality with community and sports related projects, Jonathan has supported the development of gcp Consulting, an environmental assessment and design service that supports both internal and external projects. Jonathan consequently has a wealth of experience regarding successful sustainable development, from both a social and a political perspective. Jonathan has also worked as an expert assessor for Innovate UK on several competitions including: Retro fit for the Future (domestic energy reduction competition), Climate of Future Climates (climate change adaptation to build in resilience) and Information & Computer Technology knowledge transfer between manufacturing and construction.
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Morning Jonathan! I think your introduction and career history speak for themselves really, such a fantastic and diverse portfolio. I hope you don’t mind me asking you a few questions today so that the readers of our blog can get to know you a little better. This year marks 24 years with gcp, a tenure that has built you much respect within in our team, particularly your expertise in delivering schemes in areas of Bristol which need some improvement. Can you tell us what inspired you to pursue architecture?
Despite my dad and his uncle being architects, my path into profession was a reactionary one. Not having taken secondary school too seriously for whatever reason (the usual distractions if I am honest and a bit of dyslexia, but no real excuse there), and then given my predicted results and being presented with the career options that were a bit of a shock, and without giving it any more thought I immediately declared I was going to become an architect - much derision from teaching staff etc. I then started to work.
It's an unconventional start to an architectural career! If you weren’t an architect, what do you think you would be?
The army or a fireman were the options presented to me as career options at school. Nothing wrong with them, but if I wasn’t an architect and if was to have forged a different path, it would have had to involve the outdoors, wood and making things. I had always been really practical, helping my dad with minor building projects around the house and creating mini projects of my own such as building fitted wardrobe etc in my bedroom from scrap wood.
And what’s your favourite project that you’ve worked on to date?
We have just completed the delivery of the first Urban Cricket Centre on behalf of the England and Wales Cricket Board in partnership with London Borough of Waltham Forest. This has been a fantastic scheme, and is perhaps my favourite because it is fresh in my memory, but it is the culmination of many things I have been passionate about throughout my career: sport as a catalyst of regeneration; repurposing of existing buildings and facilities by making them relevant for economic use today; working in partnership with multiple stakeholders and agencies to deliver more benefits greater than the sum of the part and finally blending funding from many sources to deliver a fantastic outcome for the local community.
Could you tell me what your best moment at gcp in the last year has been?
Within the last year the best experience at gcp must be seeing the staff take on new responsibilities with zest and gusto. It is just fantastic to see colleagues grow and flourish, even when it means I am more accountable to other than ever before.
Couldn’t agree more – it’s been lovely to see our team members take on new responsibilities and really embrace the challenge with such enthusiasm. Speaking about change, do you think you could tell me a bit about how gcp has changed over the years?
We have learnt how to build a culture of working together that is supportive and inclusive that has created a fantastic team. This didn’t happen overnight but started when as directors we realised, we could do everything, and things needed to change. This was around the time of the Egan Report that we embraced and used some of the culture change tool kits to redesign the business decision making structure.
What’s your proudest personal achievement?
My proudest achievement is helping to deliver schemes that brings investment into the relatively deprived area around any city or town centre. In Bristol I have been intrinsically involved with bringing forward investment into three major schemes in east of the city, where investment is always hard to come by.
St Paul’s Sports Academy is just off the M32, when built in 2003 was the first major investment in sport in the inner city for many years, the 1st BREEAM Excellent sports centre and the 1st duel-use sports centre on a primary school site. We undertook extensive community consultation that was key to attracting investment from both Sport England and the SWRDA (forerunner of WECA). Now well over 15 years old, the building looks almost as good as it did the day it was opened by Olympic sprinter, Tessa Sanderson. It also won a Bristol Civic Trust Award.
The development of the Junction 3 project, again just off the M32 was a significant milestone for the business and sense of significant personal achievement. This project was the culmination of two previous failed attempts at developing the site (just 32 legal titles to acquire) and took a great deal of courage from our clients (Bristol City Council, SPAN and Knightstone housing – now LiveWest) to have faith in the idea and see it through to completion. The scheme has completely transformed an area of Bristol that was blighted by antisocial behaviour and was generally a no-go area. It is now a thriving commuter intersection used as a meeting and reference point in the city.
The Trinity Centre in the Old Market district of the city is a converted Grade II* Listed de-consecrated church repurposed as a community arts centre. We have worked with Trinity over the last 15 years, where we have helped facilitate multiple phases of redevelopment as funding has come available (over £1M investment secured to date). It has been fantastic to see the organisation and staff grow and thrive, moving from a rather shambolic rave and live music venue into a respected community arts centre with multiple partnerships. We helped the set out a development master-plan in 2009 that provides a template to complete the redevelopment – only a further £1.9M is needed to finish the job which I hope to see completed before I retire!
What are you looking forward to in the next year?
On the back of the phenomenally successful summer of cricket, I am really looking forward to delivering the next two pilot projects as part of the ECB’s Urban cricket Centre programme. It is just a great time to be associated with cricket and sport in general.
Finally, could you tell us what do you like to do in your spare time?
Play sport, watch live music and sport, plan active holidays, take active holidays, see my family and cooking.
Thanks for your time today Jonathan!
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As part of the interview Jonathan was asked to pick his three most iconic projects with gcp. Mentioned in the answers above are two of those: The Trinity Centre and St Pauls Sports Academy.
The third was Leyton County Cricket Ground where phase 1 has just been completed. See our cricket fixed story on Instagram to see the progress made at Leyton (and Bristol). As was the case with The Trinity Centre, many projects that are funded have a long term plan where the improvement works will be phased to ensure there is enough funding and support for each stage.
Phase 1 of this project focused on the reconfiguration and fit out of the sports hall, outdoor changing provision and creating a link to the George Mitchell Arts building. Phase 2 will involve the redevelopment of that Arts building to create a cricket focused sports facility. These works are funded predominantly by the ECB, English Cricket Board and the redevelopment works are to be in line with their guidance and standards.
There are possible further phases which could include improving the parking, new sports boards, and general improvement of the grounds capabilities. The above graphics show a summer and winter version of the possible capabilities of the site, allowing for not only a cricket ground but also a mix of sports and athletics that can be used by the local school and the community.
Leyton Cricket Ground was the first of hopefully many cricket based projects for gcp. We are currently also working on works to Bristol and Bradford Cricket facilities.