LABC Building Excellence Awards 2023 winner: LABC Site Manager of the Year

More than 900 leading construction industry figures attended the LABC Building Excellence Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel, London to celebrate best practice, quality, and exemplary standards in construction.

The LABC Building Excellence Awards focus on professional skills and competence, as well as exemplar projects with categories for ‘People’ and ‘Places.’

A panel of industry experts judged a selection of the highest quality projects, professionals, and teams from around England and Wales to showcase solutions to complex technical or construction issues, site constraints and technical innovation. The awards highlight the vital contribution public sector building control teams make as part of the project team, ensuring safe, sustainable, and high-quality construction projects.

LABC is delighted to announce that the WINNER of LABC Site Manager of the Year is Ben Bateman of Lendlease.

Starting as a design manager, Ben was able to foster constructive dialogue and open conversations with building control. Ben initiated regular design meetings, set up a Microsoft Teams site for efficient communication, and coordinated building control input for site inspections. His dedication extended to explaining concepts to apprentices and arranging discussions with government representatives, facilitating valuable learning opportunities. Overall, Ben's professionalism and efforts greatly streamlined the building control process for all parties involved, namely on the 8 Bishopsgate project, a complex 52-storey commercial building, spanning over 3 years.

Throughout the project, Ben excelled as a coordinator, ensuring that all building control comments were conveyed to the relevant parties. He proactively managed and tracked these comments for consistency. Additionally, Ben ensured that the detailed information required by the building control team was sent in a sensible and timely manner. The relationship was candid, allowing us to discuss and resolve various issues effectively.

Congratulating the whole team on their success, Lorna Stimpson, LABC Chief Executive said: