About the Project

John McCarthy’s ability to inspire teamwork drove the success of this 108m-tall skyscraper and its 225,000sqft of office space. 

Experience along with the ability to draw lessons from it were key to his leadership. With a similar BAM project just completed and another still under construction, John captured cutting-edge insight by organising workshops and peer reviews between the teams. His own lessons included lowering the projected daily steel lift count by the tower cranes, and adding another goods hoist to cover breakdowns and poor weather. 

Similarly, he championed 4D building information modelling, which he had used on a previous project. It was key to successfully sequencing the complex major works on the four-level basement.  

When the weather and poor concrete supplier performance delayed the slipform construction of the core by three weeks, he put his faith in collaboration. By bringing in in-house experts to monitor the supplier’s quality assurance process, he completed the core as originally planned. 

When a Victorian wall clashed with the piling positions to support the extension of the existing basement from one level to four, John acted fast. The piles and their caps were redesigned, and complex temporary works formed to retain the wall. By resequencing the structural steelwork and the ground-floor concrete slab, he pulled back all of what had been a five-week delay.