Welcome to our latest issue of EuroAsia Industry magazine,featuring companies from across the industrial spectrumcovering mining, construction, oil and gas, engineering andutilities. In this issue we feature many of the world’s largestand most respected companies, including Aker FloatingProduction, Arabtec Construction, Alutec, Barker Mohandasand many more. In addition, our independent editorial deliversincisive articles and reports covering a wide range of industrysectors and functional disciplines. With Mining and Refiningunder the spotlight, we look at how the rise in commodityprices has driven this sector, particularly in the area of preciousmetals such as gold. Our environmental report looks at thelatest initiatives in renewable energies and poses the question:‘Are governments too focused on large scale generation, whenmicro generation could be the answer’. Our trade report looksat how the WTO has influenced world trade over the last fewdecades and what challenges may lie ahead. Our technologyfeature provides an insight into the developments in super-alloys and the part they play in increased efficiency and safetyin modern turbines and jet engines. Finally, our country reportfocuses on Australia and their position at the forefront ofmining technology and innovation.
In one of the most intense and extraordinary sessions oflegislative wrangling in modern times, Henry Paulson, theexhausted US Treasury Secretary, finally persuaded theRepublican and Democratic leaderships to agree to a compro-mise deal, on the $700 billion rescue plan for the US economy,just hours before the Asian markets opened. The $700 billion
would be disbursed in stages, with $250 billion made availableimmediately for the Treasury’s use. Whether this will save thesystem is yet to be seen, but the world’s central bankers seemvery determined to avoid a complete collapse and are goingto ever-greater lengths to keep the ‘party’ going.
There had been crises before the 1840s, including suchspectacular events as the collapse of the Dutch tulip maniain the 1630s. There have been crises since the 19th century,including the Great Wall Street Crash of 1929. We are notdealing with a unique phenomenon now, but with a recurrentevent that the world economy has always survived in the end.In fact, it is a well-documented observation that the economy,like the many natural systems in the world, is subject to cycles.The Kondratieff wave cycle for instance, suggests four distinctphases: beneficial inflation (spring), stagflation (summer),beneficial deflation (autumn), and deflation (winter). Sincethe last Kondratieff cycle ended around 1949, we have seenbeneficial inflation 1949-1966, stagflation 1966-1982, benefi-cial deflation 1982-2000 and according to Kondratieff, we arenow in the (winter) deflation cycle which should lead to depres-sion. Whether we can avoid this is yet to be seen, but if suc-cessful, who knows, maybe we can finally break many moreof life’s seemingly harsh cycles, dispensing with winter andeventually cheating death itself. It seems unlikely though, andworth bearing in mind, that of the few phenomena that exhibitunchecked growth, cancers are the most notable.
The Industry Voice for Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
80 DEFINING THE SKYLINES OF TOMORROWArabtec Construction
102 REACHING NEW HEIGHTSAl Hamad Contracting Company
110 WE BUILD VALUESAl Sahel Contracting Company
114 A SOLID REPUTATION Ginco Contracting Co.
CONSTRUCTION – SUPPLIERS & SERVICES
118 A CLEAR VISIONAlutec
126 UPLIFTING DESIGNSBarker Mohandas
135 ARABIAN LIGHTSAl Ittihad Electric
140 A CONSOLIDATED APPROACHConsolidated Engineering Systems Company (CESCO)
144 BUILDING DUBAIDolphin Steel
TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS
150 VISION FOR THE FUTUREAbu Dhabi Ship Building
158 SOLUTIONS FOR GLOBAL INDUSTRIESInfraset
164 BUILDING TRANSPORT’S FUTUREMTR Corporation
WATER SERVICES
170 A CLEAR VIEWSaint-Gobain Canalisation
177 QUALITY FOCUSED –TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN – PAL Technology
MISCELLANEOUS
184 HOME ELECTRICAL SOLUTIONSAmica Wronki
188 CARING FOR THOSE IN NEEDHaidylena
194 A BUSINESS TRANSFORMEDTrasfor
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Barker Mohandas LLC is a global elevator consultancy firm withextensive experience spanning system innovation, design, evaluation,modernisation and engineering services on premier constructionprojects around the globe. Eric Payne spoke to three of the company’sPrincipals, including co-founder Mr Rick Barker and engineers, PaulBennett and Mike Spaner, about elevator design and the important roleBarker Mohandas has in enabling many of the world’s most prestigiousconstruction projects to move ahead.
Barker Mohandas is a global companywith offices in the USA and Singapore, and anassociate company in the UK. Their typicalclients are building owners/developers, archi-tects, and consulting engineering firms. At themoment they are most heavily focused on thedesign of new building systems. By way of sum-mary, their projects are either tall, complex orlarge, where someone needs to make a decisionwhen they’re buying lots of lifts. Their clientssometimes include lift manufacturers. MrBarker states, “We are flattered when a majorlift manufacturer comes to us for a secondopinion or requesting a little technical help.”
Mr Barker begins with a concise summary ofexactly what it is an elevator consultancy pro-vides for its customers. “Our most fundamentalservice is to determine how many lifts arerequired for a building, how big and fast theyare, which floors they serve, and how they arearranged as a system in different groups, forpassengers, and for ‘back-of-house’ purposes.As well as helping to solve the many issues thatgo along with that, in multi-use buildings,buildings with car parks and podiums, and soon. Our differentiators include the powerfulsoftware tools we use to conduct these servicesproductively without guesswork, helping tofind optimal lift ‘grouping’ solutions for high-rise buildings, and semi-automatically generatedrawings and other information. Our maindifferentiators are our experience, in how liftsrelate to other building systems and securityand safety issues, planning for vertical circu-lation to avoid traffic issues that can affectsecurity and fire safety, and our expertise inelevator product engineering.”
An elite teamThe company, Barker Mohandas, was founded8 years ago by old friends and work colleaguesRick Barker and Paliath Mohandas, who metwhile working as executives for the OtisElevator Company. Mr Barker elaborates, “At
Otis I was director of technical services world-wide, particularly for tall and special buildingprojects and products, while ‘Mohan’ wasresponsible for all operations in South-EastAsia where he had successfully led Otis inthe Petronas Twin Towers project in KualaLumpur, drawing on his wide experience fromplanning the world’s first four double deck liftsystems. The two of us were introduced byOtis’ then-president, Jean Pierre Van Rooy, asthe only people in the company with ‘high end’lift consulting experience. I was then asked tolead pre-construction technical support forMohan’s busy area of the world, in particular.
“Both our roots lay in planning lift systemsfor tall buildings. This began when we worked
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The Key Technical Team of Barker Mohandas(top left to right: Principals Rick Barker, Mike Spaner, and Paul Bennett; bottom left to right: Technology Director, George Wisnerand Chief Engineer, Dr. Clem Skalski)
Living Wall Project, Amman, JordanArchitect: Foster+Partners, LondonEngineer: Buro Happold, London
UPLIFTING DESIGNSUPLIFTING DESIGNS
128 EUROASIA INDUSTRY
for different multi-disciplined consultingengineering firms in Manhattan (JB&B andCosentini) leading their ‘vertical transporta-tion’ departments.” Mr Barker says, “I thinkwe both joined Otis because we wanted todo more than count lift hoistways. So, afterleaving Otis, it was only natural for us to hook-up.” This collaborative spirit has infused allof Barker Mohandas’ activities. Undoubtedly,one of the keys to the company’s success is theexceptional team of people they have puttogether. “I have to mention our key people, asthey are a part of any strategy we can conceive,helping to provide answers at times whensome others are still contemplating thequestion,” says Mr Barker.
“As consulting engagements grew, somevery high-end lift engineers joined us, to addcapabilities to study and/or design all aspectsof a lift. The first to join our co-founders wasthe best ‘lift scientist’ I know, Dr. Clem Skalski,who is now our chief engineer. Clem wasinstrumental in developing motion controlsused on today’s high-speed lifts, and wasinvolved in many advanced R&D projectsinvolving active guidance for lifts, linear motors,and so on. His prior experience includedMagLev designs and his first task for us was to develop a powerful software tool, in MATLAB®, to determine the powerrequirements and heat release for any lift,including those for use in tall buildings, whichare usually custom-designed. In rapid succes-sion, George Wisner joined us as technologydirector. George has a similarly strong productresearch background coming from UnitedTechnologies Research Centre, and laterleading lift power electronics drives devel-opment at Otis.
“Eventually, our talent was truly roundedoff when Paul Bennett and Mike Spanerjoined us as principals. Paul is the best liftmechanical engineer I know, he has led devel-opment of safety systems and their certifica-tion and testing for tall building lifts, and hasdesigned most other mechanical parts forlifts, including a lift capable of handling alocomotive (specifically, the Channel Tunnelboring machine). Mike is our youngest andbrightest principal who was a lift electricaland systems design engineer, and brings withhim regenerative fuel cell experience as well.Our hope is that someday Mike will be the onegiving these interviews.
“Soon after we opened in the USA, weopened a company in Singapore, called BarkerMohandas Consulting Pte Ltd. Not long afterthat, we decided to partner with a newly-forming consultancy in the UK, founded on
the basis that we would handle their advancedtechnical and high-rise support.
“Of course our growth depends directlyupon our clients, and this began with somerelationships that pre-existed our formation.The most important one initially was PeiPartnership Architects, who have alsohelped sustain us with some large andenjoyable projects. And I should mentionwhy this relationship is successful: They arearchitects at their deepest roots who seek outand well orchestrate the advice they receivefrom their key consultants.”
Finding the perfect solutionWhen the company was founded BarkerMohandas spent about a year with no con-sulting income developing some of theirunique software tools and processes, to enablethem to open their consultancy with these dif-ferentiators in hand, and supplement theiruniquely-strong CV’s. Mr Barker explains, “Inlift consulting the buildings that we specialisein are rather large and the architect or owneris often not sure if he/she wants it short andfat, tall and slender, or something in between.The answers to these questions need quite afew computations and that is where having theright software tool becomes essential.
“One of my responsibilities at Otis includedstrategy for developing software tools to assistin the design of lift systems for tall buildingsthat would involve multiple elevators and mul-tiple groups of elevators. Now, while they werevery good at the deep down details of liftproduct design their tools had some significantlimitations in the system planning sense. So,the idea was to find a tool that could find allsystem solutions within a given set of parame-ters that several manufacturers could build, tohelp us find the optimal solution for the client.Mike Spaner was our software consultant backthen, helping in the early hours to build our‘optimisation’ tool for finding lift system solu-tions for high-rise buildings involving multiplegroups of lifts.”
Mr Spaner continues, “The tools that weuse, scientifically find more than one viablesolution. This means we are able to get closerto client needs, established through discus-sion around the table and sculpted into solu-tions, in a way that you couldn’t do usingtraditional methods alone.
“The other purpose of the tool is to savetime. In consulting it is very important torespond to architects and owners very quickly,with many possible options, in terms of cost,core space or performance – depending uponthe particular clients key objectives and
requirements.” Mr Bennet elaborates, “anelevator consultant doing these calculationsmanually would take forever and you wouldnever have time to ensure that the client gotthe optimum solution. The benefit of the toolthat was developed here is that it finds all thepossible solutions and you can pick. Thebottom line being that it helps ensure theclient gets the optimum solution.”
Mr Barker adds “I have a lot of experienceusing computers to design lift systems, but thiswas always one lift group at a time. I wasamazed with the results of this new softwaretool, which has returned solutions that I wouldnot have thought of or been able to achievebefore within the same time constraints. Forinstance, conforming to the concept of anarchitect’s unique tower shaped like a flower,or an architect calling me on the way backfrom a city saying, ‘how tall can I make thisbuilding, to make it the city’s tallest, using thesame core footprint?’ And having theanswer in about 20 minutes.” Mr Barkerconcludes, “Our business demonstrates thepower of what can be achieved, when youstart with limited resources but some reallyexcellent people.”
Making a better product“Secondly, in software development – clientsor architects might think we have CAD detailsavailable for infinite sizes and arrangementsof lifts, but we don’t. If we were drawingthings with individual lines or using librariesfrom AutoCAD we would need a whole floorof drafting people, re-inventing the wheel allthe time.”
“This is why another piece of software wedeveloped was a parametric tool to generateCAD drawings automatically. At companieslike Otis we were using software packages thatwere costly, such as Pro Engineer, which is notvery affordable for a small firm. So, we wroteour own, using a combination of Microsoftapplications, proved it could work, but lo andbehold years later we found a software com-pany developing a similar product that hadput lots of money and time into it. We pur-chased their advanced version used by liftmanufacturers, which enabled us to focuson other things.”
Mr Spanner adds, “there is a higher levelphilosophy here which is; take the domainexpertise that we have in-house and coupleit with technology in order to get a consistent
high quality, therefore, high response busi-ness for the client. If that means creatingour own tools, we will do it. If it means inte-grating the best of other tools already outthere, we will do that. Basically, we use thetools that will best serve customer needs.Whether it is for traffic analysis or CADwork or specification writing, whatever it is,we are constantly asking ourselves, ‘what toolcan we either integrate or create to make abetter product?’”
Around the worldAs a global firm Barker Mohandas has to beflexible in order to meet different customerrequirements in different regions, whetherthose be regulated by codes, culture or custom.Mr Barker explains, “each client will have theirown objectives but generally, in a geographicalarea there are certain trends. China, forexample, is fairly prescriptive; there are strictcode requirements, they’re conservative, andthey typically work for buildings of specificheight. The first task, in any region is alwaysto address those standards. What is more ofa challenge is to suggest something that goesbeyond those standards. �
Marina 101 Project, Dubai, UAE
Owner/Developer: Sheffield Real Estate, Dubai
Design Consultant: National Engineering Bureau, Dubai, UAE
Marina 101 Project, Dubai, UAE
Owner/Developer: Sheffield Real Estate, Dubai
Design Consultant: National Engineering Bureau, Dubai, UAE
Visionaire Project, Battery Park City, Manhattan, NYC
Owner/Developer: Albanese Organization, New York
Architects: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, CT and SLCE Architects, NYC
MEP Engineer: Cosentini Associates
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“The taller the building the more the codesseem to fall short in either coverage or practi-cality. As a result, we don’t just settle for limita-tions in a present code. For example, there’s arequirement that started in the UK, to have afirefighters’ lift capable of reaching the top of abuilding in a single bound – like Superman –in 60 seconds.” Mr Barker explains, “What weare trying to do is harmonise the best of thiscountry or that country. The UK showed usthings, like the firefighters’ lift, for example,which is still not done as well in the US. Butwe do other things in this country that arepretty good, so we tend to infuse some practi-cality with British best practise and then takethis into a very tall building.”
“Where this experience is really valuable iswhen you are working on a country’s first tallbuilding. In Vietnam, for example, in Ho ChiMinh City, we have the Bitexcoland FinancialTower, which will be the country’s tallestbuilding, at least for now. At the start of theproject the client wanted American codes. Ouradvice was that there are really good thingsabout the American codes, but there’s somereally good things about European codes too.We suggested a harmonised version of inter-national codes, and have used this model onmany projects.
We’ve been in Jordan also, the same situa-tion, and in other countries wanting to do tallbuildings that’s been our approach. I would saythat almost universally, the suggestions that wemake in the area of fire fighter’s lifts have beenaccepted. We understand that we are just thelift consultants and a design like that involvesmany other disciplines: stair location, emer-gency power, water protection, and pressurisa-tion to avoid smoke entering the lift well. We’repart of that solution, definitely, we are often thecatalyst, but we have to realise that the lifts arejust a subsystem of the building, and we needto coordinate with experts in other systems.
The sky’s the limit“There is certainly still a trend for tall build-ings, and even taller buildings,” says Mr Barker.In fact, Barker Mohandas is involved in whatwill be America’s tallest building and of theworld’s very tallest, the Chicago Spire, pro-viding a ‘peer review’ service for the owner, arole that started by interviewing elevator con-sultants who would handle the actual design.
“With the super high-rise, we sometimesstart a design by asking, ‘how far can a lift travelwith today’s elevator equipment?’ We wellknow the capabilities of the manufacturersequipment. After all, we helped design someof that equipment, and good relationships with
the engineers at multiple companies means wecan continually ask the right questions. Weknow the limitations of where they are today,and in some sense the limitations are fine – ifyou plan an elevator to go 150 stories, you haveto wait for it to come back! So, a lot of solutionscome down to technique, not technology. Thatsaid, we are asked to push the limit a little bit.So, I would say to your question that the cur-rent height of buildings is set by the physicaland code limits of lifts produced by majormanufacturers, such as Otis, Mitsubishi,Schindler, ThyssenKrupp, and Kone.
Mr Spaner informs us, “In addition to theequipment challenges, we often have to thinkabout the fact that these super tall buildingsare in fact multiple buildings integratedtogether, and this firm brings the expertisenecessary to be able to handle that complexity.”Mr Barker continues, “For a tall building, weare a key part of the design team. It usuallystarts with the architect, the structural engi-neer, us, and the mechanical engineer. At thisstage we often suggest where an office mightbe placed in a building versus where the hotelis in the same building. Offices require morelifts than hotels, and that will suggest a certainlayout at the design phase. Of course, every-body wants an observation deck at the top oftheir super tall tower, so that’s something weneed to deal with.”
Mr Barker informs us, “lift and economicconstraints effect the size of the core of thebuilding and drive the program owner’s brieffor the tower. Also, as buildings get taller, ques-tions regarding evacuation will increase. So, weneed to find ways to plan in redundancy, sothere are safe alternatives. This part of theprocess involves working very closely with otherproject designers who protect the lifts, so theydon’t smell smoke, they don’t feel heat, etc.
“Another challenge in buildings of thisheight and size is that they tend to move.The wind forces on the building will move thebuilding horizontally so there will be some sway.Well, that natural wave frequency could excitethe elevator’s wire ropes – it‘s not dependingon height, it’s just if we happen to hit that fre-quency and where. So, there are a number ofstrategies we have to look at and consider, andwe have a number of tools and solutions in ourarsenal for dealing with that issue.”
Custom lifts“We also plan some very custom lifts for somevery unique buildings. This is a particular areaof ‘fun’ for us, especially when manufacturerssay they cannot be involved, because they nolonger have the people available, and/or are
focused on mass-market model lifts. Work onthese projects always begins with a lot of ques-tions. Have we thought about reliability andmaintenance? Have we thought about rescuesand other emergencies? Many practical ques-tions. Then we all start applying an imaginativeprocess, call it ‘imagineers’ if you will, theDisney term. This is when the architect, struc-tural engineer and ourselves have some fun –how to hide things, how to shape things, and,also, let’s not forget the ability to recall history,and pull ideas from the database.”
An early example of a custom lift solutiondeveloped by the company is the special liftand escalator designs they provided for a sci-ence centre in Macau. For that project “wewere asked to plan a leaning lift that was trulyan elevator, with all the safety requirements,and ride quality of an elevator, which was achallenge at an incline. We feel we solved theride quality issues for such a lift and manufac-turers who priced the design agreed with that.It was probably the first practical solution forride quality for an inclined lift. Unfortunately,the costs were outside the client’s budget sothat did not proceed.
Jumping ahead, right at this very moment,there is a project we are doing with a majorclient in Dubai called Nakheel. They are doinga 157m high wheel-shaped luxury beachfronthotel, the signature development in the DubaiPromenade project. We were encouraged to beinvolved with this project because of the designof some very special lifts in the middle of thehole, called ‘sky lifts’. At one time they werelikened to a project in Paris called Le GrandeArche, for which Otis developed what theycalled ‘duo-lifts’, where one lift counterweightsthe other and they are wide open, in the openair. Well, the design will likely not proceed thatway but it will be unique in accordance withthe visions the architect and owner have fortheir iconic project.
Mr Bennet discusses a project with Foster+ Partners and Buro Happold consisting ofmultiple medium-rise buildings infused intoa hillside in Amman. “The ‘Living Wall’ project,as it is known, is built into a cliff side, and ontop of the cliff there is an existing hospital,where they’ve added one tower which is aclinical building, a hotel for people with rela-tives in the hospital area, wanting to stay overnight, two apartment towers for the doctorsand clinicians, and an office tower. The towersstart at the top of the cliff and go down intothe cliff, for nine floors, which are a combi-nation of retail, leisure and car parking. So,there are dedicated lifts in there for each ofthe towers and common lifts and escalators�
Design for Al Burj Project, Dubai, UAE
Owner/Developer: Nakheel, UAE
Architect: Pei Partnership Architects, NYC
EUROASIA INDUSTRY 133132 EUROASIA INDUSTRY
serving the retail, the leisure and the carparking. The horizontal circulation was muchmore difficult than the vertical circulation onthat building, as people would move aroundthis complex, which presented some inter-esting studies in pedestrian circulation.”
Another major project Mr Barker is keento mention is the Rotating Tower Technologyprojects with architect David Fisher, inMoscow and Dubai. “In these projects eachfloor rotates individually, which allows theshape of the building to change elegantly, aswell as the views from the interior. Presently,
neither the lifts nor their travel pattern rotate,though we have received such requests onother projects!”
Energy-efficientMr Barker explains, “Presently we are focusedon specifying or designing lift systems that arevery energy-efficient. George Wisner, our tech-nology director and I were part of a group ofexperts involved in green product design andstrategy at Otis, Mike Spaner, in addition to hisexperience with a lift manufacturer, comes tous from a company involved in designing andmanufacturing regenerative fuel cells, andanother member of our team has done con-sulting in power systems not involving lifts.Our people were going ‘green’ long before itwas fashionable.
“We were hired for this purpose on a high-rise residential building in Manhattan by theowner, the Albanese Organization, who wereseeking a Platinum LEED® certification bythe U.S. Green Building Council. While thisis the highest rating, the owner wanted totake some next steps involving elevators. Theproject is called the Visionaire and is now inthe later stage of construction. An earlierproject by this owner achieved this rating,becoming the first high-rise residential towerin the USA to do so.”
Mr Barker states, “Today is a good timefor an energy efficient lift. The motors havebecome very efficient, the motor drives andpower electronics are very clean with a highpower factor, and they allow regeneration backinto the building grid.” There is a “temptationto make products that are overly cost reducedand overly lightweight just so you can say it’senergy efficient. But, for us, knowing downdeep design, it is crucial that the lift remainrobust. Very little should shortcut robustnessand nothing should shortcut safety. Those
remain our prime requisites.” Mr Spanerconfirms, “There is a real opportunity tohelp make elevators sustainable, and one ofthe ways that our firm can do it is through thespecifications that we produce.” Also, “Thereare certainly opportunities for specifying newsustainable materials. This is still a new,emerging area where we anticipate a lot ofpositive change.”
The next generationThe vastly experienced team of consultantsat Barker Mohandas find themselves in a veryprivileged position, “sitting on the front endof customer needs,” a role that the companyregards with the utmost seriousness. MrSpaner asserts, “We encourage competitivebidding for our clients. If someone is readingthis article and saying, why do I need BarkerMohandas? That’s probably a good reason.Having Barker Mohandas on the team will giveyou a competitive solution and add value to theproject as a whole.”
Mr Barker explains, “If we were back at a manufacturer we would have probablyincreased our patent resume considerably.However, our goal has been to encouragecompetition, for our clients.” Consequently,“right now, we do nothing more than copyrightdesigns, because we want anybody to be ableto produce the design, for the project, for ourclient, but not take it as their own. When youput a team like this together – collectively, ourkey consultants are named on 85 USA patents,all assigned to a major lift manufacturer – pos-sibilities emerge. Many of us were involvedin the R&D of high-end elevator products. Fora relatively small firm among giants in the liftindustry, we probably have the highest per-capita skills in our industry. Naturally, whenyou put these things together with the speedand flexibility of a smaller firm and you are on �
Shenyang Financial TowerProject, Shenyang, PRC
Owner/Developer: Henderson Land, Hong Kong
Architects: Pei PartnershipArchitects, NYC and Aedas,Hong Kong
the front-end of customers’ needs, possibilitiesemerge. It is a good problem, although we donot have time to dwell on that right now withour work load.”
Most exciting of all are hints that Mr Barkermakes towards possible future advances inlift technology, which he expects will “speakto the next generation of lifts, after all liftshave basically remained the same since ElishaOtis, when he proved that lifts with ropes aresafe. We are being pulled into some of thesenext generation things and we’ll see. Right now,we are thankful that so many projects like thisget funded. It lets us have some fun.”
Future growthMr Barker asserts, “Our future plans are tohandle our growth, to keep the same quality.We are carefully planning a representativeoffice in India and the Gulf region, with agood leader slated for both, but doing this ina way that keeps our quality consistently high,well utilising our resources here at the core.Some consultancies have problems in thisarea, becoming very decentralised, franchisinga brand name but perhaps the quality of thatbrand is diffused.” Mr Spaner suggests, “Inactuality it’s a relentless pursuit of betterquality! Even when we have what we thinkis a top quality specification for a job, we willlook at that specification or portions thereofas we move to the next job and ask, ‘how canwe make it better, based on what we’ve learntin the last month, or even the last week? So,it’s not just maintaining a level of quality –it’s a relentless pursuit of higher quality.”
Mr Barker attests, “What sets us apartfrom our competition I believe starts with theexpertise and experience of our consultants,followed by the level of software tool or designprocess we build. Quite often lift consultantsare former lift salespersons or technicians.While lift, commercial and field, experience isvery important, this is usually not enough forwhat we do at our core. Having people whocan provide the right answers quickly is impor-tant, equally important is being proactive inconsulting. Sometimes a client may be askingthe wrong question, or not asking us to studyenough alternatives, which we need to volun-teer. These things have contributed to a growthrate, in fees billed, that has averaged 37 percent over the past three years.”
With Barker Mohandas currently enjoyingan enviable degree of success, working on someof the most prestigious construction projectson the planet, one can see few obstaclesstanding in the way of this continuing longinto the future. �
Bitexcoland Financial Tower, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Architects: Carlos Zapata Studio, NYC and AREP, Paris
Construction Manager: Turner International
Rendering of Rotating Tower Project, Moscow
Architect: David Fisher
Engineers: LERA, NYC (Structure) and Lehr Consultants
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