Scott Tallon Walker (STW) the UK and Ireland based architectural practice, will finish work on the 34,500 sq m Cancer & Surgery Facility for University College London Hospital (UCLH) in 2020. This is the second of only two NHS High Energy Proton Beam Therapy services. The central London hospital project designed in association with Edward Williams Architects, necessitated STW to achieve BIM Level 2 certification.  

The firm was awarded its BIM Level 2 citation at a ceremony in London on 14th February 2019. BIM is a mandatory requirement for all large projects in Britain and Northern Ireland that are publicly funded. Though not yet mandatory in Ireland, it has been recently recommended by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) for complex projects including hospitals and Third Level institutes from Q2, 2019. The use of BIM (Building Information Management) will reduce risk, improve performance and eliminate costly waste by virtually building and testing designs before they go to site, something that is particularly relevant in the current climate. 

With offices in the UK since 1974 Scott Tallon Walker has won many high-profile public sector design briefs there. As well as the ongoing UCLH project STW has very recently completed the Queens University Belfast School of Biological Sciences, and two projects at the University of Surrey - Innovation for Health and 5G Innovation Centre. STW will also complete the Trinity College Dublin Business School project in March 2019.

Commenting, Eoin O Móráin, Chairman, Scott Tallon Walker said, “As big building projects get more and more complicated technology has to keep pace. As an international architectural practice, we are involved in these large projects including hospitals, universities, airports etc. where standards, appropriately, keep rising.“

We realised early on that to grow our practice further that we would have to be at the forefront of technological accreditation, so I’m delighted for all our staff, across our offices, that they have achieved this extremely high standard. I’m pleased to note as well that BIM Level 2 will shortly be introduced as a standard in Ireland and it should help in curtailing spiralling building costs, that have been so much in the news recently.