TGA Consulting Engineers (TGA), an expert provider of consulting engineering services working at the leading edge of carbon reduction technologies, has begun the year at a cracking pace by expanding into new office accommodation in West One, Forth Banks, close to Newcastle’s Stephenson Quarter to accommodate its growth strategy.
The move is accompanied by six new appointments and the promotion of three existing staff to provide more project support for its growing project pipeline.
The new recruits include Michael Dunlavy, who is a principal mechanical engineer; Jack Atkinson, a senior electrical engineer who joins from a similar regional consultancy with a 1st Class BEng (Hons) degree; Ed McNaught, a well-known and highly experienced healthcare specialist who is a Fellow of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management; Harry Ross, a graduate building performance engineer; a trainee mechanical engineer, Adam Au, who has moved to the UK from Hong Kong to further develop his building services engineering design skills; and Josh Shell, who joins as a trainee electrical engineer.
Three existing staff members have also been promoted: Courtney McGee becomes a senior Revit technician, Luke Collins, who has been promoted to BIM Co-ordinator from a senior technician role and James Davison, who arrived at TGA in 2019 when he joined with over 16 years of experience, has been promoted to Associate with responsibility for developing the specialist lighting design department.
The firm, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, also has offices in Durham at Salvus House, Leeds and in London.
Aside from providing much more work space, its new accommodation provides social space with a larger reception area, a social lounge and collaboration area, an eight-person executive board room, a four-person meeting room, a social breakout/ refreshment area, ample storage space and car parking.
As the construction industry and the business sector as a whole adopt a more carbon conscious approach, TGA is well placed to provide expert support and advice, which has led to an influx of new work.
TGA director, Scott Graham, said: “We now have far more space, which means we no longer need to share meeting facilities with other tenants and we are still close enough to the city centre, so we see West One as a great base for future expansion.
“Throughout last year we continued to pick up several new projects – resulting in an increase in turnover in line with our growth plans. This meant that by early summer, we were rapidly outgrowing our existing office accommodation and it has taken until now to find suitable accommodation that ticked all the boxes for us.
“As massive advocates for driving down the energy and carbon production of buildings we are working with tier one contractors and developers. This has recently seen us pick up work with main contractor, Morgan Sindall, providing building services design for the construction of the three-storey 8,700m2 Callerton Academy and our appointment at Durham University to develop heat decarbonisation plans for five sites has kept us busy throughout 2023.
“At the same time, we are investing heavily in the development of a specialist lighting design department with the aim of being a driving force in this sector. Good lighting design plays a critical role within any building project and can make all the difference, lifting the overall ambience of all working environments.
“Our dedicated team of young lighting design professionals is gaining a solid reputation for its innovation and flair leading to a variety of lighting projects in several sectors, including the redevelopment of the Grainger Market, the redevelopment of Redcar Town Centre and Redhills Durham Miners Hall to name a few.”
With an ambitious growth strategy for the year ahead and more new appointments to follow, the office move will allow TGA employees from the nearby Durham office to also work from Newcastle – particularly if they need to collaborate on various aspects of design and delivery.
TGA also picked up several industry awards throughout 2023: two RIBA North East (regional) awards for 17Nineteen, Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland, which won North East Building of the Year and North East Conservation project of the year; a RIBA North East award for Newcastle Cathedral: Common Ground in Sacred Space: and at Ledston Hall, a Grade I listed Yorkshire country house, which won Refurbishment and Renovation Project of the Year at the Yorkshire Insider Property Awards.
The current appointments bring the total number of staff employed across all TGA offices to 48.
