Practice Profile
The Practice
Solway Brown was founded in 1959. The present partners, Grahame Solway and Sandy Brown, joined the partnership in 1977 and 1978. We have established a reputation for producing buildings of quality within the client's budget. This has led to a steadily increasing involvement in those areas of building where high quality and tight control of programming is essential but finance may be limited, typically buildings for education, church, healthcare, and housing use.
The Long Term View
We take a long term view of involvement with our clients, as we are well aware that considerable time is often required for clients to agree on the need for and extent of facilities, and that fund raising may be required. We are always ready, therefore, to become involved with public meetings, presentations, etc., and provide visual displays and models.
The Broader Picture
The management of programmes and feasibility studies for multi-use sites has led inevitably to our involvement in the broader aspects of enabling a project to proceed. Thus we have not only designed new buildings, adapted existing ones and used traditional competitive tendering procedures, but have also introduced negotiated tenders, land for building swaps, and design / build projects, to produce significant financial benefits for our clients. As a result of our extensive experience in buildings for education, for example, we have now undertaken the design of virtually all building types including staff and student residential accommodation, classrooms, language and science laboratories, libraries, sports halls, theatres and swimming pools to suit each client's individual requirements.
Engineering and Energy Conservation
We work with consultants (where appropriate) on all specialist aspects of the design - structure, mechanical and electrical services, acoustics, theatre design, etc. - and, of course, on energy conservation. Our policy here is always to try to provide levels of energy saving in excess of the current standards in order to reduce running costs and protect the environment.
Cost
Our reputation has been established by our producing sound cost-effective buildings. We work with quantity surveyors to monitor the cost at every stage of a project and to ensure that we can complete the building within the given budget.
Health & Safety
Construction, Design & Management Regulations require that clients appoint a planning supervisor to co-ordinate health and safety aspects of virtually all construction projects. The practice has a core of specifically trained chartered architects who now undertake this role for a large number of clients, on a wide variety of projects.
Contact Us
Partners Grahame Solway or Sandy Brown can be contacted as
noted in the homepage details, or the following email addresses:
grahame@solwaybrown.co.uk
sandy@solwaybrown.co.uk
