2010 round up, winners and loosers!

Firstly apologies for not having posted for some time, the second half of 2010 has been manic, the busiest for the business so far.

We've had a number of projects come to site, which I will be blogging about this week, including:

Sunnyside cottage, Glenlivet:
complete renovation and extension of an existing run down cottage on the estate


St Ronans Drive, Peterculter:
quick refurbishment including new stairs and revamped kitchen for a house in Peterculter


Springfield Road, Aberdeen:
Massive three storey rear extension, including basement in Aberdeen.


And of course Dalmore Distillery which we are working on for Whyte and Mackay, the start of the revamp went live on site on the 9th December, and is due to be completed by May 2011.




We've had some notable project wins, including a new office fit out for Bluewater Shipping UK Ltd,which is due to go live this spring, and several fantastic new house projects, including a very striking one for our clients Matt & Emma, on a site in Skene, more on which you can find out on our web site shortly. we've also been working on a fine extension to a grade listed Manse, again more about which you will be able to see on our web site very shortly.

We've been working with Centrica Plc, assessing their current building stock in Aberdeen, and looking at outline proposals for a new office fit out for 350 people around several prominent sites in Aberdeen.


We've hired three new members of staff this year, so congratulations to Leyton, who has survived his first year (just about), Jane (one of our clients who has become staff, read about her story in the P&J here: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2030959 ) and most recently and a warmest welcome to David, 3D wizard (example pic below) the newest member of the team.


We've also got a new JAMstudio mascot in the shape of our beautiful 9 month old black lab called Cerny. Cerny has been travelling to site and even has his own hivis vest!! He's proving a hit with staff and clients alike, and has done wonders for my waistline....

One of our architectural assistants Alexa has been in the news recently. The Press and Journal ran a feature on what it is like to be training as an architect in the your jobs section of the paper, read about it here: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1964306

We've been invited by the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce as part of a select group of businesses based in the North East Scotland to come up with innovative ideas to revamp the city centre. Entries have to be in by the end of the month so watch this space...

And the ones that got away.... well there have not been many, but the most notable was probably The Balvenie High class residential refurbs for the Glenfiddich Whiskey Company....we did a great pitch and the client was impressed with our ideas, so much so they sent them to New York, but in the end they decided to stay with their incumbent designers....nothing ventured nothing gained. We were contacted by a client in Australia about a very interesting mill conversion to do, but sadly as it was based south of Edinburgh we had to give it a miss, which was a pity, as it looked amazing.

In terms of aims and goals for the practice for 2011, we have quite a few, namely keeping the great ideas flowing, hiring one more member of staff, making sure we deliver the best possible service we can for our clients, and trying and win at least one commercial project award. We are hopeful we have a few contenders already lining up nicely. It would be good to see all our staff continue to grow and expand their skill set (Donna has exams in January - best of luck! we know you can do it, and currently Leyton and Alexa are grappling with Google Sketch up, our new virtual modelling tool of choice).

Finally we want to put something back into our community by way of a thank your for our continued success. We have two sponsored charity events in the making for 2011, a 5 peaks challenge, where the JAMstudio team intend to conquer all the major peaks on the Benachie range in a day, then we will be looking to team up with our favorite engineers Wright Associates to enter the River Don Raft Race in aid of Cancer Research (WA will be our secret weapons, although knowing our engineers it will probably be built so robustly we'll sink...). Our local charity this year will be Mental Health Aberdeen (MHA) and we are hoping to raise £2500 via sponsorship and donations for them during the year.