Catching up with the newspapers over the weekend, I read Ruth Slavid’s Guardian obituary of Nick Terry, until 2006 head of Building Design Partnership (BDP), who died on 1 December of cancer aged just 60.
I first met Nick when he was part of the team working on the redevelopment of the Royal Opera House in London (I was with Tarmac Professional Services in those days and its construction management arm, Schal, was employed on the project), and renewed our acquaintance when he became chairman of the UK chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (now buildingSMART) – reflecting his belief that information technology lay at the heart of achieving integrated collaborative working. Sadly, there are too few people at the helm of today’s construction businesses that share that view and who are prepared to invest time and effort in realising that vision.
