Acoustic consultancy bolstered by senior appointment in London
Buro Happold has appointed Ian Thompson as associate in its acoustics team, the first dedicated, senior acoustic appointment to be based in Buro Happold’s London office. The acoustics team is part of Buro Happold’s Specialist Consulting group.
Ian previously worked for consulting engineer Arup, joining its acoustics team in 1986 to work on significant commissions in the arts, performance and commercial development sectors. Projects as far a field as Hong Kong and Australia have included auditoria, schools and student accommodation as well as air rights developments above railways, monitoring of explosive demolition and assessment of human perception of vibration on long-span, lightweight floor plates. Most recently Ian has been managing the acoustic design of new BBC broadcast facilities in Glasgow, theatre refurbishments in Northampton and Bury St Edmunds (both listed buildings) and a major retail and leisure development in Warsaw, Poland. He has an MSc in acoustics and has been a regular contributor to acoustics courses and specialist conferences.
To further strengthen the team, Alistair Meachin has been appointed as an acoustics consultant to the Bath office team. With a BSc in physics and MSc in electronics, Alistair will be expanding the team’s capabilities in sound and audio visual systems. As an experienced contractor of ten years, Alistair has worked on theatres, conference centres, schools, cruise liners and theme parks. Holistic and carefully integrated designs have already been developed for Buro Happold projects at Kilternan Country Club and hotel, near Dublin in Ireland, and Minster School in Southwell, Nottinghamshire.
Peter Moseley, partner and joint head of Specialist Consulting, said: “The continuing expansion of the acoustics team is in line with the growth of Buro Happold Specialist Consulting as a whole, with the group now employing over 100 staff. These two new appointments reflect our continuing aim to place Buro Happold Acoustics among the leaders in the field.”
Commenting on his appointment Ian said: “Acoustic performance is, increasingly and properly, a fully specified and codified aspect of design in the built environment. Beyond this, the design and manipulation of sound and of the listening environment provides great scope for creativity and opportunities to beneficially influence the way in which people experience the world around them. Acoustic design is an area of work that provides many challenges, great satisfaction and a continuing need to learn and keep up with new and evolving knowledge.”
ENDS
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Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, disability design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
Ruth Hobbs
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Fax +44 (0)870 787 4144
Email ruth.hobbs@burohappold.com
