Damien Newell
Civil engineer

Manager of the ground engineering team at Buro Happold Leeds
Joined in October, 2003
41 years old

Qualifications: BSc (Hons), MSc, CGeol FGS, CEng MIMMM.

Damien is an associate, who currently manages the ground engineering northern team from our Leeds office, which is part of a wider team that is also based in Bath and London.

He joined the practice from the role of managing a small office within a specialist geo-environmental consultancy with the express purpose of undertaking larger scale projects of the kind that Buro Happold is engaged upon.

At Buro Happold his work includes a project to build five new PFI secondary schools in Leeds, which presented some interesting ground engineering challenges and the opportunity for Buro Happold’s sound engineering judgement to deliver significant financial savings for the client.

He has also been involved in the Buro Happold team working on the flagship Newcastle University development at Barras Bridge, which is situated next to an underground tunnel. Smart interaction between the Buro Happold ground engineering and structures team led to the delivery of a cost effective and buildable solution in the face of tight deadlines.

For the mixed use Quarry Hill development in Leeds city centre, Damien supervised a comprehensive ground investigation which allowed many of the below ground risks to be eliminated at an early stage in the project. In this way we unlocked the value of a brown field site, increasing the viability of the scheme as a whole for the benefit of the developer, he explains.

“The ground engineering discipline is spread over three offices and serves the practice as a whole. As such, there is plenty of opportunity to work with other offices and disciplines. This is particularly important in ground engineering as it allows bespoke solutions to be delivered for the mutual benefit of the entire design team, which makes the work more challenging but also more rewarding,” says Damien.

“I like the fact that Buro Happold is a large multi-disciplinary practice and works on a variety of interesting projects. Most importantly of all is the fact that the practice is committed to delivering the best engineering solutions including emerging technologies. It is highly satisfying that Buro Happold is often the engineering consultant of choice and that we are able to deliver solutions to challenging developments and sites time and time again.”

He hopes at some point in the future to be promoted to group manager level and aims to grow with the ground engineering team as a whole. “This is an exciting time for Buro Happold. The expansion of our ground engineering team is providing wide ranging opportunities across the group.”