TNAG-2344-FCO40-3410-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-1992 — Page 161

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Architects

12.

All the

We considered a wide range of possible Architects. Project Managers, and others to whom we spoke, thought that we should exclude from consideration non-British international architectural practices as both presentationally inappropriate and liable to produce more expensive buildings than Architects with good track records or connections in Hong Kong; the international Architects in this category who have worked in Hong Kong are listed in an attachment, but we have discarded them from our recommended list of five. We also considered, and have likewise discarded, Hong Kong Chinese architectural practices with no connections in the UK, because it seemed to us that our search for an identifiably British presence would not be best served by such firms: they, too, are nevertheless listed.

13. We have concentrated, therefore, on British expatriate architectural firms in Hong Kong with strong links and, in the main, associate practices in the UK. There are fewer practices falling into this category than we previously understood, and most of them are listed in the attachment. From this category we have produced the short-list below of 5 practices from whom to invite outline design proposals, and we are confident that from them we should be able to select the highest quality of design and, with the Project Manager's active direction, exact the most reliable standard of execution and cost control. recommend that, subject to the views of the selected Project Manager and once the design brief is ready, we invite outline design proposals from the five firms asterisked at Flag F.

Design Brief

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14. We had lengthy discussions with both the British Council and the HK Immigration Service about their organisational require- ments in the new building, and toured both their present premises in some detail, in support of the work that we were doing in formulating the design brief. The British Council's requirements are relatively straightforward and already well understood by us and by them. This is not yet the case for the future Consular, Passport and Immigration sections of the Consulate-General because of problems of disentangling the work that these sections will do from that which will remain with the HK Immigration Service and of forecasting the effect of planned managerial initiatives (eg with computer systems, records and postal applications) on the staffing, procedural and space requirements our new building. I therefore recommend that Mr Burns' Steering Committee and Miss Spencer should consider stepping up the pace and detail of liaison on all these points with the HK Immigration Service.

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Next Steps

15. Subject to the Minister's agreement that we should now appoint Swire Properties as executive Project Manager, I would

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