Dubai World Trade Centre

Having secured their appointment as, ‘The Architect of Record’ (AoR) and ‘The Engineer’ on the 12m sq.ft Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) in the Heart of Dubai, the leadership team at Hopkins Architects in London asked Providence to conduct a study of their organisation’s capacity in Dubai to handle this enormous project and it’s onerous responsibilities.

Over the course of the next 12 months we worked closely with their local leadership group to help build their local team from 20 to 135 people. With our assistance, Hopkins were able to identify the priority hires, grow in a controlled and structured manner which kept pace with the accelerating demands of this massive project.

Above all we developed a solid rapport with the local Hopkins Managing Director to support him and grow his skills to cope with the enormous pressures such a project can place on individuals - he remains a good friend to this day.

In parallel with the growth and development of the local team we identified a significant body of instructed, but unpaid work as a result of over 600 verbal client instructions. This ultimately resulted in a seven figure settlement for additional fees delivering Hopkins a significant return on their investment in our appointment (several dozen times over!)

Finally, once their claim was settled, we were able to help transform Hopkin’s relationship with their client, DWTC, and initiate a new era characterised by a healthy mutual respect and clarity of purpose.

“Alastair's ability to take a strategic view of development and formulate simple solutions was invaluable to us. He helped me personally to separate the wheat from the chaff during a dizzying spurt of growth and helped me to grow our team in a controlled way that delivered results for our client"

Simon Fraser, CEO, Hopkins Architects, Dubai