Contract Administration in Little Venice

Documented building context

Westminster’s May 2004 Maida Vale information leaflet describes the earlier development as principally brick and stucco, with later red-brick areas including mansion flats around Elgin Avenue. It identifies the townscape contribution of Warrington Crescent, Formosa Street and the terraces beside the canals. This is a dated architectural account covering the wider Maida Vale conservation setting, including Little Venice.

Existing-building records for the tender

If water entry or staining has been reported, give its room, surface and chronology with photographs and complete investigation records. The nearby canal is location context, not an explanation of the incident. Keep a treatment proposal separate from evidence of work completed at the actual component.

For altered upper rooms or an added rear terrace, request the project drawings and completion information relevant to that work. Keep a neighbouring dwelling’s papers labelled separately if they are supplied. The brief should state the spaces acquired, components to be considered and documentary gaps without using a shared architectural setting to settle individual ownership or construction questions.

Little Venice tender and contract decisions

A Little Venice project should define the instructed dwelling and its relationship to the host building before tender. Mark the relevant roof, frontage, lower accommodation and later additions on the current drawings. The local historic description does not establish how an individual property has been divided or altered. Obtain the address-specific survey and documentary evidence needed to distinguish retained fabric from the proposed intervention.

For a repair to a decorated elevation or roof junction, identify the actual material and the designer's proposed treatment. Separate surface work from support, drainage and weatherproofing details. Define opening-up, temporary protection and inspection before concealment, with the responsibility for any resulting design decision made explicit. If the scope changes, retain the observations and revised detail with the JCT instruction and the evidence used for valuation. A general restoration description cannot establish what this contract includes.

Access arrangements should follow the current occupation and management position. Identify the route through common space, any entrance that must remain available and the limits of the employer's authority. Confirm separate permissions through the appropriate advisers rather than assume that an architectural group operates as one property. At handover, connect required drawings, tests and outstanding items to the specific component and accommodation instructed. The completion record must not imply certification of neighbouring or inaccessible fabric.

HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor.

Contract scope

• Westminster: Maida Vale Conservation Area General Information Leaflet, May 2004 — PDF page 2, Key Features: brick/stucco phase, later red-brick mansion blocks around Elgin Avenue and the canal/crescent setting. Cover page 1 states May 2004. Architectural context only; obsolete policy statements are not adopted.

• Major works
• Tendering
• Clerk of Works
• Employer's Agent
• Insurance reinstatement

• Westminster area guide
• Maida Vale
• Paddington
• St Johns Wood
• Marylebone
• Bayswater

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