Taking big projects on the chin

When it comes to Antarctic politics, Scottish civil engineer Alan McKinnon is more of a fan of Ernest Shackleton than Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

"You're either a Shackleton man or a Scott man and I'm definitely a Shackleton man," says the softly spoken Glaswegian.

His admiration for the explorer who ranked beneath Scott in class and status has a lot to do with a story about how the captain tried unsuccessfully to have one of his crew returned to Britain.

The crew member evidently refused so Shackleton solved the problem with a touch of brute force.

"Shackleton simply took the man into a room, hit him on the chin very hard and said 'you're going back to Britain'," McKinnon says.

The man apparently agreed quite readily at that point.

McKinnon admires that knock-out ability. The 47-year-old civil engineer likes a challenge and has been involved in some big ones.

From solving a 32-building, 76 million ($195 million) London real estate integration project, sparked when Deutsche Bank swallowed Bankers Trust, to an historic Antarctic conservation job, McKinnon has a nose for real estate projects.

Before being appointed project director of Kiwi Income Property Trust's $538 million Sylvia Park shopping development in Auckland, McKinnon worked on projects on five continents and, at one stage, was camping for up to a fortnight at a time under canvas on the Ross Sea ice shelf.

As a consultant to the Antarctic Heritage Trust, he was involved in planning the restoration of prefabricated huts and makeshift bases left behind by explorers Scott and his doomed 1911 team, Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink in 1899 and Shackleton's 1908 expedition.

The controversial project involved exploring the explorers' camps: Scott's huts at Cape Royds and Cape Evans, fellow Briton Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds and Borchgrevink's hut at Cape Adare.

"We camped near the huts which are a 15-minute helicopter ride from Scott Base," McKinnon says.

Camp mates included trust chairman and Auckland businessman Rob Fenwick, internationally renowned architect Pip Cheshire of Jasmax and former Canterbury Museum Antarctic curator David Harrowfield.

McKinnon was a director of consultants Arrow International at the time, but went on to work on two other Antarctic projects where specialist geological teams were drilling more than 1km beneath the ice for sediments from ancient lake beds.

He was a consultant to an international Antarctic drilling project, advising on strategy, costs and logistics needed to investigate ice sheet behaviour and sea ice dynamics and influence on the New Zealand region.

Scientists from New Zealand, the United States, Britain, Italy and Germany helped recover sediment cores up to 40 million years old from four sites alongside the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and on the Ross Ice Shelf.

Once again, McKinnon found himself camped in remote and freezing areas, living in makeshift accommodation dragged across the ice more than 100km from Scott Base.

"You've got such a remarkably short time you can work in those areas," he said, citing the October to February working window.

"And, of course, you have to take all waste back to New Zealand."

He left Britain in 1996 to shift to Christchurch for lifestyle reasons, which is how he arrived at Arrow, but returned to Britain about four years ago to work on the Deutsche Bank real estate integration project, a nine-month reorganisation of 10,000 employees of the merged Deutsche/Bankers Trust entities.

This job involved dealing with 100,000sq m of office space and heads of departments, often struggling for power against each other.

"Every Thursday night, the head of the bank's property division would walk around and decide if the revamped premises were ready for the next users to move in," he said, recalling how he faced those evenings with some trepidation.

Then, McKinnon worked on a 20 million-plus deal for ITV Digital Television to revamp its properties, building a new call centre in Devon, two in south Wales and a new London headquarters at Battersea.

"I was seconded into that organisation and worked with the human resources chief because there was a philosophy that property and people are inseparable - a view I share too.

"Critical issues on that project were maintaining broadcasting operations and establishing studios without any acoustic or vibration issues.

"Added to that were the problems of the long lead-in time between shifting from one studio to the next."

After that spell back in London, he moved to Sydney for Arrow, following the completion of its project at the Sydney Olympic Games stadium, where it was fitting out the main stadium.

McKinnon was recently living in Asia where he formed a Thailand company specialising in managing resort and major villa development projects, particularly around Phuket and Phang Nga.

That operation is part of a wider group working in Hong Kong, Macau and Sri Lanka. McKinnon's business partner from that group is based in Hong Kong.

But out of all those international jobs, McKinnon reckons his most challenging work has been Sylvia Park, "mainly because nothing like this has ever been done in New Zealand before".

Another two years should see the shops and infrastructure components of Sylvia Park completed.

Where McKinnon ends up then is anyone's guess.

Worldly experience

* First class honours graduate in civil engineering from Glasgow University and a chartered engineer.

* Former director of strategy and development at Arrow International, based in Christchurch and Sydney.

* Now spearheading Sylvia Park shopping and office centre project.

* Worked on large projects in Britain, United States, Asia, Australia and the Antarctic.

* Specialist in construction project delivery, financial, value and risk assessment.