Lessons learned from the new Museum of London

Ruth Oates

Ruth is a director of Buro Four, a leading project management consultancy, with headquarters in London. 

A graduate of Imperial College, Ruth is a Chartered Civil Engineer, CEng MICE, who specialised in project management after 7 years practicing as a civil and structural engineer at Expedition. She is an NEC4 ECC accredited project manager and uses her collaborative style to lead challenging projects in the London area. 

From her engineering background, she brings a passion for sensitively reworking existing buildings which have been her focus for most of her 13 years as a project manager at Buro Four. 

Some of her projects include 55 Baker St for London and Regional, 80 Charlotte St for Derwent London, 160 Aldersgate which is DLA Piper’s London HQ, and the newly refurbished Royal Academy of Arts. 

For the last 7 years, her focus has been on the new Museum of London in West Smithfield, with the delivery of the early enabling works contracts, including strengthening Network Rail Thameslink tunnels running through the site and preparing the old market buildings which will become the museum’s new home.

These projects have honed Ruth’s experience working with existing buildings and have highlighted the importance of knowledge-sharing in retrofit both within our business and externally, across the industry. 

Dedicated to her profession and to supporting the next generation, Ruth has been a trustee of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a RAEng (Royal Academy of Engineering) visiting teaching fellow in engineering design at UCL and a trustee of Buro Four’s Employee Benefit Trust. She regularly lectures project management students including at UCL, University of West London, Denmark Technical University and Copenhagen Business School. 

Paul Perry

Paul Perry, technical director at AECOM, has much experience in the design of alterations, additions and redevelopment of existing buildings especially those that are above, adjacent and even below existing mass transit railway stations and tunnels with major multidisciplinary aspects and the need for industry best practice.

With three decades of engineering experience, he holds a long track record of excellence in tunnelling and underground projects, having worked on building and bridge damage assessments along the HS2 tunnels into Euston, with prior involvement in oversite development above tunnels and stations, both in the UK and Hong Kong.

Paul is a member of The British Tunnelling Society (BTS) executive committee, with particular interest in the liaisons between BTS and The British Geotechnical Association, and between BTS and The Panel for Historic Engineering Works. BTS is supporting the Net Zero Tunnels Group, which Paul is also involved in, and as an affiliate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects he holds a detailed interest in infrastructure architecture.