We did it! Toki Bridge won GOLD at Friday night’s prestigious ACE New Zealand Awards.
We went up against the “big guns” (Aurecon, Beca, WSP, et al) and the MEGA Auckland projects (City Rail Loop, Commercial Bay, Downtown Waterfront, etc.) and made a BIG win for the little guys and the regional communities…. Whoop whoop… we did it!!!!
I’m totally buzzing to take home GOLD for DC Structures Studio!
On stage with my client (@Mike Duff of Buller District Council) I skirted very close to sounding like a total lunatic as I professed “I LOVE BRIDGES!” live on stage during my acceptance speech (repeatedly!). This was to an audience full of leaders and key decision makers from my industry. If that wasn’t enough…. Spurred on by a wave of congratulations…. I then sang everyone a heart-felt rendition of Oasis’ Wonderwall on the journey home using the coach driver’s PA system (!). A truly magic evening full of new friends and a fantastic way to top off the ACE 2022 Conference in Rotorua.The ACE Conference 2022 for me was about authenticity and story-telling. BIG thanks to the conference and awards MC Melodie Robinson (two rugby world cups) whose “I love Rugby” story was a key reason for why – at the very last minute – I decided to discard my pre-planned (boring) acceptance speech and “wing it” with total honesty and passion for the Toki Bridge, our client Buller District Council, and the community of #westport. “I love bridges!”.
[Personal thoughts from Dan Crocker our Chief Bridge Architect & Engineer]
ACE New Zealand is New Zealand’s premier consulting and engineering association with more than 240 professional members including the largest global firms. The annual awards showcase the best of the best as judged by industry experts. See more here: https://lnkd.in/gEPMJ7Xg
Over the next week I’ll upload key extracts from our submission so people can understand and possibly get some cool ideas from Toki Bridge.
Massive thanks to Eli Maynard and the whole team at Riley Consultants Ltd, Pedro Suescun, Anton Kivell, @Glenn Irving and the team at CGW Consulting Engineers, & Liam Edwards for all of their various design and site inputs along the way that supported DC Structures Studio and helped make this bridge a GOLD medal winner. Awesome!
If you love bridges… or want to learn to love bridges. Get in touch.
(Toki Bridge photos from Nomad Audio and Visual)
