Julian Watt, a previous Wellingtonian now residing in London, and working for Grimshaw architects, will be presenting a one-off New Zealand lecture on Tuesday 8 December.

“For the past 3 years I’ve been running a project called Terminal 2 Concourse B at Heathrow. It is a new satellite pier at Heathrow designed to eventually house all of the long haul STAR Alliance carriers. In its finished state it will be connected by an underground tracked transit system back to the new Terminal 2 building. Effectively this will constitute a Terminal and Pier for STAR Alliance to rival the work at T5 for BA. Due to the nature of working at Heathrow, the building has been designed and built in 2 phases. The first phase (160m of an eventual 500m) is due for handover to BAA on 27th November 2009.”

The Terminal 2 project is a massive piece of infrastructure, inserted into one of the world’s busiest airports without shutting down the existing terminal. Grimshaw (of Nicolas Grimshaw fame) is one of London’s great contextual masters and a skilled architect. It should be a great chance to catch up with some cutting edge design and construction of this latest slice of London’s transport architecture.

5.30 for drinks and nibbles, 6pm for the lecture, at Victoria University School of Architecture, on Tuesday 8th December.  Be there!    Yes, for those interested, CPD points will be available.