^{BUSINESS FEATURE : G.M. MOORE AND ASSOCIATES
G.M. Moore & Associates, Willow Cottage, Hankham Hall Road, Hankham
Pevensey. East Sussex, BN24 5AH
Tel: 01323 888013 w : www.gmassociates.co.uk}

GLENN MOORE AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF STONE

The statements come from the company’s website. They don’t give full voice to the back story. The intelligence behind the architectural projects reaches beyond the shores of the South Coast of England.

Glenn Moore, the brains behind G.M. Associates, hails not from these shores, but from the Antipodes. The thing about creative professional Australians coming to this country, is that they give us perspective.

By the best possible route for any successful business, he fell into architectural work as he describes it himself  ‘by accident’.  He was working in an Australian Governmental role as a surveyor of precious historic buildings, doing, as he unassumingly puts it ‘a bit of everything’. Essentially it was a management planning role, and he qualified ‘for his sins’, as a Project Manager.

Coming to England some thirty years ago must have been something of a culture shock. Our way of working with historic buildings is well documented and long-standing, but it is not always right.

The legacy left us by William Morris and his move to found ‘The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings’ has stood us in good stead for the last 130 years, but it doesn’t have all the answers when it comes to dealing with the issues that we face today to conserve and improve precious buildings.

Glenn and G.M Associates don’t have all the answers either, but what they obviously do have is a manifest based on practical principle.

With a total of six prestigious awards to its name, Glenn Moore and Associates has every right to raise the roof about its profile.

The Sussex Heritage Awards recognise the achievements of architects, developers, builders, craftsmen and individuals in bringing new life to redundant buildings or landscapes across East and West Sussex. As a six times winner, like Ireland and the Eurovison Contest, Glenn might be best placed next year to take time out to give the rest of the competition a fighting hell’s chance of being in with a shout.

A case in point is The Holiday Cottages Conversion project at Ranscombe Farm, East Sussex.

The holiday cottages look very much like they have always sat in the landscape, which is precisely the point.

The fact that the cottages have been brought up to date and made to function for the early part of the twenty first century is a testament to the worth in their original purpose. The project completed is testament to Glenn and his team.

It is no surprise to see that the project has proved to be so popular.

Mrs Rosemary Norris, the owner, says of the development;

‘The cottages fit in so well with the rest of the farm and we could not believe it when we won 1st prize!‘

Good architecture speaks, it does not shout.

In the latest award winning project,  The New Pool House Project, at The Old Vicarage, Laughton, the judges drew attention to the way in which the structure had been created to work with time.

“A modern building with form following function to create a very successful entertainment room with excellent ancillary facilities to complement the pool…extensive landscaping has been carried out to ensure that when mature, the pool house will not dominate the carriage drive to the house and will not be seen from the Grade 1 Church and Churchyard”

Widening out the discussion with Glenn about heritage questions, gives him the opportunity to sum up matters in a single sentence. What he says is that ‘If there is no change, there is no history’.

It looks very much like some valuable assets came over with Glenn in the cargo hold when he made his journey from Australia. Not only does he have a proven track record of working with people at a senior level in the context of managing valuable buildings, there were a couple of other things smuggled in the luggage that were worth their weight in gold, perspective and vision.

That is why when Glenn describes a ‘holistic approach’ to his work, the weight and balance behind the words rings true.

The hour spent talking with Glenn was refreshing. It was a revelation to discover that there is a company working locally that is leaving such an important legacy in its work.

Perhaps the significance of his work has not been fully recognised because so much of it really does sit in the landscape looking to all the world as if it has been there since the beginning.

As Glenn would no doubt be the first to say, that precisely is the point.

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Glenn is happy to talk to clients on the basis of an initial phone call and an appointment procedure, which involves free discussion for up to an hour, related to project requirements and outline costs and charges.

^{SIMON MONTGOMERY
Editor. Pevensey Bay Life}