2023 saw us mark our tenth anniversary, and what better excuse was there than to launch our very own Civic Engineers photo competition in recognition of the milestone. 

And as the year draws to a close, we’re reflecting on the competition’s entries. They celebrated all the great projects we’ve worked on across the UK (and gave National Geographic’s ‘photos of 2023’ a run for their money). 

The competition, which ran earlier this year, saw strong entries from our team and it was tough for our judge Gareth Atkinson, director in our London studio, to name the final three.  

Coming in third, Caroline Todd, our head of people and culture, won recognition for her shot of Altrincham Public Realm, which showcased the ‘transformed streets with well positioned green infrastructure’. Over the last decade, our team has delivered significant public realm improvements to the streets and squares across a large area of Altrincham town centre. The project has since gone on to win multiple awards, including being named The Sunday Times’ best place to live and best British high street.  

Billy Brand, chartered structural engineer in our Leeds studio, scooped second place for his photo of Dial House in Putney, as an example of a retrofit building project that our judge praised for its ‘simplicity and rawness’. We provided structural engineering services to the project, which repurposed a 1980s office building to improve its connection to the surrounding streetscape and increase its area by 2,000 sqm.  

The overall winner was Oscar White, structural design engineer in our Manchester studio, for photography that ‘clearly thought about composition and perspective’. Oscar’s winning entry depicted the historic chimney at Rutland Mills, a complex of derelict Grade II listed mill buildings in Yorkshire, that we’re currently transforming into a mixed-use 135,000 sqft creative industries and cultural hub, and the new home of Tileyard North.  

As part of the project, our team repaired and refurbished what remained of the existing chimney, while also designing the steel lattice to replicate the former structure, with the lattice steelwork weight optimised via a bespoke genetic algorithm developed in-house. 

Well done to all our winners. Keep your eyes peeled for more photo competitions to follow in 2024!