‘For returning Kiwi with offshore experience in sustainability and design there has never been a better opportunity to bring those skills home and get involved in a wide variety of projects.’
Lisa Oliver, Project Director here at Holmes was recently interviewed by Kea New Zealand about her passion for mass timber design, her involvement in sustainability, and how Aotearoa New Zealand is well placed to lead the repurposing and strengthening of existing buildings.
Read her interesting insights and where structural engineering has taken her (and her family!) in the world here: Lisa’s Kea Interview
Assessing buildings after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
A Holmes Fire Engineer is a challenger to the expected, motivated to find the best solution for all, and is curious in the face of a new problem.
Making up nearly 15% of our current team, the women at Holmes have played an important role in our success across Australia, New Zealand and the US. From graduate roles to branch managers, Holmes firmly believes in giving women the tools and support they need to reach their professional goals. As the industry continues to expand and engineering becomes a more common career choice for women, we believe that we have been extremely fortunate to find the right engineers for our team so far but also look forward to discovering talented female fire engineers to join us.
This International Women in Engineering Day #INWED2021, we’ve chosen to shine the spotlight on a few of the women engineers in our Leadership team. In each of their roles and as engineers, they’ve brought their own talents, skills and drive to the table to support Holmes and the wider team as mentors, educators, problem-solvers and luminaries.
Click on their images below to find out a little more about each of these inspiring women.
We know diversity and inclusion is a significant opportunity to build stronger, more creative, more resilient teams at Holmes. Each member’s personal journey, vibrant personalities and aspirations offer unique perspectives to complex problems and contribute to the culture we’re so proud of.
This past week, we joined our colleagues in Sydney celebrating Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and those in Aotearoa New Zealand celebrating Pride Month. Holmes is committed to ensuring our people are comfortable and feel respected in their environment—regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
To provide an opportunity to grow and prioritise diversity at Holmes, Together@Holmes (TAHi) was born. TAHi has been formed with a group of people around the business who are passionate about Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) at Holmes.
Our long-term vision at Holmes is to be more representative of the communities we serve— and the places we live and work.
At Holmes, we encourage our team to dream big and therefore, empower them to achieve their goals;
In an environment where you can relax and be yourself.
Where we recognise and value diversity of thought and approach.
With equal support and equal opportunity to grow and develop.
We’re excited to announce Holmes is now operating in Melbourne!
Following the success of over 20 years in Sydney, and two years in Brisbane—our Melbourne office will allow us to more easily service and add value for our increasing number of clients in Victoria.
We will be bringing the high levels of quality and service that Holmes is renowned for. In addition, we want to open the Melbourne market’s eyes to the cost savings and design potential that performance-based structural fire engineering can bring to projects of all sectors.
Launching the expansion south will be Mathew Freeman (CPEng), a Technical Director here with us at Holmes.
In the 11+ years Matt has been with Holmes, he’s become a Chartered Professional Engineer on the National Engineers Register in Fire Safety and is an accredited Fire Safety Engineer [QLD, NSW & VIC]. Matt specialises in Fire Safety Engineering, Infrastructure Fire Safety, CFD Modelling, Evacuation Assessments, Interim Fire Safety Strategies, Building Code of Australia (BCA) Assessments and has had extensive experience on projects from all sectors.
Matt not only brings a wealth of technical knowledge with him but also has the necessary business experience, having successfully managed the Sydney office as Branch Manager. We have no doubt that Matt will bring his secrets of success to the Melbourne market.
Matt will continue to be supported by the 25+ engineers in our Sydney and Brisbane offices, and our greater international team.
Get in touch to find out more about Holmes and how we can develop fire safety strategies that work best for you.
In what’s becoming an annual tradition and anticipated start to the year, Holmes Fire, once again, hosted a small number of engineering students from the University of Maryland. As part of their short course ‘Australia: Global Perspectives of International Business in Engineering & Technology’, students spend nearly 3 weeks visiting some of Sydney’s iconic venues and meeting a variety of people in the industry. With the students coming from all engineering majors, the course exposes these future engineers to the differences in workplace culture and industry requirements in Australia and broader insight into what opportunities are available for them as a career.
The presentation covered life at Holmes and the Australian fire engineering industry with several of our staff joining to speak about their experiences followed by a case study presentation and a site visit to one of Sydney’s most well-known heritage sites.
Alyson, Nick and Sean, Fire Engineers from the US themselves, spoke to the students about how they’ve benefitted from life at Holmes Fire Sydney so far and the industry differences they’ve found working in Australia.
Structural Fire Engineer, Linus, gave the students an introduction into Structural Fire Engineering, its’ growing importance internationally and how Holmes is leading the way.
Concluding the presentation, Michael, a Senior Fire Engineer who has been involved with the ongoing project since 2010, gave the students an overview of Sydney Town Hall, the issues involved and the Performace Solutions applied to the project before escorting the students on a tour of the heritage site.
We look forward to continuing to educate future UMD students on the differences in business cultures on the other side of the world and, hopefully, encourage them to come back and visit Sydney and maybe, stay awhile.
Our Holmes team in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of their Principal, Martin Feeney at Holmes Group with a morning tea. As one of the founders of Holmes Fire, Martin has had a pivotal role in shaping the company and its success as well as within the fire engineering industry.
Martin started as a structural engineer in May 1986 when Holmes Consulting (the name our Structures and Infrastructures Practices used to be called) was Holmes Wood Poole and Johnson and after a brief stint at Hera, he joined the newly formed ‘Holmes Fire’ team (the name our Fire Practice was called) in 1996. It is fair to say Martin’s contribution, not only to Holmes Fire, but the fire engineering community, in general, is unsurpassed. He has been a leader in all aspects of fire engineering, and a huge part of the success of Holmes.
Congratulations on this amazing achievement Martin!
For a number of years now, Holmes Fire has formed part of an industry tour for students from the University of Maryland participating in a program abroad studying the ‘Global Leadership & International Business in Engineering and Technology’. The course is designed at creating exposure to engineering practice in a global economy. Open to all disciplines of engineering and business students, the group this year included mechanical and aerospace engineering students keen in understanding the broader engineering industry from a global perspective.
Understanding the impact of technology solutions in a global context is crucial for students planning a career in engineering. As part of this course, these students are offered a 3 week trip in Sydney, where they are educated on the cultural aspects of global business and global leadership skills in Australia. The goal of the course is to facilitate the acquisition of these global capabilities in the area of technology and engineering.
Members of our Holmes Fire Sydney team, Alyson & Nick, also graduates of the University of Maryland, presented the principles of Fire Engineering in Australia, and explained to students the differences they face working as Fire Engineers outside of the US. They also discussed the opportunities they have been granted, both cultural and professionally, including the travel and personal development they have been able to experience through working for Holmes Fire. The students were then given an introduction to Structural Fire Engineering and its growing importance to fire engineering, both locally and globally. Prior to being lead on a project site tour, students were given an overview of the complicated fire engineering performance solutions for the iconic Sydney Town Hall, a heritage building project completed by Holmes Fire in 2010 which at present is still undergoing works. During the tour, they were shown the detailed aspects of the fire engineering solutions that were implemented during the building refurbishments and the involvement Holmes Fire had on its delivery.
Sydney Town Hall
We welcome students of engineering courses to take advantage of opportunities such as these and for us, it’s great to be able to open our doors to students joining the engineering industry and offer them an insight into our world.
For further information on the course, visit University of Maryland’s course overview.
Holmes Fire is pleased to announce the official opening of an office in Brisbane. This expansion will enable the Holmes Fire team to more easily service the increasing number of clients in Queensland that are adding value to their projects through the implementation of Performance Based Fire Engineering.
The office will be led by James O’Neill, who is already hard at work on local projects. With support from the Sydney team we are able to service Queensland projects of any size. So if you have a project in Queensland that is on the horizon, let us know and we will tell you about all the benefits the project can achieve through a fire engineering approach.
