Residential

Frenchman's Paradise is a two level, three bedroom home constructed on a steep challenging site on Frenchman's Cay, British Virgin Islands (BVI). Everything about this new home was bespoke, taking advantage wherever possible of local resources, including the windows, doors and cabinetry that were all manufactured locally by Wells Woodwork Shop.

Designed by OBMI and constructed by Rufred Forbes & Associates, Kevin Drysdale was the project manager and quantity surveyor for the project.

The design was a blend of traditional and modern technologies, utilising local skills and introducing a whole house structured network, emergency solar backup and a waste water recovery system, which were all new innovations in the British Virgin Islands at that time.

Occupying a stunning location with magnificent sunset views this house is amongst the best projects we have worked on, not because of it's scale but because of it's attention to the details that mattered to the Client, and we brought it in on budget!

Designed by Matthew Collins, of Caribbean Architecture Limited, Tower House is a high end residence on Frenchman's Cay, in the British Virgin Islands. The site is located on the seaward side of Frenchman's Cay's main access road and Matthew's design has made use of the steep terrain to create a spectacular 6,000 sq. ft. family home split over three levels, with an infinity edge plunge pool and 100 ft. boat dock.

Kevin Drysdale was the quantity surveyor for this impressive project, and like a lot of the high end developments in the BVI everything about this new home was bespoke and required exceptional attention to detail for an experienced and knowledgeable Client.

Designed by Matthew Collins, of Caribbean Architecture Limited, Frenchman’s Chalet is a high end residence that was originally conceived by the owners as a 3 bedroomed self contained guest house for Tower House. It is located above Tower House on Frenchman's Cay and Matthew's design has made use of the steep terrain to create a home with spectacular views.

Kevin Drysdale was the quantity surveyor for this impressive project and although technically built as the guest house there was no let up in the attention to detail for an experienced and knowledgeable Client.

Kevin Drysdale was appointed as lead quantity surveyor challenged with producing the detailed order of magnitude cost plan for the Client's masterplan to develop Moskito Island in the BVI.

From the outset the focus of the design team, lead by the Kao Design Group (KDG), was on sustainability and minimising the environmental impact of what can only be described as an ambitious plan by the Client to deliver a net zero project on this scale.

The technical team was assembled from specialists in their fields from all over the globe (BVI, Boston, London, San Francisco, Bali, Canada, Spain), all collaborating via online conferencing (a fledgling technology at that time) to avoid the environmental impact of international travel.

A wide range of alternative sustainable technologies, such as rammed earth construction, geothermal cooling, waste water recovery, were explored along with high tech solutions like solar and wind power generation.

Kevin's role was to make financial sense of these ideas and establish a robust cost plan that would form the benchmark for the development from start through to completion.

(Remembering Ken Kao, 1957 - 2017 - a remarkable architect; a kind and gentle man)

Bullocksteads was a disused farm on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne that Drysdale Southern's clients purchased with a view to converting them into 5 family homes.

The original farmhouse dated back to the 16th Centuary and as a result the property was Grade 2* listed.

Given the complexities of the project the decision was taken early on to employ specialist trades and Kevin Drysdale was appointed the construction manager responsible for delivering the project to a challenging schedule and a tight budget.

The main barn was a unique structure having once housed livestock on the ground floor, and hay on a vast second floor with a spectacular vaulted roof constructed using massive exposed A frame oak trusses. An option study concluded that converting this building into a single large family home with the sleeping accommodation on the ground floor and the living space on the second (including a minstrels gallery built into the roof structure) would deliver best value.

Being a listed building the development was subject to monitoring by the local listed building office and Kevin was tasked with working with the appointed officer so that solutions could be found to the many challenges that would enable the buildings to sympathetically restored and still create habitable modern homes. For example, many of the old A frame trusses were simply too rotten to be saved so Kevin sourced materials based upon specifications agreed with the listed building officer and had them assembled using the traditional techniques that were used to make the original trusses.

The project was delivered on time and on budget and it is testimony to the approach taken by Kevin that he was invited by the listed building officer to give a presentation at a property conference on the challenges of restoring a listed building and the proactive approach required to find solutions.