84 | ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN Tui Architecture Geotechnical Earthworks, Subdivisions, Building Platforms, Slope Stabilities Civil & Structural Foundations, Retaining Walls, Wastewater, Stormwater info@stanleygray.co.nz www.stanleygray.co.nz Complete Engineering Solutions, Start to Finish. T T Virginia Wright Transforming ideas into reality Glenn has owned a building company in the past, so understands where money can best be spent to give value. Glenn McBeth had worked for most of his career as an architectural designer in Auckland, until in 2022, he and his wife Dianne decided to return to Taranaki where they had both grown up. Glenn set up his own company, Tui Architecture, and is still contracting for his old firm in Auckland (Solutions Architecture) while continuing to grow his business with more and more local projects. While he expects the year to pick up once the election is over, in the meantime he’s happy to do the smaller jobs that still need a building consent and will benefit from having an architectural designer involved. Whether it’s for a bathroom renovation or a 10sqm pantry being added to the family kitchen, he enjoys meeting new people with every job, and one job leads to another through word of mouth. Working as a sole trader means Glenn is in charge, and he jokes if clients ring they are always talking to the boss. By choosing to stay small, he’s able to be responsive and can quickly address things that might come up on-site, which means no costly delays in the building schedule. After 30-plus years in the industry, he has a deep understanding of what’s important and why, and he knows how to work with clients to help them turn what may be a vague idea into an alteration or new home that’s fit for purpose. “I can work out the brief: what do they want and what do they need, which aren’t necessarily the same thing. I can ask the right questions and distill the information about how they live their lives to give the client the best result they can have within their budget. There’s no point having flash designs if they’re never going to get built,” he says. Glenn has owned a building company in the past, so understands where money can best be spent to give value, and ultimately to ensure clients will enjoy the results. His wide and varied experience, from building terraced houses where every square metre counts, to larger, architectural standalone houses built for the view, feeds into every job he does – big or small. He’s as happy designing a block of 10 flats for a developer as designing a new kitchen for an old villa. Glenn’s wealth of experience in all things residential means he takes care of everything to do with council, from lodgment right through to the issue of the building consent. Recently, he has been involved in projects where council only needs to be notified, exempt works where no consent is needed, and he’s across the regulations that dictate whether that’s the cases. Glenn days that gets great value from being a member of BNI (Business Networking International). “It’s the biggest business networking group in the world,” he says. “Members get to know each other and learn about each other’s businesses. In terms of making new friends and establishing a community, it’s been excellent.”
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