Western Range Security Consultant

The British Museum brings together the history of humankind, all cultures of the world spanning millennia. It connects us to our past and to each other. It is a place where everyone is welcome, where many voices meet to understand, and to question what brings us together and what separates us. It is a place of exploration and a place of inspiration. The collection that the Museum holds in trust for the world is of unparalleled breadth, depth, beauty and significance. A truly global resource, free and available to everyone. The Museum's role is to enhance and make accessible the collection through research, through interpretation, through display, through lending, and to share what it learns, as well as the process of learning, with others. With this matchless position comes a responsibility to ensure that this work can continue, ensuring the collection is cared for and accessible for generations to come, and that the Museum remains a centre of excellence and is continually relevant into the 21st century.

The physical manifestation of the British Museum in Bloomsbury is iconic. It comprises almost an entire city block in one of the most intricate and established parts of central London. It is a treasured national icon within a conservation area that is, in itself, emblematic of the Capital. The Museum has an internal floor area of over 100,000m2, within a footprint that is packed with a diversity of buildings; the estate is Grade I listed, with perimeter properties that are listed Grade II.

Each part of the Museum contains, iconic, often sizeable and irreplaceable items from the collection, and each is visited by many thousands of people, every day. Space on the site is both limited and precious, especially in terms of gallery spaces. The original quadrangle was designed for 100,000 visitors per annum, a figure that was already far exceeded in the 1850s. As it stands, annual visitor numbers to the Museum now regularly exceed six million. Today, there are heightened security requirements and a fundamental need to ensure inclusivity and access, as well as enabling intuitive wayfinding, addressing dilapidations, and creating an environment where people can connect with the collection, and by doing so, with each other.

The Western Range Programme focuses on a substantial part of the estate that is in urgent need of both repair and re-imagining. This offers the Museum an opportunity to make a statement of its future intent, through reimagined galleries, new state-of-the-art storage facilities and engaging contemporary architecture, in juxtaposition to the highly significant and already celebrated listed buildings on the site. A multi-disciplinary design team led by Lina Ghotmeh Architecture has been selected to deliver the Western Range programme which is currently at the end of RIBA Stage 2 in the design process.

Despite appearing as a single entity, the Western Range comprises a miscellany of 10 separate buildings which have been added to Robert Smirke's original Grade I listed Museum; as a result, the exact extent of the red-line boundary and phasing for this project is dependent on a number of interlocking considerations. The proposed project outline can be seen in the attached documentation. In the region of 15,000m2, it accounts for almost 15% of the floor space within the Bloomsbury site, in a warren of inflexible and static rooms. Further, recent surveys indicate that the existing building fabric and infrastructure are in a state that is below modern expectations. It comprises around 7,500m2 of gallery space and currently houses the Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece (including the Parthenon Sculptures), Rome, and Ancient Assyria and Middle East collections, along with 4,500m2 of back-of-house collection storage.

The delivery of the Western Range redevelopment will take place within a complex and highly sensitive operational environment, requiring construction works to be carefully planned and coordinated alongside the ongoing activities of the British Museum. As a live cultural institution, the Museum must continue to provide safe and effective access for visitors and staff, while ensuring the protection, movement, and management of its collections throughout the construction period.

The project presents a number of unique challenges, including working within a heritage setting, constrained site conditions, restricted access, neighbouring property interfaces, complex logistics requirements, and the need to coordinate multiple stakeholder requirements. A Security Consultant is therefore required to provide specialist, project-specific expertise to develop and deliver a coordinated Security Strategy that protects visitors, staff and collections, addresses the Museum's status as a Sensitive Project, and supports the successful delivery of the Western Range Programme.

The Security Consultant will act as the lead security advisor to the Project, working alongside the Client, Project Team, the British Museum Security Team and a wide range of stakeholders, including DOCOs, NaCTSO, NPSA, NCSC and CTSA. The Consultant will review project information and undertake independent threat, vulnerability and risk assessments to support delivery of the programme. The appointment will include the following scope over RIBA stages:

Develop the Project Security Strategy (RIBA Stage 3 - Spatial Coordination)

• Review the completed RIBA Stage 2 design proposals and provide advice on security systems, equipment requirements and layout optimisation, including recommendations on spatial planning and materials selection
• Conduct threat, vulnerability and risk assessments, using a methodology based on ISO 31000, to inform the project Security Requirements
• Review estate wide security constraints and engage with relevant consultees, including DOCOs, NaCTSO, NPSA, NCSC and CTSA
• Develop a project-specific Security Strategy, integrating security measures into the design and coordinating with other Project Strategies including fire and acoustics, in alignment with the Cost Plan
• Identify potential locations and space requirements for functional security spaces, outline security rating requirements and produce a Stage 3 report setting out the status of the security design

Provide Security Technical Design Advice (RIBA Stage 4)

• Maintain an iterative review of the security design throughout RIBA Stage 4 and test the technical, financial and operational viability of the proposals from multiple viewpoints.
• Develop detailed design of the security systems, including access control, video surveillance (VSS/CCTV), intruder detection and intercom systems
• Provide an initial blast mitigation assessment and advice on measures to protect visitors, staff and collections
• Develop and support delivery of a pre-market engagement strategy for security contractors to inform the Procurement Strategy, Master Programme, Cost Plan and Risk Register.
• Prepare production information, including specifications and security schematics, to enable tender responses to be obtained from security contractors
• Development of emergency procedures, duress and lockdown scenarios to support construction and temporary works phases

Procurement Support (RIBA Stage 4)

• Support the procurement of packages to deliver the agreed Security Strategy, including pre-qualifying potential security contractors and responding to tender queries
• Contribute to definition of Contractor Design Portions for security systems were relevant
• Review and contribute to RIBA Stage 4b procurement documentation in line with the agreed Procurement Strategy, including review of technical specifications relevant to the security systems, and participate in tender evaluation and technical adjudication.
• If instructed, produce and input into documents required by the local planning authority, including a Crime Impact Assessment, for the discharge of Planning Consent Conditions and Listed Building Consents

Construction Support (RIBA Stage 5)

• Assist the Contractor's design team in preparing detailed and coordinated production information for the security systems, including drawings, schedules and configuration documents.
• Review proposed installation methodologies of the appointed security contractor(s) in line with the Security Strategy, statutory and planning requirements and best practice, and witness commissioning and testing of security systems

Security Advice in relation to Handover and Operational Use (RIBA Stage 6&7)

• Assist with handover of all security systems documentation, including operating manuals, warranties, maintenance schedules and as-built information, and ensure security equipment is correctly asset-tagged
• Assist the Client in establishing performance benchmarks for the security systems, evaluate them periodically once operational, and provide recommendations for optimising the systems based on user feedback and performance data

Comprehensive details of all Packages are provided in the tender documents.

Due to the confidential/commercially sensitive nature of information that will be included in the associated tender documents we require that interested suppliers enter into a confidentiality agreement before they are given access to the tender pack.

A copy of the confidentiality agreement is available by request via email to wr@britishmuseum.org. The terms of the confidentiality agreement are not subject to negotiation.

As soon as practical after the receipt of completed confidentiality agreements, interested suppliers will be granted access to the tender documents.