Alumnus delivers guest lecture
05 April 2011
Built Environment alumnus Mark Lawler delivers guest lecture on urban regeneration site for new business start-ups.
Mark Lawler visited the School of the Built Environment recently to give a guest lecture on the Baltic Creative urban regeneration site, to students on the Building Refurbishment module of the MSc in Commercial Building Surveying.
Mark graduated from LJMU in 1996, before taking up a position with the property division of the Metropolitan Police followed by running his own business. He is now Centre Manager for Baltic Creative CIC, an urban regeneration site with 30,000 sq ft of space for digital and creative business in refurbished warehouses and workshops in the former maritime industrial area of the city.
Mark has reconnected with LJMU through Student Enterprise’s Start-Up Network for student and graduate start-up businesses and has already taken part in a number of self-employment events for creative and digital start-ups as well as his recent guest lecture, in which he showcased the completed phase 1 of Baltic Creative and then unveiled plans for phase 2. Mark invited student feedback, which led to a lively debate and discussion on alternative ways of developing the next phase.
Paul Kenny, Principal Lecturer in Building Surveying, commented: “The students clearly benefitted from the presentation by Mark and were keen to engage in a constructive discussion about future proposals that Baltic Creative are considering. It is always very useful for students to hear from practitioners involved in similar work to them. From my point of view, Mark’s presentation contextualised the project work I have been doing with the class very well. The students were encouraged to find their project with me follows current practice in terms of design and appraisal of buildings as demonstrated by Mark.
The students had many comments as to how the design may be developed further and considered the proposals in a professional manner. They were very appreciative of Mark’s experience and I feel it has given the class further confidence.”
Pictured L-R: Mark Lawler of Baltic Creative CIC with Paul Kenny, Principal Lecturer in Building Surveying
For more information about the Start-Up Network and Student Enterprise, please contact Dominique Aspey on 0151-231 8062 or email d.aspey@ljmu.ac.uk
For more information about Baltic Creative CIC, please contact Mark Lawler on 0151 708 2840 or email markl@baltic-creative.com
