Surveying - Help To Shape Sporting Glory

When Surveyors aren’t creating the new Wembley Stadium, protecting the world’s reefs, or laying pipelines on the sea bed, they are designing computer games and managing the layout of major music festivals.

You could even get to work on one of the most exciting and high profile sporting events this country has even seen – the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Already Chartered Surveyors are playing a major role in making the Games an outstanding success for the UK and are involved in just about every aspect of the creation, planning and development of the project.

Robert Elegba, 26, is playing such a role working as a Development Manager for the London Development Agency in London’s Canary Wharf, the HQ for the London 2012 Games. He has been assisting the LDA with one very crucial aspect of the planning phase and this is helping to relocate some of the businesses currently on the site designated for the construction of the Olympic Park.

Robert’s key objective is to help 35 (from a total of 206 across the team) businesses relocate from their current base to suitable alternative premises elsewhere, in the boroughs affected by the 2012 Games and legacy development.

So what got Robert interested in surveying as a career in the first place?

"The built environment and tall towers have always fascinated me. An A -level geography field trip to Canary Wharf in the mid-1990s when the estate was still being developed was really the catalyst. I remember going to the top of the tower and taking in the amazing potential of the area and wanting to get involved."

Robert went on to take a Property Development and Planning BSc (Hons) at the Kingston School of Surveying, part of Kingston University.