Architect BDP sued for more than £20m over Newbury shopping centre 

International architecture firm Building Design Partnership is being sued for more than £20m over a mixed retail and residential development in Newbury, Berkshire, that went millions of pounds over budget. The claim is being brought by Standard Life Assurance, which was the developer on the project. According to court documents, Standard Life engaged Costain to carry out the building works for a contract sum of £77.4m. BDP was the contract administrator and leader of the design team. According to a ruling from the Court of Appeal this week, Standard Life eventually paid £146.4m to settle Costain’s final account – double the original budget. A three-judge panel ruled that Standard Life could use sampling and extrapolation to work out how much to seek from each party in damages. Extrapolation, in which a sample of claims are looked at to work out how to allot quantum, is “not uncommon in the business and property courts”, according to the ruling, as a way to keep trials within a promotional limit. However, it is usually done after liability has been established following a trial. In this case, Standard Life is seeking to use extrapolation to work out part of the damages it is seeking before the trial takes place. According to the ruling, Standard Life has worked out 3,604 individual valuations that it wants to use extrapolation to account for. It examined 167 instances and alleges that BDP is to blame for around 80% of them. Added to unextrapolated damages, the total potential damages it is seeking from BDP was calculated at £20,467,173.56. At a hearing in October, lawyers for BDP argued the extrapolation method of working out damages was not appropriate at that point. However, the judges disagreed, noting that the extrapolation method was only being used for a small proportion of the total claim. Building Design Partnership v Standard Life Assurance Court of Appeal (Macur LJ, Coulson LJ, Birss LJ) 29 November 2021