Russell Poole has designed well-over 200 buildings including more than 50 multi-storey buildings. Russell says practising as Phoenix Consulting in post-earthquake Christchurch since 2012 “has been a forensic field day.” His recent work has focused on earthquake recovery, peer reviews, forensic analysis of damaged buildings, reports and repair proposals. It has culminated in an award from the Insitution of Structural Engineers based in London for the seismic resurrection of the 13-storey apartment building at 66 Oxford Tce, Christchurch.

Russell’s career, post UC engineering degree with 1st class honours, started with design and construction supervision training in the North Island, followed by a Masters Degree at University of California Berkeley, and 20 years as Partner at Homes Consulting Group that Russell describes as “frenetic and highly productive design years.”

In the “exhilarating decade” of the ‘90’s, Russell was based in Hong Kong doing some design work but mostly supervising construction. From 2003-9, he tried a rural lifestyle, based in rural Nelson with “some “slow-growing grapes". He did some supervision of high-end houses and worked at the Department of Building & Housing part time which he describes as an ‘interesting’ experience.

As Russell didn’t have green fingers, he moved on to work onsite at Haywards Substation in Wellington from 2010-11, becoming a Health & Safety devotee.