In 1989 Paula Beever joined Ove Arup and Partners, one of the world’s foremost building engineering consultancies as a Senior Fire Engineer within Arup Research and Development. She was promoted to Associate Director 1992 heading a team of 10 fire safety engineers and was made a Director of Ove Arup and Partners in 1994, reporting to the Main Board of Arup Partnerships International. The work involved taking responsibility for safety design in new and refurbished buildings.
Advice was given to engineers within the Ove Arup Partnership all over the world, and to architects and engineers from outside. It was necessary to develop and use skills in: calculating fire ignition; analysis of fire growth and spread; smoke production and management; response of structural elements to fire; effect of detectors and sprinkler systems; response of people in emergencies. Paula was involved in leading negotiations with the relevant building authority and gaining approval for an engineered solution.
In all, she was responsible for projects located in no less than 10 countries, and the range of buildings covered included transport terminals, entertainment facilities, shopping centres and high rise office complexes. The work has been reported at international fire safety conferences . Paula Beever was Commended in the British Consultant of the Year Awards in 1993 for her work on Kansai International Airport in Japan. A paper on the fire behaviour of the steel structure of Lille TGV railway station in France was awarded the Diploma of the Oscar Faber award by the UK Institution of Structural Engineers.
Whilst undertaking these projects Paula Beever developed ideas about significance of changes in regulations and the implementation of fire safety engineering techniques, in the context of performance codes. These resulted in a number of papers and conference presentations, including a paper on the use of fire service statistics in fire safety engineering.
