Steve Watts

About

Steve Watts has over 35 years of experience as a cost consultant working for leading developers and investors from around the world, with world-class designers on a variety of tall, large and complex projects.

Based in London, Steve is an expert in the economics of tall buildings and has delivered landmark buildings including The Shard, HSBC HQ Canary Wharf and 22 Bishopsgate, alongside current commissions like 18 Blackfriars (The Round), 99 Bishopsgate and One North Quay at Canary Wharf – set to become the world's tallest life sciences building. He has also worked on iconic schemes around the world, such as the award-winning Atria in Bogota, Colombia, and in recent years has supported local teams on The Line at NEOM, The Mukkaab at New Murabba, Riyadh and Hyundai Towers in Seoul, South Korea.

Steve is the longest-serving Global Chair in the history of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (now rebranded as the Council on Vertical Urbanism). He has spent the last twenty years with CTBUH (CVU) promoting best practice and disseminating research in international high-rise and has been initiated as the first CVU Trustee Emiritus.

Steve spent 16 years with Davis Langdon / AECOM before setting up Alinea Consulting in 2013 with five co-founders, a company which changed the face of cost consultancy in the UK. The business joined Turner and Townsend in 2023, to create Turner & Townsend alinea, a team of 450 cost managers in the London real estate team.

Steve rebooted the Turner and Townsend global Tall Buildings Group in 2023, which has representatives in four continents, providing intel and lessons learned from across the world. The group is currently collaborating on a global tall buildings cost report, to be publish in early 2026.

Steve is passionate about marrying design delight with commercial effectiveness and is a champion of sustainable vertical urbanism.