{"id":478378,"date":"2026-03-16T09:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478378\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:33:14","slug":"cornish-stairways-mike-jordan-award-win-and-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478378\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornish Stairways Mike Jordan award win and retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Falmouth<\/a>-born businessman, whose work has adorned Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England in London and various British embassies \u2013 not to mention 24 years of iconic building projects for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in the Middle East \u2013 took home the \u2018Asian Pacific & International Award of the Year at the International Property Awards.\n<\/p>\n

\n Joined by project architect Terry Spinolo, they won for their work on the headquarters of Hong Kong electricity company CLP.\n<\/p>\n

\n The award-winning staircase in the headquarters of Hong Kong electricity company CLP. (Image: Mike Jordan)\n<\/p>\n

\n It is a fitting way to celebrate his career of almost 50 years. Four years ago he announced his \u2018semi retirement\u2019<\/a> and now, at the age of 77, he is stepping back for good.\n<\/p>\n

\n This announcement was made official when, at the International Property Awards gala dinner at London\u2019s Savoy Hotel in January, Mike stepped down as chairman of the board of architectural judges after 20 years.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve decided to stand down to slowly retire back here in Falmouth my family home and birth place 77 years ago,\u201d he explained to the Packet.\n<\/p>\n

\n As a young boy, Mike would watch his father working at the forge in Penryn, in the 200-year-old family master blacksmith business ‘Davey and Jordan’.\n<\/p>\n

\n The original blacksmiths in Penryn\n<\/p>\n

\n He developed both an eye for craftsmanship and a drive to succeed, which resulted in setting up Cornish Stairways in 1978, with a \u00a34,000 investment.\n<\/p>\n

\n He has since turned this into a multi-million-pound business, creating staircases all over the world \u2013 but Mike has always stayed true to his roots, with the headquarters remaining in Penryn.\n<\/p>\n

\n His career stepped up a whole new level in 1998 when he won an international design award and whisked off to Dubai by Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, to create the main feature stairways for the Burj Al Arab Hotel \u2013 the only seven-star hotel in the world.\n<\/p>\n

\n This started what would become a series of \u00a31 million stairways around the globe \u2013 of which Mike has now designed 15 in his career globally.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Sheikh started a company in Dubai to enable Mike to complete the work for the hotel, which at the time started with 240 men and has since grown to now employing 730 people.\n<\/p>\n

\n You can read more about Mike’s long career here: Designer to royalty and ‘local boy done well’ prepares to retire (kind of)<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Of his most recent award win, Mike said: \u201cI was not part of the judging panel, for obvious reasons, for this global entry but it was a nice surprise.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have loved over the years the challenges of designing iconic feature stairways for so many world-leading designed buildings in my life. So many to be immensely proud of, putting Cornwall<\/a> on the global map of design.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cHopefully with seasonal good weather I can enjoy Falmouth for the rest of my days.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Mike Jordan (left) and project architect Terry Spinolo with their awards (Image: Mike Jordan)\n<\/p>\n

\n While admitting \u201cIt\u2019s about time I started learning to slow down,\u201d Mike still has some ideas of how he wants to spend his retirement \u2013 not least promoting the work of other Cornish companies.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI just want to help carry on building the success stories there are in Cornwall, and help promote them nationally and internationally,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n He also hopes to create opportunities for the next generation of works \u2013 \u201cWhere are all the jobs coming from for the kids of tomorrow? \u2013 and instil some of the same drive and passion that has helped him reach the top of his career.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSecond best isn\u2019t good enough. You need to strive to be the best in whatever you\u2019re producing or designing,\u201d explained Mike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Falmouth-born businessman, whose work has adorned Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England in London and various British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}