In 2000, the Oklahoma Legislature enacted HB 1564, an amendment to the Public Building Construction and Planning Act, which allowed design-build procurement, enabling the qualification-based selection of a joint-venture firm to design and construct a dome on the Oklahoma State Capitol. The narrowly drafted law mandated that any design-build project be approved and overseen by the Oklahoma Department of Central Services (DCS), as the delivery method was unfamiliar to the state and the dome construction was such a high-visibility project.
The dome was completed in August 2002 and was a 2003 DBIA National Design-Build Award winner. But the delivery method wasn’t used again on such projects, resulting in a movement to rescind the design-build law. In 2004, however, the Oklahoma Legislature extended the law and DCS maintained oversight of design-build projects.
Then along came the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) legislation in May 2005, which, for the first time, allowed reserve components of the armed forces to participate in the closing and realignment of existing facilities and to receive new facilities in return.
Given time constraints and fast-track requirements mandated by the BRAC law, the Army determined that all BRAC projects must use design-build. This prompted the Oklahoma Military Department (OMD) to work with the Construction and Properties Division of DCS to ensure that the enabling legislation was not repealed and that design-build be approved for the BRAC projects.
OMD had prepared for this day for a number of years. Most of the staff of the Oklahoma Directorate of Engineering (OKDE) attended the National Guard Bureau’s sponsored DBIA “Boot Camp,” a two-week training event covering the design-build basic course the first week and an advanced curriculum the second week, culminating in the students taking the designation test on the final day. To date, OKDE has three DBIA-designated professionals, an additional five individuals who have passed the certification test and received the Certificate of Mastery and three others who have completed the boot camp. With the resource manager, fire marshal and several members of DCS attending training, the entire acquisition team was familiar with the delivery method.
OMD is the lead agency on four of seven BRAC projects scheduled during 2008 and 2009 — Norman (Okla.) and Oklahoma City projects in fiscal year 2008; Broken Arrow and Muskogee in fiscal year 2009. All are projects on state land. The U.S. Army Reserve (USAR), using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as their contracting agent, is the lead agency on the other three. OMD would utilize all DBIA best practices to include: the two-step acquisition process — Request for Qualifications (RFQ) followed by a Request for Proposal (RFP); shortlist to three offerors during the RFQ; utilization of performance specifications without any type of bridging document (prepared by the government’s AE1); payment of stipends to the unsuccessful offerors; a design-to-budget RFP; and the government reserving the right to pay incentive award fees. An outreach to the local construction and A/E community was also conducted in conjunction with the local chapter of the Association of General Contractors.
The Guard’s design-to-budget solicitation resulted in both fiscal year 2008 projects being awarded on schedule and within the programmed amount. They were the first projects delivered using the two-phase acquisition method for the State of Oklahoma as well as for the National Guard Bureau, so a lot of effort and education was required for program execution. In contrast, the USAR projects do not use DBIA best practices and all rely heavily on bridging documents. As of mid-August, all three USAR projects were being value engineered and were estimated to come in over budget and could be delayed until fiscal year 2009.
Choosing Consolidation
OMD saw BRAC 2005 as an opportunity to close many of the old and outdated facilities throughout the state, many of which were built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s and consolidate troops along with other reserve component forces into larger and more modern Armed Forces Reserve Centers (AFRCs). Due to BRAC 2005, OMD was given the opportunity to replace a total of 56 facilities at 51 locations and build 10 new facilities (seven AFRCs and three maintenance shops) at seven different locations worth $240 million. The new projects range in size from 80,000 square feet to 270,000 square feet and cost anywhere from $15-$65 million. At the end of the day, these new facilities will house 3,600 of Oklahoma’s 7,768 soldiers. It will increase the number of soldiers housed in new modern AFRCs from 5 percent to more than 54 percent statewide by the end of 2012.
Historically the National Guard has wanted a presence in small facilities spread among as many local communities as possible. Since the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, the government and the military have aggressively pursued locations and facilities that offer better protection. In Oklahoma, as in most states, many local facilities sit near the street and are very vulnerable, and it’s difficult and expensive to achieve new anti-terrorism/force protection requirements. But the National Guard found land that allows the required setbacks from the street, or in the case of buildings on federal land, structures can sit behind controlled access points.
OMD also wanted to consolidate troops because of the shifting demographics away from smaller communities back to major metropolitan areas. This shift forces many troops to drive extended distances for weekend drills. This way, the new AFRCs would be where soldiers lived and worked. This facility transformation will contribute directly to readiness to provide trained and ready troops to protect the state and nation.
Get it Right
OMD spent more than six months writing and re-writing the RFQ/RFP for the first two projects before being comfortable enough to put them on the street within 45 days of each other. Although informed that interest from within the construction community would not be good, OMD had 20 firms register as design-build firms following the pre-advertisement notice. Seven responded to the RFQ for the first project and six responded to the RFQ for the second. The evaluation board’s scoring/weighting process allowed the best teams to rise to the top. OMD chose only the top three firms to receive the RFP in order to expedite the selection process.
The chosen firm had to live up to high expectations. In Oklahoma, the older National Guard armories — especially those built by the WPA — have a distinctive look and are easily recognized as National Guard facilities. With the military transformation culture of the 21st century, the new facilities need to be designed to reveal an Oklahoma Army National Guard “signature look” but within a modern framework. This was crucial and was a big part of the RFP and the selection process.
As the competition proceeded, competing firms faced challenges trying to grasp the Oklahoma Guard’s concept of a new signature image. The Oklahoma Guard was intentionally non-specific about the signature look and wanted to give competing firms free reign to pursue their own ideas.
The Guard did, however, provide pictures of all of the old armories scheduled for closure and told the firms to work toward a 21st century signature image. While most proposals exhibited a standard office building look or military housing/barracks look, the winning proposal for the first two projects produced a structure with an exterior that blended the old and the new quite nicely.
Design-Build Education
During the selection process the Oklahoma Guard found that the entity that leads the design-build team has a direct influence on the presentation. For instance, presentations from teams where the architect was the lead force tended to have superior designs but lacked budget integration.
This, apparently a result of poor communication between architect and constructor, results in a building that cannot be constructed within budget. (One of the Oklahoma Guard’s criteria to be selected was that the presentation must be the facility that will be built.) On the other hand, teams with a strong constructor influence did exactly the opposite: They emphasized cost constraints and ended up with simple, boring designs that are within budget.
Those truly collaborative teams, with an architect and constructor who communicated well and often, came up with designs that are balanced between constructability and cost and are innovative in overall look.
Communication and respect among teams such as this have designers that respect (and want) constructor participation in every aspect of the design and also have constructors that understand the designer’s vision and offer advice on cost and constructability. Overall, such teams tend to have the most balanced proposals and best meet the RFP requirements.
Going through DBIA training lessons such as “Making the Mental Shift” and others about trust, respect and integration are crucial to having a successful project. Design-build teams with designer and constructor team members who have DBIA training and/or have a history of successful design-build projects can have a significant advantage because they take these lessons to heart.
In the case of the first two Guard projects, several other items, in addition to the signature image, were sought: Facilities should be certified LEED® Silver; and, with the military undergoing transformation, “flat” roofs and multiple roof penetrations were discouraged. In fact, several different materials were labeled “do not use,” “allowed” or “preferred” in the RFP. This gave the design-build teams options for balancing costs with looks and durability.
Korte Construction of St. Louis and LWPB Architects from Oklahoma City were selected as the team for both fiscal year 2008 projects — the Norman and Oklahoma City (West) projects. Both projects are under a fast-track design process and groundbreaking ceremonies will occur in September 2008 and October 2008, respectively.
Maj. J. Kevin Dyer is chief of plans and programming for the Oklahoma Army National Guard. Lt. Col. Andrew Carlson is construction and facilities management officer for the Oklahoma Army National Guard.