What happens when an owner has a must-meet deadline for a building and a major specialty contractor, working under a traditional design-bid-build contract, and is unable to meet its commitments?
If you’re the District of Columbia Public School system, you turn to a project delivery system that you know will get you into a building on time — design-build.
The District’s project was the construction and renovation of the School Without Walls, a small, multi-cultural public high school. The school, affiliated with George Washington University, offers its students the opportunity to take classes at the university during their junior and senior years. They can earn an associate’s degree at the same time they are working towards their high school diploma.
The School Without Walls was operating out of the former Grant Elementary School on the university’s campus. Built in 1881, this building was seriously outdated and could not serve the needs of a modern high school. So in 2008, the school temporarily relocated while the District embarked on a $39 million project that included renovation of the existing 30,000-square-foot building and the addition of a new 68,000-square-foot structure to it. The project had a 14-month timeline.
Faster delivery with design-build
Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EEK) designed the project, and the District tapped Turner Construction Company to build it. Although the overall project used a traditional design-bid-build approach, design-build was the method that brought the electrical, lighting, security and information systems to completion within deadline and allowed the school to open on time.
Those project elements had originally been let to a specialty contractor under a design-bid-build contract. But when that company ended up in financial difficulty, the firm of M.C. Dean took over the work and changed the approach to design-build. Ultimately, the company was responsible for the project’s electrical, security, fire alarm and voice and data telecommunications systems.
“The typical design-bid-build process was too slow for the owner at that point; they wanted to get started, and they needed to open the school on time,” says Jason Massoth, P.E., PMP, DBIA, M.C. Dean’s construction operations manager. M.C. Dean had just completed work on another design-build project for the District’s school system, Phelps Technology. The work at Phelps Technology was part of a massive, multi-year renovation/restoration project of the District’s schools. Significantly, Phelps was the only renovated school that opened on time for the 2008-2009 school year.
“They decided to bring the same team over to the School Without Walls and give us a chance,” Massoth continues. “It was a great process; we stepped in there, started the [systems] design over and started construction at the same time. That’s one of the advantages of design-build; you can essentially start construction the day you start design.”
“We were given probably an 80 percent complete set of drawings [from the original specialty contractor], but about the only thing we kept from them was the light fixtures,” adds Rob Stewart, project manager for M.C. Dean.
“The original electrical service was designed as 480/277, fairly common for a building like this,” he continues. “But [the mechanical contractor] had decided to use a variable low refrigerant system, and all the mechanical units were fairly small. By going to a 208/120-volt, three-phase system, we eliminated the 480/277-type equipment, and all the dry-type transformers, which were not very energy efficient. We were able to resize the electrical rooms, saving enough space in the main gear switch room to give the District an entire extra classroom down in the basement at no additional cost.”
“The biggest challenge was the condensed timeframe, getting the permits, getting the drawings done,” Stewart adds.
It helped to have Massoth, who is DBIA certified, working on the project, Stewart says. His own training through DBIA also came in handy.
“It certainly helped change our attitude about the job; you have to approach design-build completely differently from a bid-build job,” Stewart adds. “You need to be creative, you need to be flexible, and you need to remember that just because it’s on the drawing boards doesn’t mean it can’t be changed.”
LEED and other challenges
Taking a flexible approach to the project became essential when the District of Columbia Public School System decided to seek LEED accreditation for the school partway through the job. “The project had already been put out for design when D.C. passed a mandate that they wanted their buildings to be sustainable,” explains Pamela Johnson, Turner’s project manager. “The District tried to go back and see if it was possible to retrofit some of the schools that had already gone out as LEED projects. To EEK’s credit, they had already included many sustainable requirements in the design.”
Turner Construction had prepared for this eventuality as well. “Since we knew the District was thinking of this, we were already separating our waste and knew where we were sending it. We just had to go back through all our documentation and recreate it for LEED,” Johnson adds.
To earn LEED points, Turner made many modifications to the original plans while construction was underway. M.C. Dean helped get LEED points for the project as well. “We met the lighting standards of certain watts per square foot. That involved the type of lights we used and the placement of light fixtures to get that down to the proper number. It can be a challenge to do that, and to still get the foot candles needed so people can see,” Massoth adds.
By the time the project ended, the project team believed they had earned enough points to qualify for LEED Gold; if that doesn’t turn out to be the case, however, they are confident that they have enough for LEED silver certification.
Building with BIM
Coordinating all parts of the job, including the LEED requirements, was easier because Turner, M.C. Dean and other specialty contractors collaborated early on a building information model (BIM).
Turner also surveyed the existing building to document conditions, put that information into a BIM model, then incorporated the MEP contractors’ 3-D shop drawings. Turner and its subs met weekly to review an updated merged model, identifying clashes and finding resolutions to them. They also plotted out specific details required by LEED, such as the number of feet a mechanical unit had to be kept from ductwork to prevent noise from entering a classroom.
“When everything was fully coordinated, everyone signed off on the shop drawings and that’s what we built to,” says Johnson.
The BIM model also helped Turner and its specialty contractors develop solutions when they came across unexpected problems, such as floor joists being at different elevations throughout the school and even within each classroom.
“BIM modeling was essential in getting this project built,” says Stewart. “We modeled all the way down to the small conduits; we actually gave them fixture dimensions. All of the sprinkler piping was modeled, all the ductwork, plumbing, everything — we had a fairly complete BIM model. Many things wouldn’t work as originally designed, and the BIM model helped us find and fix them.”
A good space for learning
The School Without Walls was completed on schedule, in time for the opening of the 2009-2010 school year. Both the old and new sections of the school feature bright, airy classrooms with large windows. M.C. Dean’s willingness to step up to the plate late in the game resulted in upgraded electrical systems that enhance the natural light, and new sprinkler, fire and security systems that help keep students safe. Now, students and staff can enjoy the ambiance of the historic building while taking advantage of its new technologies, including wireless Internet access and smart boards in every classroom.
Without the creativity, innovation and collaboration inherent in design-build, The School Without Walls would not have opened on time. The District of Columbia’s willingness to engage a design-build specialty contractor for a troublesome design-bid-build job shows that these qualities are appreciated, and remembered, by owners.
Mary Lou Jay is a freelance writer based in Baltimore, Md.