Taking Count of Design-Build

With the 2010 census under way, the U.S. Census Bureau is working out of its new headquarters in Suitland, Md. The goal of creating a modern, sustainable facility that would consolidate some 6,000 Census Bureau staff members from more than a dozen locations was achieved. And, using design-build, it was completed a year ahead of schedule, giving the Bureau time to get settled before the actual census began.

Although the actual design and construction of the facility was fast, the process for funding and procuring the design-build team took time. Congress approved funding for a new Bureau headquarters in 2002, 2003 and 2004, with an eye to having it ready for the 2010 census. The Census Bureau and the General Services Administration (GSA) used a two-part, best-value source selection process. Initially, a solicitation was issued in August 2002 stating the requirements for the facility and announcing that the request for qualifications (RFQ) would be issued in early September with a briefing in mid-September.

The initial solicitation set out physical requirements for the facility as well as provisions for including small businesses as subcontractors. To help candidates meet and look into forming alliances, the solicitation also scheduled a subcontracting networking session in early October for large and small business concerns.

Skanska USA Building Inc. was aware of the project and began assembling its design-build team even before the RFQ was issued. Having a history of some 25 successful projects with architect HKS Inc., the two firms were the foundation of the team. Both companies had experience in large-scale office buildings and both were familiar with the design-build process. Together they decided on a short list of subordinate design consultants and together they conducted interviews with those firms including traditional design engineers and specialty consultants. Skanska met with and concluded teaming arrangements with design-build mechanical and plumbing subcontractor Southland Industries.

Southland was chosen for its experience and expertise, but its location in the Washington, D.C., area was an additional advantage. Truland Systems, chosen as the design-assist electrical and low-voltage subcontractor, was a dominant subcontractor in the local marketplace and already had a good working relationship with the selected electrical engineer, GHT, Ltd. An advocate for design-assist relationships, Truland frequently collaborates with engineers to develop the best solution to electrical engineering issues.

Skanska continued assembling the construction team, enlisting Fujitec as the elevator contractor, Tulsa Dynaspan Inc. as precast concrete parking garage contractor, Artex for architectural precast concrete, ValleyCrest Companies as design-assist landscape subcontractor and Sentinel Structures for the wooden blades, which formed an important design element.

HKS, as primary design partner, held the contracts for the designers, including civil engineer A. Morton Thomas & Associates and structural engineer Walter P. Moore and Associates.

Once the team members were chosen, Skanska hosted and facilitated work sessions. The sessions allowed members of the team to familiarize themselves with each other, with the project and with Skanska’s strategy for winning the project and successfully completing it. The facilitators kept written records, including responsibility matrices, which were updated and distributed to team members. In addition to establishing responsibility and strategy, these sessions allowed team members to develop working relationships that would carry through the entire project. Finally, GSA chose Skanska in August 2003, some 17 months after they began forming the team.

Collaboration

With the design and construction staff assembled and already working together, GSA personnel were carefully integrated into the team. A series of formalized, facilitated off-site partnering sessions held every quarter were required by the contract and proved an effective way to resolve challenges as they came up. The meetings were often large, with smaller groups breaking away to deal with specific problems. Because the owner and design-build team members worked together on a daily basis, all parties merged becoming one large team with a common goal.

Innovation

Again, the work began before the contract was awarded. The Skanska team used value engineering ideas, included in the proposal, to give GSA options for the final project. That proposal included a “shopping list” of alternative ideas to add value to the project, many of them reducing the final cost as well. The team did comparative analyses of cost, schedule, available materials and personnel, programmatic requirements and lifecycle benefits. Using the best available commercially practicable technologies, the team developed sustainable design features to improve energy efficiency. Options like these were a part of the reason Skanska was chosen, since they gave GSA choices beyond the proposal requirements. In addition, the amount of thought and effort behind the proposal made it clear that Skanska was serious about winning and producing a project to be proud of.

Practical considerations and challenges

A huge project, the Census Bureau Headquarters is a multi-building complex that is comprised of 1.4 million square feet in multiple buildings containing offices, a conference center, cafeteria, credit union, auditorium, fitness center and library. The parking garage — another million square feet — has space for 3,100 vehicles. Keeping the entire team on track was a major effort but pre-established working relationships helped.

Building the new facility around the existing buildings, which remained occupied and could not be demolished until the new space was completed, was complicated. Nearly 3,000 Census Bureau employees continued to work while the new buildings were constructed less than 50 feet away. Both the design-build team and the Bureau staff needed to be mindful of potential disturbances and disruptions.

The site itself presented a complication over and above the need to work around existing structures. Part of it was bordered by a waterway with wetlands safeguarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The team met with Corps representatives and redesigned the foundation and other elements to adhere to setback requirements.

Materials and utilities presented unexpected challenges. The eight-story main building complex is “veiled” with a screen of curvilinear white oak blades over patterned exterior glass and green precast concrete panels. Finding and fabricating these blades required time and effort — the original material specified simply wasn’t available in the large quantity needed. White oak, from sustainably-managed forests in West Virginia and Missouri, was selected for both availability and environmental reasons. Fabricating the blades required Sentinel Structures to bring back production lines unused since World War II, when they were used to produce wooden boat hulls. The local utility, expected to be the primary power source, could not accommodate the project. In response, the team redesigned the system on the fly. The complex required 1.2 million square feet of under-floor air distribution — an unprecedented amount. The team consulted with the Center for the Built Environment and kept a tight rein on quality, hand-cleaning dust and debris from the underfloor area every day.

The completed project is not only a modern, efficient and environmentally sustainable complex of public buildings, it is also quite beautiful. Fast construction meant that Census Bureau staff was settled in well before they needed to start working on the 2010 census.

Your completed census form will be tabulated and analyzed in the buildings shown on these very pages.