Hitting the Nail Right on the Head: The Essential Tools for a Successful Project
By: Erik J. Kocker

You've decided to take on a significant school project and feel you are well prepared-or so you thought. Unfortunately, too many times a project gets under way without a thorough inventory of the essential tools necessary to design and build a project properly. To help achieve owner project success-hitting the nail right on the head-here's a handy guide to the essential tools that should be stored in your school project toolbox.

The Drawing Board
Typically during the early project phase, the need for a facility is known but with no substantial data supporting that need. It's critical to devote ample time researching and understanding your school's need, so you don't have to back to the drawing board.

• Do your homework. Panning should be based on accurate project information: size, budget, age, location, function, etc.
• Clearly define the project's goals and objectives.
• Determine project cost. Whenever possible, set project budget based on need, and then analyze the school's ability to meet that cost.
• Champion your project. Oftentimes, at the drawing board stage, the planning process can take up to several years. It's important to stay focused and be able to follow the project from start to finish.

The Sketch Pad
Your project is beginning to move ahead as you find yourself in the pre-design phase. During this phase, sketch thoroughly the important pre-design elements.

• Hire an architect with previous experience specific to your school project. It wouldn't make sense for a science teacher to provide instruction on music or art. Nor is it logical to hire an architect who specializes in strip mall development to design and build a science building or performing arts center. The architect may be excellent in designing strip malls; though, it's likely the firm doesn't have the knowledge base to work on K-12 academic projects.
• Select the appropriate delivery method for your project. Is it design/build; design/bid/build; construction management; program manager; construction management at risk? Each construction method has a different cost, level of quality and timeframe associated with it. It's necessary to understand these methods early in the process before making a selection. Do your research and talk to colleagues who have gone through construction to fully understand what their experiences have been in that process. Ultimately, you'll want to choose the optimum building approach for delivering your school project.
• Be aware of the difference between project cost and construction cost. Your construction costs are what your contractor charges to build your facility. There can be a variety of other costs added to your project, and the earlier you can identify those fees in the pre-design phase, the better you can estimate your overall project cost.
• Identify your need of space before you select the project site.
• Form a building committee. This group of decision makers should be a mix of administration, faculty, board members and community members who share a strong ownership to the project's well-being and success.
• Understand professional fees. It's important not only to understand your architect's fees but also those costs related to specialty consultants. For instance, lab, acoustic, theater and aquatic consultants are different specialists that can be a part of a bigger team. It's necessary to understand what the impact of those fees will have on your overall project.

Plotters and Printers

Where is the money for your school project coming from? Plotting the course for funding your project is one of the most important tools to keep in your toolbox if you want to see the project become a reality.

• Know potential upfront costs like site surveys and soil testing. Your $10-million project is underway and sinkholes are discovered on the site or the soil is bad. Unfortunately, such project news wasn't anticipated. The project is still at $10 million, but you'll have to either reduce the program space, cut back in other areas in your building to cover the unforeseen costs or plan on spending more money.
• Don't be afraid to spend money to make money. Properly market your proposed project. After having sufficient design work done to understand your budget and schedule, invest in "the pretty picture" so you can have something to present in your capital campaign efforts.
• Know your capital campaign capacity. Thoroughly research the different groups of potential donors and how each can help meet the overall financial goal.
• Understand the project's timeframe for completion. Raising money should start sooner than later. The saying, "time is money" couldn't be more relevant. The longer it takes to raise the money, the likelihood of the project costing more is much greater. Set a realistic timeframe for fund raising and actively begin the process.
• Enlist experienced capital development personnel. These professionals know how to ask for money and in-kind gifts and understand how to effectively target groups to reach a goal.

Blueprints

You have hired your architect and you're moving forward making specific decisions about your project. The carefully designed detailed plan outlines your project design and these important components.

• Avoid the moving budget. In other words, keep track of the original project budget. Understand the project schedule can dictate the budget; plan accordingly. You might raise the money right away, or discover it might take longer than expected. Stay focused on your budget and schedule.
• Avoid having too many decision makers. Too many chiefs can make it make it difficult for a project to move fluidly through the process just because of the differing opinions.
• Adding scope without an additional budget. Be aware that including more scope to your project generally requires more money. Your architect can work with you in determining what can be added and what may need to be removed in order to keep your project on budget.
• Establish a realistic design schedule. Projects can take a great deal of time, and when you move forward with a project, sometimes you can lose a little bit of focus It's not unusual for you to want the design finished quickly so construction can begin. Though, by rushing through the important design process, you may potentially face problems later in the project. Your architect will keep your mission on target and will develop the design that follows the course of the project schedule.
• Know when and when not to change the design of your project. Architects work through various design phases: schematic design, design development, construction documents, bidding phases. It crucial to move through those phases in that order. Your design team will help you make decisions in a timely way so that it's not at the end of the project that you decide you want to add a new component to the building. Design changes made after your project goes to bid are significant costs associated with making changes at the wrong time.

Hard Hat
With the preliminary work, research, majority of fundraising and design behind you, it's time to roll up your sleeves and begin the construction process. Before heading to the project site, check to make sure your toolbox is properly equipped.

• Select from only qualified bids. You are at great risk when a contractor bid is unqualified. There are different ways to qualify bid; usually it's through a bid bond, but it's the concept of going into a situation where you're not sure whether or not that's the best viable bid for your project. The other one is taking a low bid when you know that an error exists. Your architect will be familiar with this process and can assist you in selecting the right bid.
• Preserve a bid contingency. This is to protect you against any kind of market changes. Once your project's been bid, you will also want a construction contingency to protect yourself from unforeseen conditions, errors and issues that inevitably come up in the field.
• Bid at the right time. Typically, you're going to find favorable environment bidding near the end or beginning of the year, because contractors are generally thinking about projects that will be moving forward within the next year.
• Allow enough time to bid. You should be prepared to wait approximately four to five weeks. You certainly don't want to rush the process. In doing so, the contractor could either overprice your project or just make basic mistakes in the process.
• Visiting the project site. You've paid your architect to design the building; you ought to make sure he or she is visiting the project site regularly, seeing that the project is going according to plan.

Nothing is more gratifying than completing a project successfully, on schedule and within budget-hitting the nail right on the head. It takes more than just bricks and mortar to construct a building. Patience, awareness and all the essential tools outlined above will help make for a successful outcome. It's time to remove your tool belt and enjoy the building and the praise. You've got the ribbon cutting to plan.

Erik J. Kocker, AIA, LEED, AP is a principal and lead designer for Hastings & Chivetta Architects, Inc., www.hcarchitects.com .

 

School Construction Directory

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