Integrated Project Delivery
by Jonathan McGaha | July 29, 2013 12:00 am
Eleven years ago I was asked to manage my first LEED project. Having more than 20 years of construction management on my resume, overseeing a building project was nothing new, but managing a LEED project was. Taking on this responsibility was made even more challenging by the owner’s desire to achieve the highest level of certification granted by the USGBC-Platinum!
At the time, there was no person or firm in the area that had delivered a LEED Platinum building. So, I turned to some sage advice one of the “oldtimers” told me when I started my career: “Start with what you know, define what you don’t and never be afraid to ask for advice from an expert.” I used this advice throughout my career, and when I was faced with this particular green building project, I refined it using the following principles: success is dependent on the team you assemble; spending time during the project planning stage leads to a more satisfied customer; decisions and changes made during design will save time and money during construction, and if there is some aspect you don’t have experience with, educate yourself before you ask others on the team to execute.
When I started the project, I didn’t know about LEED and spent time reading everything that was available, attended seminars and reached out to project teams across the country that had completed LEED projects. A common phrase I heard was “integrated project delivery.” I knew about integrated project delivery from my past history working with automotive assembly equipment installation. In that market, schedule is critical, and the delivery team must work as an integrated unit. No one discipline (mechanical, electrical, heavy rigging, property modifications, etc.) can operate in a bubble. If the engineer responsible for pipe routing wasn’t concerned about the interface with the electrical wiring layout, nothing would work when the equipment was delivered. If the industrial engineers weren’t concerned about the location of the infrastructure, the conveyors and other automation would not fit together properly. If the rigging crews were not concerned about the conveyor layouts, they would be forced to remove and reinstall equipment to accommodate delivery of parts. These examples go on, but the point is that in a market where speed of delivery is crucial to profitability, integration is key. When I transitioned into managing more commercial buildings, I became aware that this level of integration was missing from the delivery model. Drawing on what I knew, I set forth to break the tradition of commercial building construction and build an integrated team that would take responsibility for project delivery.
Project management means different things depending on the project phase or the specific focus of the team. The project manager representing the owner has a much different demands than the project manager responsible for the construction, and the demands of the person managing the design are different than either the owner or the contractor. In this situation, I was fortunate to have the ability to hand-pick my team. Each team member had to understand the demands and interests of one another. We started by establishing a core team comprised of the people who would use the building. The next was to assess the group’s understanding of the concepts of integrated project delivery. This being new to many on the core team, we sought help from a professional facilitator to help guide us through the early planning stage. The first planning session’s agenda confused many of us. We had come expecting to discuss building details, but instead, the facilitator began by asking everyone how they worked at their desk. What did this have to do with constructing a LEED building? We quickly learned that the planning process must start with the needs of those working in the building. So, we began the integration process by looking at how the building will be used. This exercise also demonstrated the need to expand the team.
The core group then expanded to include the architect, engineers and contractor, and we conducted another facilitated exercise. Now that the team was expanded to include the design team, we came to the meeting thinking that we would start discussing the details of the building. The facilitator started by asking our thoughts on how this new building might affect the local community. Again, we were thrown with being asked to think about another aspect of integration, not how the building will look or operate but how others in the community will receive the project. This exercise demonstrated that we again needed to expand our team. This time, we scheduled a meeting with the town mayor, chief building inspector and the local fire marshal. We asked this group how much they knew about LEED certification and found out that none knew the first thing about LEED certification. More importantly, we discovered this was the first time a team had come to them before a concept design had been formalized. Energized by the proactive approach, they invited members of the team to conduct educational sessions about LEED and our proposed project to the city council, planning, zoning committees and members of the community. At the completion of the third session, it was evident that the community embraced our project, going as far as to make recommendations to the team that would make permitting and inspection of the project easier.
The initial steps of starting with what we knew, defining what we didn’t know and seeking advice from experts proved to be a winning combination. The group worked as an integrated team, starting with the early planning and continuing throughout design and construction. Fourteen months from the purchase of the property to the move into the building, the team delivered the project one month ahead of schedule, under budget and certified as the ninth platinum building in the world. All of this success couldn’t have happened without the full effort of our integrated team.
Thomas Taylor, a 30-year veteran of the construction industry and noted expert on sustainability, is the general manager of St. Louis-based Vertegy. His recent book, “Guide to LEED 2009: Estimating and Preconstruction Strategies,” provides step-by-step information about the LEED 2009 for New Construction process. To learn more about Vertegy or Thomas’ new book, visit www. vertegyconsultants.com for more information.
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