For its Waterford, Conn., Cancer Center, a comprehensive treatment facility affiliated with Dana-Farber Community Cancer Care, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital decided to try something new: true three-party Integrated Project Delivery.
The contractual agreement covered L+M, architecture/engineering firm TRO JB, and construction manager Suffolk Construction, with programming, design, and construction all informed by Lean principles.
To further extend the collaborative theme, this three-party project management team invited three trade partners to participate in an incentive compensation layer, involving a pool consisting of at-risk potential profits.
TRO JB, Suffolk, and three handpicked HVAC/plumbing, electrical, and site work subs would participate in the ICL. If the project came in over budget or exceeded the schedule, the ICL profit pool would be tapped to pay the penalties. If the facility came in under budget or ahead of schedule, the ICL group would get the profit pool plus 50% of the savings, with the hospital pocketing the remaining savings.
Bronze Award
Project SummaryLawrence + Memorial Hospital Cancer Center
Waterford, Conn.BUILDING TEAM
Submitting firm: Suffolk Construction (GC/CM)
Owner/developer: Lawrence + Memorial Hospital
Architect, MEP/FP: TRO JB
Structural: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Civil: DiCesare-Bentley EngineersGENERAL INFORMATION
Project size: 47,000 sf
Construction cost: $24 million (IPD contract value $34.5 million)
Construction period: May 2012 to September 2013
Delivery method: Tri-party integrated project delivery
Early collaboration on the design, schedule, budget, and quality goals was a must for making the plan work. Using 3P (Production Preparation Process) Lean design and pull planning tools, the Building Team was able to make key decisions efficiently. Input from about 70 Cancer Center stakeholders—including administration, medical staff, support staff, patient advocates, and partners from Dana-Farber—was solicited in an intense three-day 3P charrette, which resulted in schematic draft floor plans.
Only minor changes were needed after this point, testifying to the effectiveness of the event. (The most significant contract alteration, requested by L+M as a value-added item, was a geothermal well field system that will pay for itself in just a few years.)
A co-location center set up in two of L+M’s hospital conference rooms was made available to the Building Team for the duration of the project. This home base proved crucial to ensuring efficient communication and also provided a convenient setting for stakeholder evaluation of mockups.
As a result of the collaborative efforts, the overall project schedule was reduced by six months, and the facility came in $1.2 million under budget. Actual construction was completed in only 10 months, meeting a “stretch goal” previously set by the client. Streamlined front-end decisions played an important role, including an RFI process that was 80% shorter than the client had previously experienced.
Building Team Awards judges were impressed with the participants’ ability to weigh wants and needs and craft a facility that achieved ambitious goals. The client has engaged Suffolk and TRO JB for a second IPD contract, this time to renovate a three-story medical office building. As with healthcare itself, new ideas about delivery are proving indispensable to positive outcomes.
Related Stories
| May 17, 2011
Should Washington, D.C., allow taller buildings?
Suggestions are being made that Washington revise its restrictions on building heights. Architect Roger Lewis, who raised the topic in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, argues for a modest relaxation of the height limits, and thinks that concerns about ruining the city’s aesthetics are unfounded.
| May 17, 2011
The New Orleans master plan
At an afternoon panel during last week's AIA National Conference in New Orleans, Goody Clancy Principal David Dixon and Manning Principal W. Raymond Manning shared their experiences creating the New Orleans Master Plan, a document that sets a new course for the city, from land use and transportation planning to environmental protection.
| May 17, 2011
Do these buildings look like buffalo to you?
It’s hard to contemplate winter now that we’re mid-spring, but when the seasons change, ice skaters in Winnipeg will be able to keep warm in plywood shelters designed by Patkau Architects. The designers created temporary shelters inspired by animal behavior—specifically, buffalo bracing against the wind. Check them out.
| May 16, 2011
USGBC and AIA unveil report for greening K-12 schools
The U.S. Green Building Council and the American Institute of Architects unveiled "Local Leaders in Sustainability: A Special Report from Sundance," which outlines a five-point national action plan that mayors and local leaders can use as a framework to develop and implement green schools initiatives.
| May 16, 2011
Dassault Systèmes to distribute Gehry Technologies’ digital project
Dassault Systèmes and Gehry Technologies announced that Gehry Technologies’ Digital Project products will be integrated into the Dassault Systèmes’ portfolio and distributed through Dassault Systèmes. Digital Project is a suite of 3D BIM applications created by Gehry Technologies using Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA as a core modeling engine.
| May 11, 2011
DOE releases guide for 50% more energy-efficient office buildings
The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the release of the first in a new series of Advanced Energy Design Guides to aid in the design of highly energy efficient office buildings. The 50% AEDG series will provide a practical approach to commercial buildings designed to achieve 50% energy savings compared to the commercial building energy code used in many areas of the country.
| May 10, 2011
Google hires Ingenhoven Architects to design new Mountain View office
The current Googleplex is straining at the seams and yet the company is preparing its biggest hiring surge ever, so Google decided now’s the time to build its own office space—a first for the Internet giant. The company hired Ingenhoven Architects, a German firm that specializes in sustainable architecture, to create plans for what could be a 600,000-sf office.
| May 10, 2011
Solar installations on multifamily rooftops aid social change
The Los Angeles Business Council's study on the feasibility of installing solar panels on the city’s multifamily buildings shows there's tremendous rooftop capacity, and that a significant portion of that rooftop capacity comes from buildings in economically depressed neighborhoods. Solar installations could therefore be used to create jobs, lower utility costs, and improve conditions for residents in these neighborhood.
| May 10, 2011
Dinner is now served…atop the Lincoln Memorial?
Take a look at the temporary restaurant sitting atop Brussels’ historic Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. The Cube, by Electrolux, offers 18 diners a spectacular view of the Parc du Cinquantenair, and is one of two structures traveling across Europe, making stops at famous landmarks in Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Russia. What do you think about one of these 60-tonne structures being placed on a U.S. memorial?