Situation:
Brown’s Barus & Holley/Prince Laboratory building is a 220,000 SF facility that houses the University’s engineering and physics departments. Built in 1965, the building’s infrastructure needed upgrading due to a lack of systems reliability and capacity to meet current building codes. BOND was engaged under an Integrated Project Delivery contract to provide preconstruction and construction management services for the first phase of a two-part infrastructure upgrade. Upgrades included the installation of a new fire alarm system and modernized elevators, as well as the replacement of an air handling unit, exhaust fans, chiller plant and cooling towers, heat exchanger and electrical switchgear.
Challenges:
- Project served as Brown’s first foray into the IPD model
- All work completed in an occupied building that needed to be operable 24/7 during construction due to extremely sensitive research ongoing in adjacent spaces
- Located in an active city environment
- Coordination with multiple building stakeholders from physics, chemistry, and biology departments
Solutions:
- Extremely close collaboration and early engagement of all team members under the IPD contract to gain team consensus and identify project goals
- Coordination of partnering sessions with outside consultant to ensure all entities understood the IPD contract arrangement, process, and tools
- Utilization of in-house BIM and laser scanning services to validate existing building conditions
- Detailed coordination with facility management team to plan shutdowns and switchovers
Results:
- Pull planning sessions resulted in 20% in labor savings by increasing field efficiency
- Collaborative approach to phasing/sequencing provided savings of 12%, which was reinvested back into the project
- Continuous building operation with no disruption to research activities
- First successful IPD project at Brown
