o The CWU project team currently has regular in-person meetings for discussion, to review project activities and budget status. The team identifies this meeting practice as being helpful for staying up to date (the project manager provides updates on construction progress) as well as being educational for newer project team members. Both dining and housing have had internal organization changes during this project timeline and new members have joined the project team. These new members benefit from being part of regular project discussion as they take on associated responsibilities. o While a project of this scale and schedule naturally experiences tension points, the team demonstrated commitment to work together to keep the project on track. o The decision to bring in a sub-contractor for the furniture, fixtures and equipment (FFE) design allowed the project team to work with someone who is both familiar with the design and has an understanding of the residence hall living experience. o To have project management back-up support, a “back-up” project manager was identified. The primary and back-up PM work together well. o The project manager communicated risks to the team heading into different phases of the project and risks are also communicated on the weekly status report. • Selection of design-build team: The design-build contractor team is described as being knowledgeable, “a really good fit”, highly organized, and helping the CWU project team through the learning curve of design-build. In contrast to design-bid-build, the design-build process provides the opportunity to select the builder through an interview process and choosing this partnership was one of the early responsibilities of the CWU project team. Project team members described that they valued the ability to select the contractor to ensure they had an ethical, responsible, and experienced partner for the project. Participants shared they appreciated that the CWU interview team included participants from a variety of campus groups and think this contributed positively to the selection decision. • Function to Cost Ratio/Value engineering: The CWU project team is tasked with making decisions on design to not only serve student needs but also that are economical with quality material choices. When design compromises were needed, the design-build team and CWU project team looked for other ways to meet the need. For example, the initial opening lounge to the Residence Hall is not as large as would be desired. The team made sure that the upper lounge sizes meet student needs. Interviewees described that the team looks for areas to gain efficiencies without sacrificing integrity or performance. • The value placed on obtaining input and different voices to the design: The CWU project team is credited with “providing access to the right people at the right time” in the design process. This includes involvement of student voices as well as participants, not only leadership, within housing and dining groups. Bringing in the different voices to inform the project design process within a narrowly defined time frame is “an impressive feat.” • General positives for design-build: o The design-build team did a good job sequencing the permit packaging to maximize fast tracking. o The overall construction pace is fast and in the design-build process there is time savings because site work can happen while design is on-going. o Regarding the design-build process, some CWU project team members described the experience as “ideal”, “highly collaborative”, and something they would “absolutely” do again.
Dugmore Hall PQR 112118
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