M id A tlantic Real Estate Journal — Fall Preview — September 2024 — 19
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F all P review
By Brendan McGrath, PE, CCP, LEED AP O+M, AKF Group Recommitting to Quality
T
he current “State of the Market” brings to mind many images:
outcome. The owner should build a team of trusted pro - fessionals with proven re - cords and hold those firms accountable to keep key indi - viduals involved throughout the project. Peer reviews can be used to infuse quality, collaboration, and trans - parency through the design process. The cost/benefit of strategic and thorough peer reviews for a project is al - most impossible to measure, but the cost of a peer review in relation to the full cost of a construction project is a
drop in the bucket. There are various construc - tion procurement methods that offer a different paradigm for the process of building a building. Integrated Project Delivery tends to focus on sim - ple solutions and collaboration based on a shared goal. This method inherently changes the mindset of individuals on a project team which can lead to an openness that keeps every - one honest. Operators should be given reasonable budgets to keep buildings running well for occupants. Operators
could be incentivized based on metrics including occupant satisfaction, equipment main - tenance cost vs. emergency repair incidents, and building utility consumption. Finally, engaging in a commission - ing process with a trusted and thorough commissioning provider can support quality in building projects. Owners should find a commissioning provider they can work with and support. The scope of com - missioning work for a project should be developed so that it covers the complexity and
risk of the equipment/systems/ building. It doesn’t seem likely that the pace of projects will slow down or that budgets will start to inflate, so let’s build great project teams, keep an open mind about the process, and infuse quality wherever we can. Brendan McGrath, PE, CCP, LEED AP O+M man - ages AKF’s Mid-Atlantic Commissioning servic- es, performing verifica - tion and optimization of building systems. MAREJ
a boom in multi-family residential buildings in Philadelphia and around the country, bustling sci - ence and technology
Brendan McGrath
districts, world-class health - care facilities. And this is just what I can see by looking across the Schuylkill River! I also can’t help but think about how the Internet of Things had to step aside to make way for our fixation on Artificial Intelligence. It takes massive computing power to push the boundary of what AI can do and the market responded with mega- data centers in Northern Vir - ginia, Texas, and across the US. The scale is so large that some of these data centers run on nuclear power. The quantity of these new developments is massive, but what about the quality? We have all seen quality get pinched at times in our indus - try. Someone overcommits to a deadline or the deadline gets moved up. Drawings need to go out to please the client, and the drawings aren’t perfect. The owner has to meet the budget to get the greenlight to build so all the features get “value engineered” out of the job. Younger people are given sophisticated tasks too quickly and with little sup - port. Equipment and systems get more complex and you are hard-pressed to find a techni - cian who can efficiently and effectively operate them. A building operator has so many responsibilities and gets so many occupant complaints that they can’t keep up with preventative maintenance of equipment. And so it goes. We need to find a way to focus on and incentivize quality. Consider refining business decisions to center around quality. It starts with the culture of the institution do - ing the construction process. When the goals of the proj - ect are established, quality should be the backdrop for each of those objectives. The institution can incentivize their project team through measurable goals for the
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