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BUSINESS NEWS KWK ARCHITECTS SELECTED DESIGN ARCHITECT FOR MULTI-BUILDING APARTMENT/TOWNHOUSE PROJECT AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY Student housing experts KWK Architects has been selected as the design architect for a $20 million, multi-building apartment/ townhouse project at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. Architecture Incorporated , based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has been selected the architect-of-record for the project. The KWK Architects project design team includes Javier Esteban, Paul Wuennenberg, and Matt Kirschner. This is KWK Architects’ first project in South Dakota. “We are looking forward to working closely with the residential administrators at South Dakota State University to design a beautiful, new apartment neighborhood that meets the needs of the university’s students and sets itself apart from the traditional residence halls on campus,” said Esteban. University officials plan to build multiple buildings to house juniors, seniors, and graduate students on a two-block parcel on the southeast corner of the campus. The existing State Court Apartments, built in 1959, currently occupies this site. The site is bordered by 7th Street to the south, 8th Street to the north, 14th Avenue to the west and Jackrabbit Avenue to the east.

The redevelopment will consist of a three-story apartment building and four to six, two-story townhouses in a mix of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom plans. The apartments will also feature off-street parking and in-unit laundries. According to university officials, the new facilities will be residential in appearance, but distinctive as apartments, making them aesthetically distinguishable from the residence halls in this quadrant of the campus. Founded in 2013 by five architects with a combined 120 years of higher education knowledge and experience, KWK Architects partners with colleges and universities across the United States to create innovative and inspiring places that enhance campus life. Areas of expertise include student housing and dining, and academic and science/technology spaces. KWK Architects has completed more than $1 billion in construction-valued projects since its founding and currently employs a growing staff of 15 at its headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. PRECONSTRUCTION LEADERS FEATURED AT ADVANCING BUILDING ESTIMATION CONFERENCE 2018 The Austin Company , a leading design, engineering, construction, and location consulting firm headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, was featured at the Advancing Building Estimation Conference in May in Denton, Texas.

Chris Jackson, director of preconstruction services, and Amy Hewis, preconstruction coordinator, both with The Austin Company presented at two sessions as part of the More Efficient Bidding track: ❚ ❚ Become the ‘General Contractor of Choice’ for Subcontractors by Out-Performing Your Competition ❚ ❚ Exploring What General Contractors Are Doing to Optimize Their Subcontractor Relationships & Improve Bidder Responsiveness With the widespread construction labor shortage and accelerated project schedules, general contractors and subcontractors must find new ways of working together more efficiently. These two sessions shared ways to optimize this relationship and how general contractors and subcontractors can become trusted partners for project success. The Austin Company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1878. Austin offers a comprehensive portfolio of services, including planning, architectural design, engineering, design-build, construction management, and construction, as well as site location and operations improvement consulting for commercial and industrial companies throughout North America.

JAVIER SUAREZ, from page 9

❚ ❚ Hurdles. Promote flexibility. Schedules are not static, so be prepared to edit as you progress, and use as many bells and whistles as needed to make team members aware of shifts in due dates and/or responsibilities. David Stearman, a re- spected proposal professional, says that we should “resist the urge to immediately compress (or eliminate) key tasks at the beginning or end of the process; and that instead, we should compress the time for writing and reviewing.” Proper plan- ning is essential to craft a winning submittal. Most of the errors occur during the production/submittal phases, so it makes sense not to cut into their allotted terms. The time to sit down to write and review a proposal presents more flex- ibility. Proposal schedules go beyond listing the due dates specified in the solicitation and agreed upon dates with the proposal team. These living documents should function as clear snapshots of milestones, but also as agile tools to track detailed tasks, allowing the coordinator to adjust steps along the way. As the late author Stephen Covey said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” As the dedicated runner plans his training to focus on his primary areas of concern, the proposal manager uses schedules to maintain the proper pace that allows every step in the proposal process to be addressed properly. Put on your track shoes and start running your proposal. JAVIER SUAREZ is the central marketing and sales support manager with Geosyntec Consultants. Contact him at jsuarez@geosyntec.com.

lists), tables, calendar views, and Gantt charts, among others. The goal is to ensure that every team member truly under- stands the proposed schedule. The content is the same, so it should not take a lot of time to cater to several preferences and achieve buy-in. “As the dedicated runner plans his training to focus on his primary areas of concern, the proposal manager uses schedules to maintain the proper pace that allows every step in the proposal process to be addressed properly. Put on your track shoes and start running your proposal.” ❚ ❚ Baton. Explain the hand offs. Several tasks in the proposal process will happen concurrently, but there are specific phases that function as the laps on a relay race. Be as dramatic as possible when explaining that every phase is equally impor- tant: strategizing/planning, development, reviews, produc- tion, and submittal. Use horror stories to describe how rush- ing the production and submittal phases can create dreadful situations. For example, primary and backup printers break- ing down when you waited to print on the last day; mailing a proposal for the U.S. Postal Service through FedEx; or having car trouble when hand delivering a proposal right down to the wire.

THE ZWEIG LETTER June 18, 2018, ISSUE 1253

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