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Client, architect, and Construction manager must perform a delicate balancing act to shrink the construction process and save time and money.

By Barbara Knecht

Risky business

Fast-track construction is not suitable for the risk-averse owner, architect, or construction manager. No construction project is immune to delays, but all of the advantages can evaporate and the disadvantages multiply if the process is not closely managed to anticipate the unexpected and resolve problems instantly.

NBBJ pushed the limits of 3D modeling (left and below) to reduce the delivery time by 50 percent. The architects created the design with Alias/Wavelength software running on high-end Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations. (See Digital Architect) Reebok International World Headquarters Canton, Mass. Architect: NBBJ, Seattle (Scott Wyatt, partner in charge; Richard G. Buckley, partner in charge, competition; Steven McConnell, design principal) Date of completion: June 2000 Construction manager: Turner/O’Connor

Project management is the key to success. No matter which principal participant (architect, construction manager, or owner) is driving a particular set of decisions, the other two will have to be flexible and willing to compromise as each gives input at every stage of design and construction. Having the construction manager on board early will always yield a better product. In fast track, many other design decisions may be controlled by schedule and directed by the construction manager, including material choices and construction methods. A construction manager who knows the market conditions at the time of construction may recommend against a material or a trade that is in short supply. In a fast-track project, schedule rules decisions. For some, there is a positive aspect to this parameter. Jim Wilson, president of Ewing Cole Cherry Brott in Philadelphia explains, “I like [fast tracking] because it imposes discipline over the decision-making process. Sometimes with no schedule, things just keep changing.” Most of the Ewing Cole Cherry Brott’s projects are fast tracked, from the Whitehall-Robins Pharmaceutical Research and Development Facility in Richmond, Virginia, to the new stadium for the Philadelphia Phillies. Whitehall-Robins included demolition, renovation, and new construction on a 30-acre site, all while operations continued uninterrupted.

When a site was selected at the close of 1999 for a new stadium for the Phillies, the team owners specified a 2004 opening. By fast tracking the project, a 55-month process was compressed to 39 months by a couple of means. The first construction packages—excavation and water removal—went out for bid nine months after the project began. Piling drawings were issued post–design development, and subsequent packages have been issued steadily as the building has risen out of the ground. “There hasn’t been a lot of rethinking of the main concepts; the major needs were met in the schematic phase. But we began to refer to it as a renovation project, as changes were made in meetings with the Phillies after the piling drawings were out to bid,” remarks Bob McConnell, the project architect.