Project Quality Control - Suburban High School Project

So let's think about mitigating risk with our example suburban high school project. So we have a project here. We've got this (mumbles) high school. It's got its classroom and admin area. It's got the two story classroom zone. It's got multi-purpose tech spaces, cafeterias, and then it's got the big long span of the gymnasium. It has lots of other stuff out in the fields, as well, parking lots, and fields, and drop offs, and all that. Its main entry point is coming in from the drop off. We start thinking about this from sort of tracking this information, tracking the idea of the building codes, and what the issues are the building codes talking about, tracking the financial cost issues, tracking the are we meeting the program, are we meeting the client needs as we move through?

You start with a basic assumption, and those basic assumptions talk about all those issues. We think this is what's gonna be needed. We think this is the number of classrooms that are gonna be needed. We think this is the set of relations. We think this is gonna cost X amount.

We think that the code will lead us to these sets of decisions. And you have all that written out, and then that information is then used to track along through the project. So how is the project gonna likely be zoned? That's gonna be an interesting question. How is the sort of general sense of the HVAC system gonna work? School is gonna be an important one of the questions. What are the material choices that we're going to make in terms of the structure of this as a building?

Is this gonna be a concrete structure, which has certain advantages of life safety issues and that, but maybe an expensive choice depending on what the local climate is like. What are not only just the structural choices, but what are the exterior material choices? So what kind of roofing system? What kind of wall system?

So the wall system is essentially a moisture protection question, but it obviously has a huge impact with what does the building look like? So what are those choices going to be? We start thinking about that we start realizing there's probably a different set of choices over here where we're probably gonna want to have some windows, and some sort of punched opening and that kind of thing, but that might be different than the main entry area, or maybe there's some sort of large curtain wall or something that's happening so that you have that sense of entry and that sense of difference, that sort of providing and openness and airiness to things.

Well that set of decisions is both an aesthetics set of decisions, and it's also a moisture protection set of decisions, and it's also a materials sourcing set of decisions, and it's also a fire rating set of decisions. So each of those things has to be tracked and followed to make sure that we're not accidentally making a proposal of something that can't be done or is not appropriate in this region.

Maybe you're putting in a big glass wall in a region that you're gonna fry all the kids on the inside there because there's so much heat and solar gain is gonna be coming from that direction. So you have to make sure that it makes sense in the context. So you start with a basic assumption, and then you track and follow those issues as you move along, and revise them as you move along so that there's an opportunity to make sure that we're making logical, reasonable choices.

We talked about the idea of the long span for the gymnasium. Well, there's certain ways to do that cheaply and easily. Cheaply and easily might be something that would be enjoyed by the school board, that they want to be able to make things be understood by the taxpayers that they're not wasting money, but it also might well be that the cheap and easy doesn't get them some other thing, right?

It could be that this might be the sort of show place that instead of doing something that's cheap and easy maybe you're gonna do a big, beautiful glulam, and it becomes the idea of the building, and it becomes the way that people think about it, so there's some willingness to spend more money for that important aesthetic image, because it's the driving image, it's the leading image, or maybe not.

Maybe why would we spend all that money on the gymnasium? Let's spend the money on the entrance, or let's spend the money on the theater or on the science rooms. Part of this is that you're tracking this information, and tracking the costs, and tracking the sourcing of this information, sourcing of this material, you're tracking that in order to be able to be making the correct design decisions through this as a project. If we are making the most beautiful building, the most beautiful part of the building, this wall back here, that's the part that's seen by the parking lot.

Is that the right part to be making the most beautiful, the most expensive part of the wall, or really should it be the part that's at the main entry as you're moving in? Where is the logical place to spend the extra money, to spend the extra thought? We're tracking the information. We're making initial assumptions, initial design ideas, as it moves through into a schematic design and then into design development.

Those processes are essentially there in order to test our initial design ideas. So we're testing those ideas and we're revising our thoughts about them as we move along. So those are actual things that we're doing. It's not just accidentally happening. We are actually thinking about what are these materials? Are these the right materials? What are the costs for those materials? Is that the right cost? What is the fire rating? What is the acoustic aspect of that information, of that choice, and is that the right fire rating, is that the right insulating capacity for that material choice?

We're using those reviews as ways to make sure that we're on track for a solid building. All of these things are the little bits and pieces, but they fall into these categories so that we can never have something just sort of floating through, and then it gets to the end and you're like, "Well how did we end up with that?" that there's a process for these reviews, there's an understanding that you're going to be following that process, and you're going to be reviewing and revising, and that multiple voices have the ability to impact that revision.

So the client has a moment to have something to say about it, maybe the code officials have a moment of something to say about it, and then the contractors have something to say about it. And that may be that, "Yeah, we like the design "and it all makes sense, "but it's really hard to get that brick.

"What are we gonna do? "Are we gonna wait for an extra three months "while we wait for that brick to be shipped "from some far away place, "or are we gonna have a new conversation?" So you're constantly reviewing and revising these as a process. So you're always looking for what is that process, what are those issues that you're reviewing, and making sure that it makes sense at the logical point in time of that project. And that's really what project management is.

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