News
Design/Build Tell All
January 24, 2011
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| Design-build isn't that common for colleges, so the audience was all ears at an event sponsored by Northeastern University, Spagnolo Gisness & Associates, and Gilbane Building. Higher education facilities folk poured into the UMass Club downtown last week to discuss the design-build process being used for the$12.8M George J. Kostas Institute for Homeland Security under construction at its Burlington campus. We snapped Al Spagnolo(second from left) and NEU?s VP of facilities Nancy May. Gilbane hired SGA and, Al tells us, both invested hundreds of thousandsof dollars planning the 70k SF research center before they officiallywon the contract. For NEU, this approach lessens risk and saves time and money since there are fewer contract negotiations and one go-to party. |
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| On hand were major players with developments underway, including: MIT, Tufts, UMass Medical School, Boston College, the Massachusetts State College Building Authority, and Berklee College of Music. Sacred Heart?s Fred Marino (white mustache) traveled through a snowstorm from Fairfield, Conn. to get a take on the process. Gilbane?s Andrew Prochniak went through construction details, including compressing some design work to meet the June deadline to complete construction. What makes it work, he tells us, is having the right partner. Al Spagnolo adds, when you do a great deal of work before having a contract and accept a reduced fee, you have to believe in the vision. |
