Design, Construction join forces to meet campus needs

ompleted in the mere nine months between the 1999 and 2000 football season, Memorial Stadium’s $13 million press box looms over Faurot Field as a state-of-the-art facility for MU and Big Twelve Conference football fans throughout the Midwest.

The press box was a high-visibility, complex “marquee project” on campus, as were the $46 million Critical Care Addition to University Hospital; the Anheuser Busch Natural Resources Building and the recently renovated Townsend Hall — all brought phenomenally in on time and within budget by Campus Facilities’ Planning, Design and Construction personnel.

Such “marquee projects,” however, represent only the tip of an iceberg of the on-going, less visible PD&C building effort on campus. In addition to high-profile projects that are now part of a five-year, $350 million building boom on campus, other construction projects of a lesser magnitude – some 5,500 yearly —are also managed by teams of PD&C engineers, architects, designers, carpenters, electricians, masons and painters. Each project receives the same attention and care as their “marquee” cousins.

Design & Construction Services will be led by Assistant Director Bob Unrath, second from right, and his team: Larry Elliott, left, manager, Construction Services; Bobby Smith, manager, Project Planning & Scheduling; and Jim Sutherland, manager, Design Services.

Recent examples range from the redesigning and retiling of bathrooms in Jesse Hall to designing and installing computer labs in the Agriculture and Arts and Science buildings.

PD&C’s record with both off-campus contractors and in-house designing, planning, scheduling, constructing and bringing projects to completion on time and within budget, is one of excellence. PD&C Director Don Guckert, however, is further honing and fine-tuning the department‘s design and construction functions for even greater efficiency.

Guckert is regrouping the resources, processes and capabilities of PD&C’s Campus Construction and Design Services units. Collectively the campus’ own in-house construction and design organization for projects under $60,000, the two have been organized into a single unit comprised of the sub-functions of Design Services, Construction Services and Project Planning and Scheduling, headed by PD&C’s Bob Unrath, assistant director to Guckert for Design and Construction Services.

Guckert has three goals in grouping units under one umbrella.

“We’re seeking a ‘seamless’ delivery of design, construction and scheduling services for our campus clients from conception to finished product,” he said. “We also want more client communication and improved scheduling and billing procedures for an even greater focus on feedback and efficiency.”

Guckert said the singular missions of each of the three units will be fused with a common leadership and direction that allows shorter, stronger lines of communication between units, freer cross-over of duties and responsibilities, and that provides a single contact point for client feedback.

“In the past, designers were separate from builders, and scheduling was a part of the construction process,” Unrath said. “There was very little interaction between the two. Design Services personnel worked mainly with the client and forwarded completed plans to the construction side.

“Tradespeople and other resources and materials needed for the work, would then be scheduled,” he continued. “Another function of Campus Construction was billing contact with the client. It was difficult at times for one function to know what the other was doing.”

“We now have both sides thinking and doing as one,” said Larry Elliott, manager of Construction Services, the building side of Design and Construction Services. “They want to get it right the first time. Our crews look at design features in terms of their practical, not theoretical application,” he said. “Communicating their on-the-job construction savvy and observations goes a long way to smoothing out and making design and construction procedures seamless.”

“Our architects, interior designers, engineers and trades people can now take the same information into account for the betterment of all: the project, the client, the people who’ll do the building. They’re better able to get it right the first time thus eliminating change orders and delays,” said Guckert.