Due to budget constraints and increased costs in the construction marketplace, laboratory owners building new spaces are squeezed financially at the front end as well as the back end. As budget pressures increase, it is important for the design team and owners to approach cost control as an ongoing process. Even with limited budgets, owners still can demand state-of-the-art functionality. The trick is to do it with less money.
All too frequently, a project goes over budget in the final design stages or at bid time, and radical “surgery” must be performed, potentially impacting the functionality of the final product. Design teams must understand that construction costs are essentially committed within the first few months of a project, even before the first plan is drawn. If the team has a clearer idea of the cost implications for each decision made during the design process from the beginning, they will come closer to realizing their design ambitions.
Construct a cost model
HDR Architecture, Inc. (Phoenix, AZ), is a national architectural firm engaged in the design of health care, laboratory, and advanced technology manufacturing facilities. At the outset of the project, the company’s planning and design teams seek to determine the owner’s ultimate goal. For example, will the building house offices, laboratories, common areas, and a cafeteria? Does the research that will be conducted require special environments or a high degree of environmental control? After that meeting of the minds, designers and owners work together on a comprehensive cost model that will represent the overall project objectives. The team estimates cost per square foot for each area in the proposed project, based on the degree of quality and finish the owner chooses for each space type, and estimates a budget cost. It is imperative that they zero in on each space and incorporate the materials and systems required by the work to be done in each space. Each decision affects the remaining budget, and it must compute within the total budget at the end of the day.
The design team must elucidate to the owners the parameters of the cost model, based on a well-defined plan, and update the model as the planning evolves. It is possible, even on large projects, for design teams to plan as they go and provide a cost estimate just before the construction phase. However, at that point, it is often far too late to make realistic and sufficient changes to reduce cost overruns without negatively affecting the plan.
Instead, the design process must include an ongoing process of comparing decisions against the cost model baseline to keep the team on target every step of the way. Cost reduction usually entails slashing features or scope after the building is designed, which often does not result in the full value of expected savings. Cost control, on the other hand, is a proactive planning approach. It helps the owner plan how to spend to get the most bang for the buck.
HDR design experts use a strategy that provides a comprehensive overview of costs, with a method of prioritizing the “wish list” into a series of alternatives, all prior to executing a single drawing.
Figure 1 - Example of a flexible laboratory module.
Provide alternatives
At any point in a project, the design team has a different set of variables that can be controlled. On day one, with a clean sheet of paper, the only real variables that can be manipulated to establish or verify a budget are area and some level of finish quality. Finish quality can include materials, degree of flexibility or redundancy (Figure 1), number of support systems or services, and similar intangibles. If a budget is constrained, the owner may be faced with the decision of building a smaller laboratory with a high degree of finish, or a larger one without some luxuries.
This is the time when the use of a cost model comes in. At the beginning of a project, it is understood by the entire team that there is a budget limit and, therefore, either total project area or degree of finish will be affected. At this stage, the design team may be able to offer a menu of alternatives, with each alternative adding to the building’s functionality. Instead of all or nothing, the client ends up with something between the two. For example, a portion of a laboratory can be built as a shell or unfinished space, then finished as more funding becomes available. This strategy may be appropriate in order to provide flexibility for future use as well as for budgetary reasons. In the case of the new nanotechnology laboratory planned for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM), the owner desired a cleanroom space that could be adapted to meet evolving research needs. A relatively inexpensive “flex bay” was thus constructed to allow room to grow with minimal disruption.
Figure 2 - Computer-generated rendering of a typical laboratory module in the Birck Nanotechnology Center.
When HDR worked with Purdue University (Lafayette, IN) to design the Birck Nanotechnology Center in West Lafayette, IN (Figure 2), the design team developed a series of bid alternates prioritized in descending order of importance in relation to basic functionality of the building to provide the University with options on bid day. This worked very well. The Purdue team was successful in securing all items on their list, except the last one, which was added easily with an additional funding package during the time the project took to construct.
Define variables incrementally
Cost control strategies depend on where the project is in its timeline. At the beginning, it is necessary to define the program and develop a cost model to allow the owner to make choices to add or subtract area or spend more or less money on the quality of the laboratory systems and casework.
As detailed design begins, cost control strategies include defining how much flexibility and redundancy is required for the laboratory and in “rightsizing” utility systems. As the project evolves further, cost control decisions are more specific. Quantities of items and specific materials and equipment are discussed at this time. If funding is scarce, the owner may be forced to reduce the number of fumehoods, scale back the high-purity water or central gas systems, or defer some system costs to a later time.
If a cost model is followed from day one, and everyone is clear on the project’s objectives and goals, a finished laboratory can be built on budget and with its expected functionality, and the team can avoid design “surgery.”
Mr. Toussaint is a Senior Process Engineer, HDR Architecture, Inc., 3200 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. 350, Phoenix, AZ 85018-2311, U.S.A.; tel.: 602-522-7700; fax: 602-522-7707; e-mail: [email protected].