State Architect: School Construction Boom Creates Vast Opportunities for Owners and Contractors

California State Architect Steve Castellanos said that the California school construction market promises to deliver an estimated $50 billion of work over the next five to 10 years, due primarily to passage of local and statewide bond measures.

Castellanos’ comments came during a recent AGC of California’s Building Division meeting held in Pasadena.

On the passing of Proposition 47 last November, Catellanos said it “first and foremost is about housing our students and in the process affecting neighborhoods and communities in a positive way. The added benefit is that we can use this to create jobs and help stimulate the California economy in the process.”

During the last three years, the state architect’s office has encouraged increased use of partnering and improved communication to combat some of the barriers to efficient delivery and approval of public school projects. His office has also significantly increased staff and consultants to help prepare for the onslaught of projects.

Castellanos believes that one of the significant trends in the development of new school facilities is the gradual increase of the use of alternative project delivery methods. This trend is fueled by “bond money, the crushing need and the urgency” to deliver new schools as expeditiously as possible, he said.

From an architectural perspective, that urgency and the need to rapidly secure funding and get project approval has created a significant challenge, said HMC Group’s John Nichols.

“Since Prop. 1A, when the mandate was to have DSA approval before funding was allocated, it has really forced upon the architectural industry a tremendously accelerated process to get our planning done,” Nichols said. “What it has forced us and many of our partners to do is site adapt plans. We’re seeing among other things a lot of increases in the use of modular building construction.”

Nichols added that the compressed time allotted for planning and design, driven by the push to secure approval and funding, “is short-circuiting the tremendous potential of really increasing and improving the quality of new school construction.”

Nichols and three other panelists were generally positive about the opportunities presented by increased use of alternative project delivery methods, some of which include design-build, lease-lease-back and construction management-at-risk.

Nichols noted that the level of trust and teaming needed for a successful design-build project might not be easily attained on every job.

“The practical reality is the resources available and the allotted delivery time to achieve those things aren’t there all the time. I think it’s going to be something that will grow very gradually with the sophistication and training of all parties involved.”

James McConnell, chief facilities executive of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said his district has traditionally stuck to the firm, fixed-price, low-bid contracting in the past.

“We are increasingly going to negotiate forms of procurement which exist to us now under state law,” he said.

"It allows me to award contracts based on standards and qualities that are important to us, not simply low price. I can get a wider range of design options, I can get a wider range of contractors interested in doing it and I can award on the value rather than cost.”

Donald Davis, vice president and general manager for Swinerton Management and Consulting Inc., noted that one of the major challenges unique to school construction, particularly for builders unfamiliar with it, is simply the “process of building a public-works project that must go through the state architect’s office. It’s important to make sure you allow for it in your schedule and understand the impact of change and unforeseen conditions. I think we’re all going to be struggling for resources.”

Given the current state of the economy and the boom in the K-12 school market, panelists were asked what contractors can do to be more effective and win more public school projects.

“I would turn that question around,” McConnell said. “From our perspective, I need to convince you that I can be a better client and that when you come to work for LAUSD, you will be working with a professional team.

“There is $3.6 billion worth of work that is funded and ready to go today and following that we have another $2 billion coming. I need the best available [contractors] in California and we need to get these schools built.”