An Exercise in Deja Vu

Design-Build team reuse plans to speed up bid process on $60.5 million new Dixon High School

By David Silva

The design-build folks behind Dixon High School's $60.5 million campus project had one key advantage over their competitors when bidding for the job: They'd built it before.

General contractors Clark & Sullivan and Broward Bros. JV, based in North Highlands and Woodland, respectively, had just finished building Pioneer High School for the Woodland Joint Unified School District in 2003 when they learned Dixon Unified School District was seeking bids for the construction of Dixon High.

Joining with Placerville-based Murray & Downs Architects, their design partner for Pioneer High, the team presented Dixon Unified with a 16-structure plan that used many of the same blueprints from the earlier project. Dixon quickly accepted the bid.

"There were two key advantages to reused plans," said Dick Cowan, vice president of Clark & Sullivan. "One is faster approval by the Division of the State Architect, which means you're out to bid faster. The other advantage is that since we've built this set of plans before, we're familiar with the details and cost history and are able to tighten up our pricing, as did a lot of our subcontractors."

Construction of the 155,000-sq.-ft. project began in November 2005. Plans call for classroom buildings ranging in size from 4,500 to 7,800 sq. ft., a library/media center, art and music buildings, and a home economics and clothing lab. The centerpiece of the campus, a 61,000-sq.-ft. multiuse building, will include two gymnasiums, lockers, food court, dining room and a performing arts theater.

The school is on target for completion in August 2007 and students and faculty will move in the next month.

Jeff Kennedy, project architect for Murray & Downs, cited extraordinary cooperation by the district, the city of Dixon and Danville-based Brookfield Homes in keeping construction on schedule.

Brookfield, which is developing approximately 400 homes and a 120-unit senior complex on 90 acres just south of the school complex, donated 40 acres of land to the district and provided roads, grading, a water well and other services for the school.

"A lot of horsepower with these three entities combined to make [the school project] happen," Kennedy said. "I've been doing this for 20 years, and I've never seen a school district work so closely with a builder."

Kennedy added that skyrocketing construction costs have been the most formidable obstacle in building Dixon High School.

"There have been tremendous increases in construction costs, and that's had a significant impact on the district being able to fund the project," he said. "This is happening everywhere in the construction industry."

The Project Team
Owner: Dixon Unified School District
Construction Manager: Van Pelt Construction Services, Suisun City
General contractor: Clark & Sullivan/Broward Bros., North Highlands
Architect: Murray & Downs AIA Architects, Placerville
Major Subcontractors: Intech Mechanical, Roseville (mechanical contractor); Hershey Electric, Folsom (electrical contractor); Associated Constructors Co., Inc., Fairfield (plumbing contractor)

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