The Right Team

Relationships between schools and builders are key to building great projects, CMAA panelists say

By Joe Florkowski

Two men who oversee construction services at vastly different academic institutions said the relationship they develop with their general contractors - especially in the planning stages - is the key to building great projects.

Guy Mehula

Good planning, which involves writing more contractor-friendly documents, has been one of the keys to turning around a troubled building program for Los Angeles Unified School District, said Guy Mehula, chief facilities executive for the district.

"If you want to have a better contractor, have a better contract," Mehula said at a Best Practices School Summit conference in Los Angeles organized by the Construction Management Association of America.

Henry Koffman, director of construction and management at the University of Southern California, agreed. It's all about the people," he added. "You have got to have the right team with the right mission."

Numerous construction projects are constantly ongoing within both systems, representing millions of dollars of investment, but planning earlier is easier within USC, which uses its own in house construction management team and negotiated contracts, Koffman said.

Because USC - unlike public institutions -- can choose who it wants to work with, rather than choose the lowest bidder, the university can get a general contractor on board quickly, he said.

Serving as construction manager, USC uses its institutional knowledge to help the general contractor "cut through the red tape," Koffman said. "There is no learning curve."

USC is currently working on a $1 billion construction program. The projects include the $100 million Galen Event Center, which is being built by the California division of Clark Construction Group, and the $100 million Harlyne J. Norris Cancer Research Tower, being built by Redwood City-based general contractor Rudolph and Sletten Inc.

While USC has embarked upon an ambitious building program, Los Angeles Unified is learning from its past mistakes.

The school district, which last built a high school in 1971, tried to build a new high school, the Belmont Learning Complex, in 1999, Mehula said.

That project failed because of a lack of an experienced building team and lost public confidence in the district, he said.

Since then, the school district has developed better strategies to reduce construction delays, speed up contract orders and improve its contracts, Mehula said.

Such steps are important as the school district seeks to build 150 new schools as part of a $19 billion bond program passed by voters.

And the school district's efforts to improve its reputation with contractors and the community have not stopped with improving its processes.

LAUSD also embarked on a program to better train contractors to publicly bid on school district projects. That eight-week effort brought in $22 million of contracts from companies that had not previously done business with the school district, Mehula said.

While the LAUSD was training companies, it was also helping to develop an apprenticeship program called "We Build" to help teach Los Angeles area residents construction skills.

The changes that LAUSD have made are paying off because the district is winning awards, Mehula said.

"From a program that didn't have recognition, we've made great strides," he added.

Both LAUSD and USC are examples of how school facility construction can be done right, said Bruce D'Agostino, executive director of the CMAA.

After struggling, LAUSD has emerged as one of the most successful building programs in the country and USC has one of the most innovative higher education programs in the country, he said.

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