Given the national economy, opportunities in the commercial office market have been few and far between in the past several years.  Many existing tenants are signing short term leases in-place with no improvements. Commercial lending continues to limit the capital improvement allowances that landlords can offer to relocating tenants.  Recently however there have been positive signs of an uptick in this marketplace.  The Albert M. Higley Co. has traditionally been a leader in this market.

Best Practices
While to the casual observer, one office space may appear to be no different than the next, the four items below illustrate the unique challenges of this type of work.

1. Occupied Spaces - Renovation to existing office spaces is more typical in our market place than the construction of new office buildings.  As such this work often necessitates off-shift hours to avoid disruptions to the ongoing activity of neighboring tenants.   We typically move construction materials into staging areas before business hours and remove trash after hours.  All completed work or remaining finishes receive temporary protection measures.  We make detailed provisions to control noise using walls-to-deck, attenuated HVAC ductwork, ceiling insulation, staggered framing, and white noise systems.  We make similar efforts to control dust using negative air pressure, HEPA filters, and walk-off mats. 
   
   
2. Fast Track Construction - Office operations are generally tied to some revenue producing activity, so very intensive fast track construction is not uncommon.  We achieve success through close coordination of the work to prevent schedule and cost delays, and subcontractor down time.  We take a leading role, early on, in developing a detailed understanding of the archtiect's finish requirements, identification of long lead items, and expediting delivery of those items.
   
3. Cost Control - Most of the financial risk in commercial office construction is not in what is specified and seen, but that which is "behind the curtain."  Many contractors fail to account for the disturbance of fireproofing during demolition, the skimming of floors to provide a flat surface for furniture systems, the skimming of walls to provide for the proper adhesion of new paint or wall coverings, or the costs of extending existing interior walls to the deck for sound control.  As part of the quality control effort our corporate officer makes a detailed study of the documents under the philsophy that it is less expensive to make changes in the design phase than the contruction phase.
   
   
4. Communication - Perhaps more than any other market, office contruction creates expectations among a broad spectrum of users.  If information is not communicated clearly and consistently, discontent can negate the productivity gains that one would expect a more efficient workspace would generate.  We talk to the client and the building office each day about our planned activities, to share an accurate account of progress, and the disposition of open issues.  We practice a policy which we call the 2/24 rule. We acknowledge every voice mail or e-mail within two hours and provide a status report within 24-hours.  The goal is to avoid surprises.
   
   

Standard of Duty
In K-12 contruction, The Albert M. Higley Co. actively supports bond fund campaigns by providing cost estimates, schedules and attending all key community meetings.  Most of our emphasis during pre-construction is value engineering, maximizing competitive bidding among subcontractors, cost segregation and predicting our client’s cash flow requirements since bond funding is usually tied to a specific draw schedule. Understandably, schedule is the pre-dominant issue in educational construction, to coordinate project completion prior to the start of the school year.

In the field, site control is the focus. We often work off-shift hours to avoid traffic disruptions and complete utility crossovers. Through web-cams, web-sites and creative stakeholder engagement programs, we are using the construction project more and more as a teaching tool.

Context Sensitivity
Our Project Managers and Superintendents understand educational environments.  We communicate daily with school administrators to keep them informed of the day's planned activities. We often stagger shift times to avoid conflicts with pedestrian and bus traffic.  We schedule noisy activities for off-hours.  We inspect and instruct our field personnel several times each day. We keep work areas free of all obstructions and make more ample use of safety and directional signage. We exercise strict discipline on the job site. We require hardhats and visible identification badges for all on-site personnel. We prohibit construction employees from fraternizing with students or using school facilities.

Detailed information on projects currently under construction may be found in the case studies on the left.

Detailed information on completed projects may be found in the one-page profiles on the right.