91视频

John McMichael and his team at Interface Engineering knew they were going to face some big challenges when it came to the firm鈥檚 role in the Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Skourtes Tower project in Portland鈥檚 South Waterfront District.

Oregon Health and Sciences University and the Oregon University System, which own the project, made it clear from the earliest stages that they wanted the teaching and research facility to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating. But the Interface team was well aware that laboratory buildings tend to require substantial energy and water 鈥� two areas that are critical for earning a rating in the green building program.

鈥淥ur challenge was: 鈥楥an we save enough 鈥� points? Can we get there from here,鈥� 鈥� said McMichael, an Interface principal.

In the end, Interface鈥檚 engineering efforts not only saved enough points to earn the project a LEED rating, but also helped it walk away Wednesday night with the title of Project of the Year in the 2015 Engineering Excellence Awards.

The annual awards, coordinated by the Oregon chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies, recognize outstanding engineering work by Oregon firms in categories that include research and studies, transportation, water resources, and surveying and mapping.

While most projects entered earn honor awards, and a handful are given grand awards, there鈥檚 usually just one project that captures the eyes of the judging panel as an outstanding example of solid engineering and innovative problem solving.

The Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Skourtes Tower did indeed require Interface to think outside the box from the very beginning, according to McMichael.

鈥淭he schedule was really fast-paced,鈥� he said. 鈥淭ypically, that鈥檚 challenging for the contractor. But this time it was also challenging for us. They wanted to start building things before other things were completely designed.鈥�

In order to accommodate that approach, Interface turned to building information modeling. Using BIM techniques allowed Interface to design in real-time, thereby allowing a similar real-time coordination of a long list of specialty subcontractors working on the project.

The approach also came in handy with issues that Interface encountered regarding space constraints. In many projects, a ceiling space will have individual zones each dedicated to sprinklers or domestic water or lab exhaust. But the Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Skourtes Tower project lacked the luxury of big floor-to-floor heights. As a result, the different systems all had to fit in the narrow ceiling space.

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 a situation where you have a lot of space 鈥� we were crossing (the systems),鈥� McMichaels said. 鈥淏IM helped us navigate that.鈥�

Employing BIM alone wouldn鈥檛 have necessarily been enough to keep the project moving, however.

鈥淲e have some good mechanical contractors, plumbing and sheet metal contractors,鈥� McMichael said. 鈥淚f I was going to pick contractors to get a job done, I probably wouldn鈥檛 have picked any others.鈥�

Project contractor JE Dunn also played a pivotal role in the success of the project, McMichael said. The contractor鈥檚 paperless Bluebeam-based blueprint system helped save millions of dollars in costs by reducing the amount of paper used and keeping everyone involved in the project up to date with changes almost as soon as they occurred.

Working under JE Dunn鈥檚 lead on the project also helped Interface learn a valuable lesson related to using a co-location approach.

Some project teams try to employ the approach, which brings all members of the team into the same room to discuss aspects of a project, through the entire project. However, JE Dunn mainly used it in the early stages of the project, and then stepped back from the approach once systems were in place and work was moving along, McMichael said.

鈥淚 think there鈥檚 key times, when you have some formative stages, where you put people together. That can help speed up the process,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut once a lot of those decisions are made, when you鈥檙e doing just coordination stuff, you just need to put the pedal to the metal.

鈥淎 lot of people have misconceptions that it needs to happen the whole time (during a project). We cut the cord at some point and it worked out just fine.鈥�