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A single change in the design of the Center for Health and Healing-South, now coming out of the ground in Portland’s South Waterfront District, is credited with saving Oregon Health & Science University $900,000. The move from an extruded aluminum product as a building accent to a thinner, stainless-steel plate product was actually suggested by a representative of one of the subcontractors, General Sheet Metal.

鈥淭hat’s something we never would have considered, because stainless steel is a lot more expensive than aluminum,鈥� said Kip Storey, a principal at ZGF Architects, the project’s designer. 鈥淚t turned out to be great for the project and good for the design.鈥�

According to the CHH-South project team, the change is the kind of idea that only could have come through the collaboration afforded by Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). Intended to close communication gaps and improve efficiencies on tight budgets, the alternative delivery method favored for large and complex projects has gained acceptance by the mainstream over the past decade. The team behind the CHH-South says theirs is the largest and most advanced local example of the form. But there are hazards involved with IPD, and other sectors beyond health care are moving toward it.

鈥淗aving all the owners in the same boat, rowing in the same direction, bound together to drive out waste 鈥� that’s all good,鈥� construction attorney Brian Perlberg said. 鈥淏ut you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole. It’s certainly not the right fit for every project.鈥�

Great expectations

The job trailer for the CHH-South is something to behold.

The 10,000 square foot 鈥渢emporary鈥� structure is eight doublewide trailers wide with an open-plan design and enviable frontage on the Willamette River. Every wall is covered with detailed, color-coded information, though actual paper plans are in short supply. Employee nameplates show the variety of firms at work. There’s an energetic buzz across the floor.

IPD is unique in how it binds the three traditional signatories to a construction contract 鈥� the owner, architect and contractor. It’s not quite like design-build. It’s not necessarily cheap. And it’s not magic, says Perlberg, who has written sample IPD agreements for ConsensusDocs, as well as Associated General Contractors.

鈥淚t’s not a panacea,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s a different way of doing things, and it takes clear expectations and trust.鈥�

IPD is seen as the best fit on large, complicated projects where the owners are interested in exploring cost savings 鈥� meaning it’s right at home in the health care field. (In fact, the first project to use an IPD contract was the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis.) It’s also gaining appeal for higher education projects and with museums and libraries, Perlberg said.

Perlberg said the risk-averse building field is historically uncomfortable straying from low-bid, because it’s often considered the fairest method. Owners of public projects are often barred by law from using alternative delivery methods, though there are informal, non-contractual forms of IPD, known as 鈥淚PD Lite鈥� or 鈥淚PD-ish.鈥�

鈥淧ure鈥� IPD involves greater up-front costs, an issue that’s compounded on smaller projects.

鈥淭here’s a scalability issue for sure,鈥� Perlberg said.

SAIF and sound

Currently engrossed in preconstruction, the team building SAIF Corp.‘s new headquarters in Salem is employing a modified form of IPD. Owner’s rep Day CPM, Ankrom Moisan Architects, engineer Glumac and contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis are meeting twice a week in converted surge space in the latter firm’s Portland office. Team members will relocate to a construction office near the site in Salem as the heavy work approaches.

鈥淲e’ve found for us, two, three days a week has been real effective,鈥� said Andy Dykeman, senior project manager for Lewis Crutcher Lewis.

SAIF is attaching a five-story wing to an existing five-story building, with a goal of making it all look like one building. Move-in for SAIF is expected in summer 2018.

It’s been a new experience for Ankrom Moisan and Lease Crutcher Lewis to have the contractor and trade partners involved in design, Dykeman said. But here it led to an enriching dialogue as the architects established the building’s programmatic layout: Four stories with wider floorplates, or five stories with narrower floors? Structural steel or concrete?

Dykeman said IPD has improved communication by replacing the traditional way parties communicate on big jobs 鈥� through a never-ending cycle of highly-formal requests for information.

鈥淭his prevents all that volleying where the architect has to write something up and toss it over the net, and then we have to analyze it and toss it back over the net,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t really puts everyone on the same side of the net.鈥�

Values judgment

The CHH-South project is a good example of full-on IPD. Occupying a full block, the project will include a 15-story hospital with more than 370,000 square feet of ambulatory surgery and clinic space and will connect underground to the bustling CHH across Southwest Whitaker Avenue.

Early on, ZGF’s and Hoffman’s experience with IPD factored into OHSU’s decision to choose them for the project, said Stephanie O’Brien, clinical enterprise liaison for OHSU.

鈥淣ot only did we think about how to improve processes to design the building, but having Hoffman as part of the design process, we began to understand what things cost,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey quickly took away the really expensive ideas to ensure we could afford the building we were trying to design.鈥�

Design concluded in March, and permits with the city are now being finalized. Crews in the colocation trailers on the Willamette are shifting from the design phase to construction. With that shift, more ZGF designers are being recalled to their 鈥渕other ship,鈥� as more Hoffman staffers and trade partners move in. ZGF has gone from around 30 staff on-site to about eight now, a figure it intends to keep through the duration of the project, Storey said.

鈥淢ost of the design is complete, but there are a lot of options we’re still looking at,鈥� he said.

There’s a steep learning curve associated with IPD: smaller, less-sophisticated firms have to work hard to catch up. Teams responsible for certain components 鈥� the envelope team, for instance 鈥� must be educated.

鈥淚t’s a very different process than the traditional process, so a lot of people don’t have a whole lot of experience with it,鈥� Storey said. 鈥淎nd it’s also fairly new to the industry, especially in the Portland market 鈥� and so it’s new for a lot of people, and it’s been an interesting process. 鈥� We’ve had some people who’ve took to it like a duck to water and some people that haven’t. So you’re doing a lot of educating and talking about the process to get everybody on board 鈥� but when it works, it works really well.鈥�

The city hasn’t caught on as quickly as some subcontractors, according to the team behind the CHH-South project. In IPD, design elements are worked out during out construction, so the team often seeks building permits with incomplete designs. This project went before the Portland Design Commission five times, worrying OHSU it wouldn’t meet its goal of opening in 2018.

鈥淭o be honest, the city has made efforts to catch up, but they have not embraced the process, and they’re not really set up to do a fast-track process like this,鈥� Storey said. 鈥淚t’s much easier for them to understand a project when the project comes to them in one piece, and what we’ve asked them to do is look at it one piece at a time.鈥�

Another advantage discussed by the project team is IPD’s edge in helping battle the twin evils of labor shortage and materials cost escalation. They say that by sharing space with key subcontractors, they’re better able to secure needed materials when they’re available, and they’re better able to administer coordinate trade partners based on their roll sheets.

Aside from gaining strength from the IPD method, the mission of the CHH-South has helped the team maximize value, said Elaine Dabrowski, senior project manager for OHSU.

鈥淥ne of the things we did when we first got together is talk about what our true north is, what makes us come to work,鈥� Dabrowski said. 鈥淎nd what we said is, at the end of the day when this building is done, regardless if you’re the contractor or the architect or a trade partner, you could be served in this building 鈥� you could get chemotherapy in this building. We take it back to that. This is not just a great construction project; it’s not (just) a great design project 鈥� it’s something that’s going to help all Oregonians. And that brings us together at the end of the day. It makes us trust each other.鈥�