21st CENTURY WORKPLACE

by Steve Freeman
Contributing Editor

Summary: To Christopher Gorthy, a pre-construction manager for DPR Construction, traditional design-build projects all too frequently merit “hazardous condition” road signs because of collisions between practitioners of different disciplines. He set out to find a better way—and found integrated project delivery in the process.

What goes into a practitioner’s decision to give integrated project delivery (IPD) a try?

For Christopher Gorthy, it was:

• An openness to how other disciplines are equally important to project success
• A growing belief that traditional project workflows often create an adversarial and litigious environment, hazardous to owners and team members alike
• The fact that the building industry ranks high in inefficiency.

These three topics, along with the belief that higher levels of sustainability can be achieved through IPD, have energized his enthusiasm.

Gorthy, a pre-construction manager for DPR Construction’s Mid-Atlantic region, and a member of DPR’s “green guru” group, is on the leadership team for the AIA’s 21st Century Workplace project. One of the project’s goals—to use the principles of IPD—is an opportunity for him to be part of his first IPD project. DPR has been involved in many IPD projects, and its portfolio continues to grow as this approach has proven to deliver greater value.

The purpose of the project—in addition to much-needed renovation to the national component’s 35-year-old office building in Washington, D.C.—is to demonstrate how to achieve aggressive sustainability goals through the newly emerging method of integrated project delivery, and by honoring historic preservation principles, too.

Thinking outside the sandbox
Gorthy, 31, came to value integrated project delivery as part of the natural progression of his professional growth and development. As a child, he always “played well with others.”

Acquainted with the building industry through his uncle, and fortunate enough to learn from his amazing background and experience, Gorthy studied architecture at the State University of New York at Buffalo. At an early stage through an internship, he was convinced to try the “dark side,” in lieu of becoming an architect. He still loves design and architecture, but he knew his true passion was a more hands-on approach.

“I wanted to get to know other people and other ways of doing things,” he said, adding that he wanted broader experience in his career.

Gorthy interned with the Barton Malow Company, Linthicum, Md., as a project engineer. Upon graduation, he joined the pre-construction group as an estimator, adding another tool to his toolbox. Regardless of the hat he wore, he learned to talk with people on all sides of the table, enjoying conceptualization exercises and asking questions of the architect, the client, and the engineer.

Gorthy joined DPR’s office in Falls Church, Va., a firm that attracted him because of its commitment to the collaborative process, sustainability, and culture. His desire to see all the aspects of a project from start to finish was satisfied by his work on the $68-million U.S. Pharmacopeia Headquarters Consolidation Project in Rockville, Md. The DPR team, owner’s representative, client, and the design teams shared the goal of a collaborative environment on this 320,000-square-foot laboratory, parking garage, and conference center.

“It opened my eyes to the team approach,” he said. “We can deliver and build better projects if we collaborate.”

What’s best … and all the rest
To Gorthy, the alternative to an integrated project was unacceptable. He occasionally experienced traditional design-bid-build projects, and, according to him, friction is not always prevalent, but frequently architects call fouls against contractors, while contractors have similar grievances against them. Add to the mix the subcontractors who often clash with both designers and general contractors in this traditional model, and the project becomes too focused on conflict resolution and not enough on moving the construction forward.

From the standpoint of what’s best for the project overall, “the traditional design-bid-build method is shortsighted,” he said.

Design-build is a good way to do business, but IPD is superior, according to Gorthy. “In the design-build world, the designer or contractor usually leads the charge, but with IPD the whole team makes the decisions together,” he said. “Design firms trust contractors and contractors trust design firms and we’ve had hundreds of years of history of that not being the case.”

Gorthy is an occasional presenter on the virtues of IPD and frequently presents on aspects of sustainability at conferences and for design firms. The recurring sense he has is that people do see the potential advantages of the integrated project delivery method, but some seem to fear change in general and remain suspicious.

The advantages of IPD include shared risk and reward, early involvement, greater sustainability, fair compensation, timely discussion of problems, and greater owner satisfaction. “I have been fortunate to get jobs with innovative firms that really prized cross-discipline collaboration. IPD—or collaboration and teamwork—has to be part of a firm’s culture, part of the DNA to truly work,” he said.

The DNA of IPD
The AIA is committed to a team approach, and before any conceptualization work even began, they brought on Studios Architecture and DPR Construction. With the owner’s ongoing involvement, this became the core team. Built into the team from the start was mutual respect, collaboration, and shared decision-making. Eleven more team members with similar capabilities were then invited to the table. They included MEP engineers and consultants specializing in preservation, the envelope, landscape, and lighting.

Goals were determined early, first by work with the owner as far as expectations and then by intensive work involving the entire team. Communication has flowed freely. Gorthy said the team was determining details that usually wouldn’t come up until three-fourths of the way through a project. “This collaborative and thorough work at the very beginning is an obvious difference compared to traditional approaches. It saves time, money, and headaches down the line,” he said.

“There can be some pain—I’m not going to lie about it. Change always brings some pain, but the advantages far outweigh any drawbacks.”