Typical Project Teams.
A.THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
The owner often utilizes the services of management and consulting companies that can relieve the internal staff from the burden of managing a large project. These entities may work with the real estate, construction management or logistical aspects of the project.
The Developer.
Developers generally find land (with or without an existing building), invest in it to generate income, and prepare it for sale or lease to a potential buyer or lessee.
The developer is concerned about the budget, schedule, and scope of the project. Because the developer is often financially invested in the project, he or she is even more sensitive to project costs and future value.
Construction or Program Manager.
The construction manager (CM) is a separate entity hired by the owner to manage the construction process. The CM’s job is to manage the schedule, scope and budget of the building for the owner. Sometimes also called the program manager (PM), the CM maintains the approved program (the document that establishes the basic parameters of the building including overall size, budget, features, quality and space configurations, allocations and adjacencies).
Sometimes, the CM hires the architect and general contractor. Or, the CM merely coordinates the process while the owner holds the contracts.
Building Management Agency.
Some building owners may hire a building management agency to handle day-to-day operations, maintenance and leasing. Managers may be located in the buildings they manage or off-site. The management agency may be the gatekeeper for when and how contractors can work in a building. They are concerned about the operation of the building and the comfort of the existing tenants and/or disruption of their routine. As a result, they have a great deal to say about which contractors are hired and when they can work in a building.
B.PROJECT DESIGN TEAM
The team consists of the architect, interior designer, engineering and other consultants.
In addition to the architect, other designers are critical players in the construction of the building. The most typically required roles are mechanical, electrical and plumbing (these three together often referred to as “MEP”) and structural engineer.
Architect
The architect is responsible for the design and functionality of the building to meet the owner’s programmatic needs, aesthetic expectation, and budgetary requirements. The architect is also responsible for the life safety and building code compliance of the project. Generally, the architect’s firm holds the “prime” contract for the building and the technical system designs, subcontracting other design consultants under its contract.
The architect’s role can be filled by individuals from a wide variety of practices including individual architects in practice (standard architectural firms), combined with engineers (either A/E or E/A firms), and combined with contractors (design-build firms) or as licensed representatives of the owner’s own staff. There may be two architectural/engineering design team entities if the complexity of the project warrants it. This is common for large projects where there may be a design team for the base building and another for the interior fit. Often one team represents the building owner and the other the end-user.
Interior Designer
The interior designer is closely associated with the architect and may even be the same individual performing both roles. The designer is most often concerned with the furnishing and appearance of the room: how the wall, floor, ceiling and furnishings are finished and situated. He or she advises on or decides if surfaces are to be painted, fabric-covered, tiled or textured and what product, material, colors and patterns are to be provided.
Quantity Surveyor
A quantity surveyor (QS) is a concerned with construction costs and contracts. Services provided by a quantity surveyor may include: Cost planning and commercial management throughout the entire life cycle of the project from inception to post-completion, Value engineering, Risk management and calculation, Procurement advice and assistance during the tendering procedures, Tender analysis and agreement of the contract sum, Commercial management and contract administration, Assistance in dispute resolution, Interim valuations and payment assessment, Cost management process, Assessing the additional costs of design variations
Mechanical Consultant.
The mechanical consultant designs the heat, ventilating and air conditioning (often referred to as “HVAC”) systems. This consultant works with the architect to determine the mechanical system needs for the building and creates the designs that include the chillers, pumps, fans, piping, ducts, diffusers, and grilles that heat, cool and ventilate the building. Often, the mechanical consultant in conjunction with the electrical consultant deals with building automation systems that include computer-based monitoring, control and diagnostics of the mechanical system.
Plumbing Consultant
The plumbing consultant is responsible for the piping associated with water and waste into and within the building. This includes sprinkler piping, chiller water for the HVAC system, and natural gas service.
Electrical Consultant
The electrical consultant designs the “high voltage” power distribution systems in the building. This includes the basic electrical power systems from the power company’s entrance to the facility, following through to the power outlets in the building. The electrical consultant often designs and/or coordinates the conduit and cable tray designs that support the “low voltage “systems, such as data/telecom, AV, life safety and security systems. In many cases, the electrical consultant work entails security design, Audio Visual Systems, BMS, Structured Cabling, and Light Design. Check their comprehensive roles.
Structural Consultant
The structural consultant is the designer for the building structure. This involves fundamental decisions, such as whether the building will be formed concrete or steel frame and the size, spacing, and placement of beams, joists or columns throughout the building.
Audio Visual (AV) Designer.
Throughout the project process, the AV designer is involved with analyzing the end-users’ needs and translating them into infrastructure and systems designs. AV designers must be focused on coordinating and monitoring the process from start to finish to ensure the AV system’s success.
Lighting Consultant
The lighting consultant is responsible for determining the required lighting for each space and must provide layout and specifications for the lighting system for each area. This includes the fixture types, lamps, wiring and control features (switching and dimming) associated with each space.
Data/Telecom Consultant
Data/Telecom includes the design of the cabling and physical infrastructure (sometimes call the “structured cabling system”) that accommodates local area computer networking, Internet access, telephone systems, and other communications systems. Typically, the scope of work includes the cabling, space planning, and associated infrastructure requirements, such as conduit and power requirements.
Acoustical Consultant
The acoustical consultant designs the building components that affect sound isolation, reverberation time and noise reduction as they relate to every physical element of the building, including ceiling, wall and floor finishes, wall and floor/ceiling constructions, window selections, fan and chiller selections, duct and pipe routing, equipment mountings and room shapes.
Working closely with the architect, interior designer, HVAC engineer, and the AV contractor, the acoustical consultant can properly establish the appropriate acoustical criteria for each space and provide recommendation.
Security Consultant
The security consultant deals with audio and video equipment such as cameras, microphones, recording equipment, and video displays as part of the security designs. These systems are very specialized and include barrier construction, door lock and card key systems, and owner procedural issues.
If the security system is not completely separate from the AV system, there may be crossover where cameras, microphones, video displays or intercom systems are positioned. The AV and security consultant need to coordinate their system designs and infrastructure to ensure that they are operating in alignment.
Life Safety Consultant
Life safety systems provide emergency alert to building occupants. The most common design issues are related to fire detection, occupant alerts or hazardous substances, such as natural gas and refrigerant leaks.
Other Industry- or Trade-specific Consultants.
On any building project, numerous other “industry-specific” consultants may be involved, especially when the building requires specialized systems, such as a restaurant, hospital, lab or theater. Even standard office buildings may involve consultants for door hardware, landscaping, or civil engineering.
C.THE INSTALLATION TEAM.
After the designers convert the owner’s requirements to paper (and electronic documents), the installers/contractors begin their work. Installation contractors are often firms solely dedicated to installation. However, in a design-build process, the designers and installers may be part of the same company. In some cases, a “fast-track” process is used in which construction starts before some of the designs are finished (e.g. structural designs are completed and construction begins before the interior space plans are designed).
For all members of the installation team participating in the construction phase, coordination is key.
General Contractor.
The general contractor (GC) or main contractor (MC) is the counterpart to the architect; he holds the prime contract with the owner (or the owner’s representative) for building the facility. The MC may have some “in-house” capabilities for site construction, but most of the work is managerial in nature. MCs hire out most of the specialty work to subcontractors while they coordinate, arbitrate, facilitate, and schedule all the work that needs to be completed.
Subcontractors.
There are many subcontractors to the general contractor. For the most part these are the contractor counterparts to the various trade designers previously discussed. They include contractors in charge of mechanical, electrical and plumbing and other traditional trades as well as the other specialized trades such as data/telecom and AV. Coordination of work and scheduling between these subcontractors and the other trades during the construction phase is critical to the ultimate success of any project.
Close coordination is required among the electrical contractor, the AV consultant, the AV integrator, the data/telecom installers, and the other low voltage contractors. Their installation sequencing and scheduling of infrastructure will determine when the AV designer can begin to pull cabling and start installation and testing of equipment. Back box, conduit, and cable tray locations and installation will often require review by the AV contractor and electrical consultant during construction, which also requires coordination. If any electrical outlets will serve the AV systems, they may require special treatment, such as power conditioning or isolated grounding schemes.
AV Integrator
The AV integrator (who may also be referred to as the AV contractor) installs the AV systems. Typically, this includes all the AV electronic equipment (projectors, audio and video routers, loudspeakers, amplifiers, cameras, DVD players, and other audio, video and control devices and their software programming), as well as the dedicated AV cabling, such as base band video coaxial cabling, audio line, microphone and speaker cabling, plus proprietary control system cabling. The AV contractor may also install some networking cabling (when it is required for special AV use), such as point-to-point video and audio distribution that bypasses the data/telecom patching scheme.
Due to the need for architectural integration, some equipment may need to be provided to the general contractor early in the process. In addition, the sequencing and scheduling of the AV integrator’s on-site installation time is extremely important. Cable pulls must be done at the point at which there is easy access to conduit and cable trays, preferably before lay-in ceiling grids are installed.
ROLES WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS
Throughout the process, the role of project manager is common. It exists in almost every organization, but may differ from one to the next. Sometimes, the project manager is just that — a manager concerned with the sequencing, scheduling, coordinating, facilitating, and budgeting of time, materials, and actions to get the project done. Or, the project manager may also be a designer, installer, superintendent, architect, engineer or technician. In either case, the role of project manager is as important as the technical roles required to get the project designed and installed.
The project manager is concerned with getting the job done. The project manager is concerned with not only the sequencing, scheduling and budgeting issues, but also with the full breadth of coordination required with the variety of both design and installation trades.
A project manager’s role has many facets, but core responsibilities include:
- Development and maintenance of a project schedule and table of responsibilities.
- Timely and consistent communications to and from all members of the project team; the PM should be the single point of contact for his or her team.
- Supervision of all project resources with respect to schedule and accountability to the project (includes people, equipment, rooms, etc.).
- Oversight and influence over adherence to the defined project schedule and negotiation with other teams if the schedule needs adjustment.
- Assurance that the teams work in harmony with all others on the project.
The Designer, Consultant and Engineer
The designer has the technical expertise to assess the user’s needs and translate those needs into documents that convey the design intent to the installers, usually in the form of drawings and specifications. Designers exist in almost all design trade organizations. The designer may work with a separate project manager or may serve as the project manager for his or her organization.
Though some designers may operate without formal certification, they should still be thoroughly knowledgeable in their field. Many designers, such as architects and mechanical, electrical and structural engineers are required by law to be certified and licensed because of the life safety issue associated with their designs.
The Installer
Installers are responsible for interpreting the design intent depicted in the contract documents created by the designer and assembling the item or system in the manner described. The installer may need to be certified and/or licensed by law, and may or may not be part of a labor union which may affect how some projects are constructed in certain localities. Like designers, installers often work with a project manager who coordinates and directs their work, or their roles could be combined.
Others in the Design and Construction Process.
Communications Service Provider.
Communications companies provide services, such as telephone, digital telephone and data services (ISDN, T-1, E-1), and Internet access. Generally, the owner arranges these services.
Commissioning Agents.
A growing trend with building owners is to hire third-party commissioning agents to test and verify that the general building systems are operating properly and meeting the specifications of the construction contract. These agents may be involved in reviewing drawings and specifications during the design phase, reviewing systems installation during the construction phase, and testing/training at the end of the installation process.
Code Officials, Inspectors and Local Authorities.
All new buildings and renovations are subject to county and national codes and regulations that have an impact on the bricks-and-mortar parts of the building, ranging from electrical systems to handicapped access. There are usually three stages of involvement for officials who administer these codes:
- Design Phase Submittals
The architect’s plans are submitted to the officials for review and approval before the project can be bid or constructed.
- Construction Phase Inspections
The installed elements need to be inspected by the officials and signed off before construction is complete.
- Occupancy Approval
At the end of the project (particularly for new buildings and large renovations), an inspection is required for the issuance of a certificate of occupancy to allow the owner and/or end-users to move in.
Code officials look for items that have to do with life safety and handicapped access. This covers virtually every aspect of the building, from corridor and stair widths to emergency lighting, and from structural designs to electrical system grounding
