Building for the Future

Positive relationships give high school space to thrive
By Carrie Bui

The relationship S. M. Wilson fostered with Waterloo Community Unit School District No. 5 (WCUSD5) exemplifies S. M. Wilson’s commitment to maintaining a collaborative owner relationship. WCUSD5 chose S. M. Wilson to build its new high school because of the company’s proven record of success with the district. In 1999, S. M. Wilson and Waterloo worked together to build a junior high school.

The current project is the new Waterloo High School. For this project, the district made clear to S. M. Wilson and Design Architects that what they wanted was a building for the future—more space, modern science labs and vocational areas, bigger gyms, common areas and the flexibility to expand.

Construction of the new 227,000-square-foot high school began in 2007 with a budget of $36 million. The high school will house 1,400 students, have room to expand to 1,800 students, and will contain 68 classrooms, two gymnasiums, a 465-seat auditorium, an internal courtyard and more. “In the beginning, we worked pretty diligently on the design phase to find a balance between aesthetics and budget. We collaborated with Design Architects to get those needs met and we offered cost-saving construction ideas and solutions,” said Scott O’Brien, Project Manager.

Design Architects provided the drawings and specifications for the project. To ensure that the design plans and specifications were being followed to owner expectations, Manager of Construction Services Jim Siefert and a technician were consistently on site. This allowed them to offer clarifications and solutions for issues that arose during the construction phase.

Siefert said the experience was a learning opportunity for him, to better understand the construction management process. “Some challenges that we faced at the beginning were learning how the construction management and architect/engineer relationship was to be. We were able to overcome this by the willingness of each party to give and take and also the willingness of each party to learn from the other. I think the relationship between the three of us grew to one of utmost respect.”

Collaboration is key to a positive relationship. “If I have any questions that I don’t think I can get answered on-site, their whole team is there to answer my questions,” WCUSD5 Superintendent Jim Helton said. “We are important. It proves we are not just a quarterly walk-through. It’s more than that—it is a relationship. We believe Waterloo’s an identity with S. M. Wilson, and we count.”

In order to develop that strong relationship, O’Brien said open communication with a client was one of the most important aspects—and one S. M. Wilson does very well. From the very beginning open communication with the school district, the architect and the subcontractors was established by S. M. Wilson. They created design development schedules and preliminary construction schedules, had more than 35 pre-activity meetings with the subcontractors and established weekly progress meetings.

Pre-planning set the tone of the project and gave everyone involved the opportunity to address concerns and discuss the details. “It gets everyone off on the right foot and on the same page,” explained O’Brien. The pre-planning also ensured that the project remained on schedule and on budget. Design development and preliminary construction schedules identified key start dates as well as enabled S. M. Wilson to create more detailed estimates. “We had some important deadlines in place we could use as tracking points.”

And as obstacles arose, open communication became vital to solving issues and meeting project goals. A major challenge in the beginning of the project was securing competitive prices for the building’s exterior materials. Originally designed with precast panels, S. M. Wilson negotiated changing 75 percent of the building’s exterior to masonry block and brick veneer, reducing the budget by $1.2 million. Said O’Brien, “We really challenged the subcontractors to come up with some value-engineered ideas. We really pushed these guys to come up with concrete solutions and this went on throughout the project. That helped us meet the biggest challenge, our budget. Our mechanical and electrical subcontractors, Custom Mechanical and Guarantee Electrical, respectively, did a great job presenting some solid and viable cost-saving measures that were used to help the budget issues.”

The building was completed at the end of March 2009 and initial reactions suggest that WCUSD5 received exactly what they were hoping for. “In the words of my 15-year-old son, ‘it’s awesome!’ The reaction we have gotten is ‘I want to be a student here.’” Helton said. “We’re going from a 1938 facility into a facility that’s going to last far into the future.”

With careful planning, open communication and a collaborative spirit, S. M. Wilson created positive relationships, and more importantly, a space where students will grow and thrive for years to come. Said Helton, “Our district really values the relationship we’ve had. There wasn’t any question in our mind this would turn out to be positive—we just didn’t realize the extent of that. This facility for our community is bar none the best we’ve seen.”