The largest academic project in Colby College history, and the campus’ new home for music, cinema studies and performance, theater and dance departments, the 74,000 sq. ft. Gordon Center serves as one of the most advanced and innovative performing arts facilities in New England. To achieve the Gordon Center’s innovative design, complete with highly specialized acoustical treatments able to adapt to multiple disciplines and performance types, Consigli collaborated closely with the design team and performed meticulous quality assurance work to ensure that the Center’s performance spaces met design specifications and standards.

Completed on a busy, occupied campus and sited on bedrock that required blasting in a heavily-trafficked area to install foundations and utilities, Consigli exceeded jobsite safety standards and prioritized the protection of the Colby College community through extensive safety planning and constant communication with students and faculty.

Leveraging its in-house resources and expertise, Consigli enlisted both its proven pre-fabrication approach to streamline delivery and minimize on-site work during inclement weather, as well as its self-perform division to perform the installation of the building’s custom limestone façade and parts of the acoustic panel installation.

To read more in ENR’s November issue, click here.

To learn more about the project, click here.

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With Consigli’s pre-fabrication and self-perform experts, the project team identified a viable, cost-neutral solution for the building’s exterior wall panels to save on schedule. Upon presentation to and approval from the University, Consigli planned and executed the pre-fabricated exterior wall panels to condense a traditionally six-week building enclosure timeframe into just two weeks with its own self-perform craftspeople.

Design

Engaging the right design partners confirms accurate design details of pre-fabricated building elements and mitigates the risk of rework once materials leave the warehouse.

Consigli engaged a third-party delegated design team to review and confirm details for connections on the exterior wall panels. Excel Engineering, a specialty engineering firm with expertise in cold form steel, was hired to detail the panels and confirm all structural details. Excel converted the façade into panels that could be transported from Consigli’s pre-fabrication facility to the jobsite as they were ready to be installed.

Pre-fabrication

In addition to improved quality control and productivity, implementing pre-fabrication strategies on higher education projects takes work off campus and minimizes on-site construction activity.

Self-perform at Pre-fabrication Warehouse

At Consigli’s regionally based pre-fabrication shop, self-perform crews assembled 130 panels totaling 15,000 sq. ft. to enclose the residence hall addition. For eight weeks, five self-perform craftspeople precisely fabricated all exterior wall panels in sequence of how they would be placed on the building. This process brought approximately 1,800 hours of labor hours off of the University’s campus and into the warehouse, reducing on-site construction traffic and supporting a quieter job site in the process.

The well-lit, heated, ground-level space at the warehouse provided an ergonomic working environment—one that a construction site cannot always guarantee among the noises of intrusive trades on site, especially amid February weather in New England. When preparing the panels for load and delivery to site, the project team employed a project-specific quality assurance checklist developed and implemented by Consigli’s Quality department to safeguard the quality of every panel. All dimensions and details were reviewed on multiple occasions, and once each panel passed inspection, the panel was loaded on the flatbed to leave for the site. Panels were loaded onto four flatbed trucks for just-in-time deliveries so the panels could be picked and flown directly onto the building upon arrival to the job site.

Delivery & Installation

Parallel processing of material fabrication and installation supports faster, higher-quality construction by simultaneously managing multiple trades.

Pre-fabricated Exterior Wall Panel Install

While the crew in the pre-fabrication shop fabricated panels and loaded the trucks, six Consigli craftspeople at the jobsite received and unloaded the panels to be flown and placed on the building. Consigli’s simultaneous workflow—also known as parallel processing—maximized time both on site and in the warehouse. The Consigli field team had pre-checked the concrete foundation wall perimeter at the jobsite to ensure it was flat and level to quickly and accurately receive the first-floor panels set to rest on top of it.

The fast-tracked, two-week installation in February allowed the project team to enclose the exterior and start heating for interior tradework throughout the winter. And, because the building was enclosed and work was moved indoors, the construction site quickly quieted for the campus community, especially for the students in the adjacent dormitory.

The benefits of Consigli’s hands-on ownership of the pre-fabricated exterior wall panels went beyond the accelerated project schedule. Exterior wall system pre-fabrication ensured a quality product was fabricated and installed efficiently and with the campus’s best interest in mind—from decreased on-campus activity to the maintenance of a clean, safer and substantially quieter construction site.

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Comeau has nearly two decades of experience supporting learning and organizational development initiatives for employees and organizations. In her role, Comeau leads the development and delivery of educational programming aimed at supporting the growth of the firm’s teams and management.

“The Board of Trustees plays an important role in providing oversight and guidance to the leadership team at Framingham State,” said FSU President Nancy S. Niemi. “I’m thrilled to welcome our new members who bring a broad range of experience and expertise to the Board.”

Comeau also serves as a longtime member of the Corridor 9/495 Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors. Prior to joining Consigli in 2018, she served in various workforce training and development roles with several higher education institutions in Massachusetts such as Worcester State University, Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) and Middlesex Community College, including as an adjunct professor and faculty member in the business and psychology departments at QCC.

Comeau joins four other new appointees to the 11-member board.

Learn more here.

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PORTLAND, ME – The John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies and Barry Mills Hall on the Bowdoin College’s campus has been honored by Engineering News Record (ENR) as a 2023 New England Best Project of the Year. It received top honors in the Higher Education/Research category.

The first pure mass timber structure in Maine, the $28.5 million, 46,000 sq. ft. project utilized glue laminated beams, columns and trusses, as well as other materials. To mitigate potential supply chain and skilled workforce challenges, Consigli proactively secured pricing for the mass timber ahead of significant lumber price increases.

To further support cost savings, Consigli utilized a 4D model using cost analysis to compare mass timber with a more traditional steel, concrete and masonry superstructure and demonstrated that mass timber pre-fabrication strategies was the best choice for the project. Funding for the cost comparison was supported by the U.S. Forest Service, making Bowdoin College one of just 10 institutions to receive agency funding to bring sustainable change to the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities.

In addition to receiving this New England regional honor, Consigli also received ENR New York’s top award in the K-12 Education category for its work on the Bronx High School of Science – Stanley Manne ’52 Institute of Science.

Project teams recognized by ENR’s panel of judges as regional Best Project winners were evaluated on how they were able to overcome challenges, contribute to industry innovation and benefit the community, as well as overall excellence in design, construction and safety execution.

Read more about the project in ENR’s November issue here.

View the full list of ENR New England’s 2023 honorees here.

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How does Consigli—which has planned and built more than fifteen projects incorporating timber solutions—coordinate and collaborate with our project partners to plan and deliver high-quality timber structures? With extensive experience analyzing, procuring and installing mass timber, Consigli’s interdisciplinary approach supports our clients—like Bowdoin—in making cost-effective, schedule-driven decisions when planning a mass timber project.

Initial Design

Rigorous pre-construction planning is a must when it comes to mitigating potential cost, schedule and quality impacts associated with a mass timber structure.

• Early Detections of Issues: The smallest details matter when it comes to achieving the desired look and function for such a specialized finish product. Incorporating design intent into early models helps guide crucial design considerations to be incorporated into fabrication documents and allow for timely timber release.
• Structural Reviews: Structural drawing reviews help analyze column spacing, spans of timber elements, choices of direction of primary girders and varying strategies for mechanical ductwork and plumbing routing. The review process can potentially result in cost saving through elements including reducing beam sizes and floor plate thickness.
• Cost Competitiveness: In today’s ever changing and challenging materials market, mass timber has remained relatively steady in pricing. This certainty allows mass timber to be priced early with greater assurance of costs as the project progress. Depending on the application, mass timber pricing can be very cost competitive when compared to steel and concrete and has additional cost benefits in terms of fit-out costs. Mass timber can also remain exposed, reducing the costs of expensive interior finishes on a project.

Selection & Sourcing

Timber species selection can affect the mass timber manufacturer. The right decision-making can support early internal estimates and analyze specific species for the best fit.

• Wood Species & Material Finish: Material selection has a significant impact on the choice of timber manufacturers. From aesthetic to strength of structural design to lengths of members, Consigli can help evaluate timber species and offer options that satisfy aesthetic and structural need.
• Deep Knowledge of Supplier/Manufacturer Market: A strong list of suppliers, both domestic and foreign, ensures competitive pricing for initial bidding during earlier phases of design. As the mass timber is fully designed and released for fabrication, a well-established market knowledge is crucial in bidding installation.

Coordination & Release

Coordination model completion ahead of Construction Documents is critical to final fabrication shop drawings for mass timber. With timber lead times ranging from 16 to 24 weeks from final drawing approvals, time is of the essence.

M/E/P coordination for a mass timber structure.

• M/E/P/FP Coordination: Mass timber penetrations for M/E/P/FP systems must be carefully planned and integrated into fabrication documents. Coordination models for these penetrations allow all pathways to be designed and manufactured in shop in lieu of in field; this is crucial as field cutting is prohibited for this level of finished product.
• Design-Assist Engagement: Engaging design-assist partners for M/E/P/FP systems and mass timber allows the project team to coordinate within the working design model. Creation of CD-level documents through design-assist, even as the rest of the design is in early stages, supports completion of building systems and architectural features for a release of timber well ahead of CDs, mitigating the challenge of timber long lead times.

Delivery & Installation

Careful attention must be paid to the handling, installation and protection of mass timber to maintain the material’s integrity. Hands-on installer experience is imperative when planning a successful mass timber project.

Mass timber logistics & installation considerations.

• Logistical Planning Handling & Installation: Development of the right logistics plans for efficient installation—accounting for any potential double handling and required special care—is paramount to creating schedule certainty through installation. The right project partners develop proper delivery, loading and sequencing unique to each site.
• Protecting your Investment through Insurance & Temporary Protections: Consigli’s in-house Job Site Insights platform allows our clients to protect their investment through floor-by-floor detection of potentially damaging elements to the timber structure, including water, fire or any other elements that may stain or mar the finished product. Additionally, temporary protection is often required and includes the use of hard walls held off the timber columns for UV and moisture protection, floor plate protection from UV, moisture and foot traffic, maintenance of humidity and temperature post close-in. The most effective timber structure protection is speedy building enclosure to reduce environmental impact on the timber itself. Once enclosed and final systems are brought online, maintaining proper humidity levels is critical to keeping the timber looking and functioning at its best.
• Self-perform Capabilities: Consigli self-performs mass timber installation and protection, giving us added control over schedule, quality and continuity of installation because we are that much closer to the product. Our 650 in-house craftspeople share our standards for quality and are a strong additional resource to call upon to get work done on time.

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Design

When planning an aggressive project schedule, utilize repetitive design details to ensure quality and efficiency as multiple elements are built simultaneously off-site.

Pre-cast Concrete Foundations

The concrete foundations at Johnson Pond Houses were designed to eliminate on-site formwork and ease transportation to site. Consigli’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team developed 35 concrete panel shop drawings to be repeated for each building. Each panel included every penetration, lifting device, reinforcing detail and finishing requirement, with concealing joints between panels. Foundations Engineer of Record Trillium Engineering reinforced details and accelerated drawing approvals.

To confirm there were no conflicts between the concrete, volumetric modular structural unit models, embeds and site work, each panel type was digitally modeled and clash-detected with the structural unit models. Drain lines, HVAC system louver openings, boiler vents, sprinkler drains and electrical conduits were modeled and sleeved in the panels based on the 3D model of Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection (M/E/P/FP) systems.

Volumetric Modular Structural Units

KBS Builders Inc. (KBS) pre-fabricated structural units that allowed in-factory framing, electrical, plumbing and fire protection installation. Consigli and the Kaplan Thompson Architects design team engaged M/E/P/FP design-build subcontractors for weekly coordination meetings to advance the design with KBS. With 18 structural units per building repeated across four houses, coordination and review of KBS shop drawings were required twelve weeks prior to on-site delivery.

The design-build delivery of the four repetitive buildings allowed the team to rapidly adjust design details and apply adjusted concepts from the first building to the last in real time for schedule and quality improvements. The structural units were designed to deliver nearly complete interiors for all spaces except the corridors and pre-cast basements.

Pre-fabrication

Traditional on-site construction limits simultaneous trades on site, due to its inherent sequential nature (first comes site work, then foundation, framing and so on). Pre-fabrication supports faster, higher-quality construction by simultaneously managing multiple trades and delivering materials to site only when installation-ready.

Pre-cast Concrete Foundations

Consigli Self-perform in Pre-casting Yard

With zero flexibility on structural unit delivery, the team had only four working days to set the foundation walls for each building. Consigli turned the parking lot adjacent to the project into a near-site pre-casting yard to construct foundations during sitework, allowing the team to pre-cast and pre-kit the panels on truck beds for just-in-time (JIT) delivery once the site was ready.

From the VDC group’s detailed drawings, Consigli’s self-perform team formed and pre-casted each of the 140 panels. A heated form structure supported rapid pre-cast at ground level, reducing jobsite hazards such as weather-caused slips and potential soil/excavation collapse in the foundation holes. The Consigli carpenters’ pre-casting system formed, reinforced, casted, cured and stripped panels on a five-day cycle.

Volumetric Modular Structural Units

Structural unit pre-fabrication occurred simultaneously with site preparation, foundation and steel fabrication, all of which converged on the date units were delivered to site. Each 18-unit building took 20 working days to pre-fabricate, including the installation of M/E/P systems, insulation, operable windows, an exterior air vapor barrier and a highly insulated exterior wall system to provide a Net Zero Ready structure. The interiors of the bedroom units, bathrooms and common area rooms included the installation of drywall, light fixtures, electrical outlets, flooring and finish paint.

Delivery & Installation

Pre-fabrication reduces on-site labor density, ensures manpower consistency and decreases safety incidents. To reap the benefits of off-site prefabrication against an aggressive project schedule, extensive coordination of trades is essential. 

Pre-cast Concrete Foundations

Concrete panels were delivered just-in-time and placed with a crane with structural steel support beams. Consigli’s self-perform installers set the entire foundation wall system in less than three days—from the first panel being set to the start of wood sill plate installation.

Threaded inserts allowed clean picks off the panels’ sides. Embedded cam rotational picks rotated the panels from their flat to vertical positions for installation. Temporary bracing held the panels in place while awaiting structural unit installation, and top embeds were set to lock in the units come time for installation.

Volumetric Modular Structural Units

Structural Unit Installation

Structural units were delivered in two stages per building (left and right side, two-floors high). In typical pre-fabricated structural unit assembly, units fit with no openings to the exterior. Unique to the Johnson Pound Houses, the structural units had openings for corridor connections when set in place. Keeping each building weathertight between setting units and getting the roof tilted required careful, multi-trade coordination.

Consigli reviewed punch list items throughout construction, catching deficiencies when work was first put in place. Every item delivered was immediately quality reviewed, further accelerating the completion of each building by taking early corrective action.

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On May 14, the Springfield Technical Community College also received a Preservation Award from the Springfield Preservation Trust, which honors individuals and organizations that help restore and preserve historic places in Springfield.

Springfield Technical Community College

Longfellow Bridge

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Not a line item to be crossed off, assuring the high quality of Consigli-built work is the result of a deeply integrated process through the full life span of each project. At Consigli, our quality management process is not only the responsibility of the project team, but is one that actively leverages the collective experience and knowledge of other experts and tradespeople from across the company, bringing benefits to clients and project partners alike.

A room full of intent senior construction managers—listening, questioning, recommending—provide an in-depth review of a proposed construction plan for the high-end renovation of an occupied, centrally located university facility.

A jobsite superintendent and his foremen study their milestone schedule, looking ahead six weeks, assuring that their crews, materials and each sequence of work is shipshape, propelling the construction of a new school forward.

These scenes are windows to the layered ways Consigli’s teams assure a project’s quality—each an example of the firm’s Quality Assurance/Quality Control program in action.

At the center of this effort is Consigli’s Quality Manager, architect Ken Amano, who guides this integration, company-wide.

Amano explains, “The truth is no project’s design documents or specifications can really ever anticipate every single construction detail. Our Quality Assurance program is about shaping a mindset and an investigative process that addresses this reality, and provides the solutions for each team to build the very best project possible.”

Peer Reviews Create Foundation for Project Quality

On a hot spring day, a group of Consigli’s superintendents, project executives, managers and engineers gathered in Cambridge, Mass. for the peer review of a complex renovation project for Harvard Real Estate. While each Consigli project team is built of staff with directly comparable building experience, as Consigli Project Executive Ryan Jennette explains, “Our Peer Review process is another way we minimize an internal ‘silo-experience’ and make sure we’re sharing our incredibly valuable knowledge base with each other. At this early point in a project, ten heads are definitely better than two.”

Scheduled early in the life of a project, once the project team develops their initial construction schedule and logistics plan, this structured, half-day review session brings in a parallel team of Consigli staff experienced with the same type of project. A vital early step in Consigli’s proactive Quality Assurance process, this review is part of Consigli’s Quality Management for projects of all scales.

The peer review for Harvard’s Smith Campus Center project—the extensive renovation of this iconic building in Harvard Square, originally designed by architect Josep Luis Sert—began with an in-depth presentation of the project team’s construction plan, then, the reviewers dove in. Together they examined every conceivable aspect of the work ahead—from the core areas of schedule and logistics, to identifying top risks and opportunities, to assuring the best qualified subcontractors are part of the procurement process and identifying topics for the upcoming whole-team partnering session.

Jennette, who has been instrumental in developing guidelines for the review process, explains in more detail, “Our peer reviews also follow, ideally, our team’s early, in-depth involvement in a project. Ideally we’re onboard during the design process, and we’ve been building a partnership with both architect and owner, and building a comprehensive plan for the design’s construction. When possible, it’s invaluable—for everyone involved—when we’re on board at the schematic level of design or shortly after. With early involvement we are building the construction plan as the design is completed, this enables us to develop cost certainty through proper planning and also ensure the plan is agreed on and it’s deeply understood and supported by everyone involved.”

Another recent peer review was of the construction plan for a corporate client’s new facilities. Jennette describes some of the areas the reviewers focused on, “There is a lot of high-end millwork and feature space in the architect’s design. We know we need to get it exactly right. To help ensure this, we have begun to review installation details prior to issuance of construction documents as well as reviewed in great detail the potential subcontractor list for millworkers. We are developing a bid list for all scopes that we’re confident will help us build the product that our client is looking for. Also, in general, we discussed subs coverage and sub market, to involve a broader sub base to maintain competitive pricing and ensure value to our client, in a busy market.”

Jennette continued, “This peer team included our Senior Project Manager, John Lehane—he was invaluable in his review of specialty ceilings which incorporate the use of millwork and ‘NewMat.’ This system involves fabric stretched over a framework, lit by backlighting—it’s a complex system and needs to be designed properly to allow for building maintenance over time and carefully installed to deliver the highest level of quality in construction details. Lehane recently finished installing similar ceilings for Kendall Square’s Cambridge Center and MIT’s new Morris and Sophie Chang Building. We discussed the details of those, we discussed attaching the NewMat and how it’s built. John had a number of helpful insights.”

The reviewers also examined further ways to customize the Lean approach to the project, with input from the firm’s Director of Lean Strategy, Cynthia Tsao. One tool discussed were Constraint Logs—which help teams track who is resolving an issue, and when it will be cleared up. Jennette noted, “In this case, we’re already using one—sometimes the value in the Peer Review is the reaffirmation of our strategies.”

Partners in Quality: Building Holbrook’s PreK – 12 School

Talking with Project Manager Tim Vautour and Superintendent John Laperle—Consigli’s tag team for the Holbrook, Mass. PreK-12 school project—about what distinguishes Consigli’s quality management process, you understand just how integrated Consigli’s quality management is with—well—Consigli’s construction management. While each Consigli project has a customized Quality Assurance/Quality Control plan that identifies both pre-construction quality assurance processes, and construction phase controls and inspections, the truth is, in some ways it is hard to talk about the quality control process as a separate management effort, because it is so deeply embedded.

Vautour gave a quick overview of the dovetailed-relationship of construction management and quality assurance, “Quality is the end result of a properly planned and managed project. It is not just enough to identify, plan for, manage, and resolve quality concerns/issues for, say three-to-four key construction activities. All pre-construction, construction, and close-out processes—the  development of the quality plan, sub pre-qualifying, procurement, pre-op meetings, schedule summit meetings, submittals, RFIs, deliveries, daily stand-up meetings, safety, contracts, changes, T&M, deficiency log, punch list, etc.!—have an impact on quality and need to be managed. If each of these processes is not managed properly, issues will cause delays, which will compress the schedule and negatively impact the quality of any project.

“The best construction managers plan each process of a project’s life cycle, identify clear roles and responsibilities on the team, and properly manage each process. And by manage I mean that the team member responsible defines the goals and flow of the process, defines responsibilities of those who impact the process, communicates expectations, identifies potential problems, creates plans to execute the process (including how to prevent/resolve problems), develops relationships with stakeholders in the process, communicates deadlines, guides/teaches/follows up, holds people accountable and identifies and resolves issues quickly,” Vautour explained.

In planning the construction and the quality assurance processes for Massachusetts’ first-ever inclusive PreK-12 school, opening in Holbrook in the fall of 2017, Vautour and Laperle worked closely with Boston-based Flansburgh Architects and SMMA, Holbrook’s Owner’s Project Manager, to fully understand the design for this new 217,000-square-foot, two-story building. Designed to host 1,095 students, it combines two distinct building areas, each with its own entrance, administration and facilities, one dedicated to the PreK-5 grades, the other for grades 6-12.

Among the many aspects of the project that the team homed in on, are the project’s one-of-kind architectural details, to fully understand the architect’s vision and to determine exactly how these details would be constructed. Two central architectural details identified as needing particular planning and attention are the distinctive exterior copper panels that will grace the semi-circular façade of the school, and the focal point of the auditorium—a curving construction of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) slats—which is both part of the auditorium’s acoustical design, and a dramatic architectural feature.

For the curving copper wall panels, building a mock-up—a full scale prototype—at the panel fabricator’s shop helped explore and simplify a few unresolved design issues, resulting from an active dialogue that also included the Project Architect and Consigli’s carpenter foreman during a recent off-site team review.

Helping guide the process was Consigli’s Quality Manager, Ken Amano, who explains Consigli’s approach to mock-ups, “We identify what we will mock-up as early as possible. Especially when we get involved in the pre-construction phase, we make suggestions and work with the design team to come up with what gives the entire team and owner the most value. One advantage that comes from our ability to complete aspects of our projects with our in-house trades staff (to “self-perform” them)—is that we can expedite complex mock-ups.”

This inherent advantage that Consigli has is both critical and integral to the firm’s ability to closely control—and therefore even more readily assure high quality construction—Consigli’s deep team of in-house trades staff, including carpenters, masons and laborers, numbers over 350 skilled craftsmen and women. In the case of Holbrook’s new school, Consigli’s own carpentry team will install both the exterior copper panels and the delicate acoustical slats. And, before beginning construction of either of these building components, they are building full-scale mock-ups of each, confirming material quality and construction techniques.

Laperle, who with Vautour also teaches a course to Consigli’s field staff called “Managing the Project Life Cycle,” explained, “The biggest thing to assure consistent, project-wide quality, is setting expectations together. If I get buy-in from the foremen, and they understand what my expectations are upfront, then they’re onboard. This is a big part of our daily stand-up meetings with all the project foremen. I also can’t stress how important daily stand-up meetings are. They are the best way to communicate everything—quality, sequencing, roadblocks. Everything.”

A key management approach that Laperle uses are monthly “Summit Meetings” with all the trade foremen, where together they review the project milestones for the next six weeks of work. “We go back and forth and work through issues. We end up compromising, we develop buy-in on how to best approach the next six weeks.

“This creates quality,” said Laperle.

Another way that Superintendent Laperle assures a trade team is fully engaged and committed to a project is to have them participate in the project’s weekly milestone meeting once a week for the six weeks before they will be on-site to build their part of the scope. This way, by the time they begin, they know all the project’s players, they know what’s going on, and they know what the expectations are.

And, in talking more about the evolution of construction management on a macro level—and its corresponding impact on quality management—Laperle elaborated, “When I came into this field as a carpenter, about 25 years ago, it was just yelling. Everything was yelling. You were doing something and you were yelled at not to do it, or you weren’t doing something, and you were yelled at to do it. As an industry, we’ve come far. At Consigli we know that our relationship with the architect and building buy-in with our subs, makes a huge difference at every level.”

Vautour added, “It’s all about respect. It’s all about treating people fairly. And yes, sometimes there are hard conversations. But what we focus on—and the only way to do it—is to properly manage and communicate.”

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