In February, 2009, the architect assembled a package of drawings and specifications for bidding. Concurrently, I prepared invitations and a bid form. On March 2, 2009, seven general contractors were invited to submit bids for the renovation of Harris Hal and were informed that they would have the architect’s bid documents delivered to them on Friday, March 13, 2009. We’re not superstitious.
The bidders were informed that an initial pre-bid conference and walk-through of the building would take place at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 11, 2009. A second, follow-up pre-bid walk-though was scheduled to take place exactly one week later. The attendance at the first pre-bid was good; as expected. Attendance at the second meet was staggering. Whereas the first meeting was attended by general contractors and some sub-contractors, the second meeting was an elbow-to-elbow affair with about 120-130 attendees. Good thing we didn't have donuts; we would have been short. I had never seen so many people attend a pre-bid conference; evidence of our economic times.
Bids were due Friday, April 3rd, however, contractors asked for additional time. The issuance of several clarifying addendum was routine, but the sheer number of sub-contactors bidding, I think, was taxing the estimating teams. Some contractors reported that over two dozen mechanical sub-contactors provided bids and over thirty electrical sub-contractors threw their hats into the ring. It takes time to analyze that much data. The bid date was pushed forward to April 6th (my birthday).
It took me a day and half to synthesize all the bid information into a comparative spreadsheet and yet more time to wade through the other supporting information: bid qualifications, schedules, logistics plan, resumes, etc. Four of the seven GC’s were invited to meetings to review scope, schedule, logistics and staffing, as well as to discuss their bid exceptions. A couple of weeks later, following a detailed examination of the bids, the work was awarded to the low bidder, Turner Construction Company. But admittedly, the excitement of the moment, was a bit overshadowed by the knowledge that the other qualified bidders, who had worked so hard in the effort to land the job, were left disappointed.
Good Team
The Turner construction team is led by two very seasoned construction executives. Anthony Douglas, Project Executive, will be responsible for the overall management of the project. Anthony was most recently headed up the renovation of Annie May Swift, and has worked on Wieboldt Hall (Chicago Campus), a renovation in Rubloff Building (Chicago Campus), and a $3.1 million renovation in the Jacobs Center. Ron McAllister, Project Superintendent, will oversee the day-to-day construction work at Harris Hall. Ron most recently completed the much anticipated new Modern Wing addition to the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to that he was the Project Superintendent on the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center (Chicago Campus). Anthony and Ron will be supported by Don McDougal, Project Engineer and Mike Long, Assistant Project Engineer. To be sure, the project is in capable hands.
Now what?
We submitted an application for a building permit some time ago. The drawings have been reviewed by the City of Evanston and issuance of a permit is pending two things: First, a permit by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, fondly referred to by their acronym, MWRD. Presently the drawings are “in the system,” and we hope to have them back within the next month or so. Second, we await drawings and calculations from the earth retention sub-contractor, Thatcher Foundations. These must be submitted to the City, reviewed and approved, before they will issue the permit. Meanwhile, the piping work that AMS Mechanical has been doing outside the building is all but finished and Turner plans to undertake some additional demolition within the next few weeks. The plan, pending the building permit, is to start construction in earnest the first week of July.
