Bringing two major facilities online – the PORTAL Building and Richardson Stadium – requires a collaborative effort by the teams involved. The State Construction Office recently recognized the two projects and named them “best managed.” UNC Charlotte was the only state agency to have multiple construction projects earn such recognition this year.
State Construction Office personnel, known as monitors, determine which capital projects are deemed “best managed.”
According to Jennifer Price, a construction manager in the University’s Facilities Management Department, construction monitors follow a project’s progress and management practices, and they ultimately inspect and accept the completed project on behalf of the State Construction Office.
“Monitors from the state get to know their project teams, which are comprised of the owners, designers and contractors, really well,” said Price. “They observe how we got along, how we resolved issues and how well the project schedule/budget was kept, for example. Both Richardson Stadium and PORTAL had great success in how they were managed; there was camaraderie within both project teams that allowed for issues to be handled well and for the goal of ‘on-time and on-budget’ to be met. It speaks highly of the teams that are chosen as a best managed project and to the University to have two projects chosen for this recognition.”
The Richardson Stadium team included John Neilson, construction manager with facilities management; construction manager at risk Joint Venture with RBI/Russells/PCL and designer Jenkins-Peers. For PORTAL, the team was Price; Edifice, which served as construction manager at risk; and LaBella Associates (formerly Pease Associates), as the designer.
Facilities management officials said this recognition is a testament to the “high bar” the teams set in bringing projects to fruition.