UNITY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: A CONSTRUCTION CASE STUDY
Open Access
- Author:
- Donatelli, Lauren
- Area of Honors:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Architectural Engineering
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Robert Michael Leicht, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Linda Morley Hanagan, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Virtual Reality
Prefabrication
Phasing
Temporary Relocation
Value Engineering
Value Management
Portfolio Management - Abstract:
- Unity Memorial Hospital is currently undergoing renovation construction in multiple areas. Turner Construction is renovating the areas of the Clinical Decision Unit and Emergency Room Expansion, which also includes “back of house” areas, such as storage, mail, and linen rooms. The area, in total, is approximately 26,000 square feet and is being delivered under an $8.6 million guaranteed maximum price (GMP) contract. This hospital renovation project will be used as a senior thesis case study project. This senior thesis project utilizes information learned throughout the five-year architectural engineering program to perform three analyses pertaining to the building’s construction. Additionally, a research topic and two breadth topics were evaluated. Unity Memorial Hospital (UMH) is a fictitious name that is used throughout the duration of this paper to ensure the confidentiality of the building owner. Theme The theme that runs across all four of the analyses is that the project team must ensure that Unity Memorial Hospital remains fully operational during construction while coordinating with the owner’s additional renovation projects that impact sequence and scheduling. The analyses aim to pursue new solutions and applications to make the construction process easier and more efficient. Analysis 1: Phasing Analysis of Temporary Pharmacy Relocation The first analysis completed involves improving the phasing of the project so the work can be completed more fluidly and efficiently. This was done by analyzing how a temporary pharmacy relocation would aid in the construction of the mail and linen rooms. The driving force behind this analysis is that the new pharmacy project is six months behind schedule and forced the original phasing plan to be modified. This was expected to be a more efficient plan with less wasted time in the movement and relocation of workers and materials to a space. It was concluded that the temporary pharmacy would be more cost and schedule effective, as well as permit a more fluid construction flow. Analysis 2: Managing Project Conflicts through Portfolio Management This analysis stems from the conflict arising from the use of multiple concurrent contracts causing the construction projects interfering with one another. The goal of the analysis was to evaluate a number of portfolio management strategies utilized by numerous owners and owner’s representatives. Using this research, a comparison was done between the original strategy and the alternative strategies, which has led to an alternate course of action for packaging different scopes of work within Unity Memorial Hospital. It was concluded that UMH can evaluate contractor selection, phasing and logistics, delivery method, and funding to better enhance their project and portfolio management strategy. Analysis 3: Schedule Improvement through Prefabricated Ductwork Because Unity Memorial Hospital is on a strict schedule of completion, the project team is looking for ways to save construction time. One of the solutions to this problem that was analyzed as a part of this depth is the effect that prefabricating the above ceiling systems has the project schedule, as well as the budget. Laser scanning was suggested to gather information on the existing conditions and assemble prefabricated racks. It was concluded that although 3 weeks of schedule time would be saved, the costs outweigh this savings due to the potential logistics impacts. Analysis 4: Virtual Reality’s Effect on Value Engineering The final analysis was done through research of virtual reality and its applications in the construction industry. On the Unity Memorial Hospital Project, the construction manager utilized virtual reality to improve their value engineering practices. Further research was performed through a series of interviews to evaluate ways that virtual reality can affect value engineering