Advanta Office Commons
Architects: Collins Woerman (shell and core), JPC Architects (tenant improvement)
Engineer: Gerber Engineering
General contractor: Skanska Building USA
Owner: Schnitzer Northwest
ABC members: Aerotek Construction Services, CLP Resources, First Sound Bank, Pacific Fire & Security, Platt Electric Supply, The Unity Group, Tradesmen International, White Cap Industries, Zee Medical Service
The $22 million Advanta Office Commons for Microsoft stood as the largest project in SME Inc. of Seattle's history. The complex included three 182,000-square-foot, seven-story Class A office buildings, each with one-story of underground parking and an additional 120,000-square-foot, eight-story parking garage.
With a project of this size, the team's greatest challenge was coordinating an aggressive schedule and keeping all crew members working seamlessly to meet the stringent delivery date. The original plan called for work to be scheduled during a three- to four-year period. However, Microsoft's agreement to lease the entire complex necessitated delivery within 15 months.
Another challenge for the team was that design frequently followed construction, requiring the team to make construction changes to reflect updated designs, use additional workers to redo work while keeping to the original schedule, and to keep workers motivated in a highly unpredictable environment. For example, in order to accommodate Microsoft's significant power requirements, the original shell and core design was amended after many of the concrete decks for the upper floors of Building C had already been poured.
Staffing the project also proved to be complex. SME paired an existing project manager with a junior project manager to create a team that would provide on-site support and higher-level oversight.
Initial analysis revealed that to meet the schedule, between 150 and 200 electricians would be required. With only 30 SME electricians available to begin work, the team brainstormed ways to maintain the quality and speed of the project while lowering the field requirements. By creating a list of assemblies that could be prefabricated, asking the general contractor to reassign the tenant improvements for Building A, and working with Tradesmen International to recruit additional electricians, SME was able to develop a schedule that would allow it to complete the project on time.
Weekly field meetings with project managers and general superintendents allowed the team to work together to resolve any issues and consistently evaluate progress, making adjustments as necessary. Requiring all managers to work designated weekends and adding additional supervisors, including sub-tier leaders, to increase the ratio of managers to workers kept the project on task.
Despite the fast pace of the project and having more than 700 workers on site daily towards the end of the project, there was only one time-loss injury during the 168,968 hours worked.