CHANGES AHEAD
The project team recognized early on that building this first-of-its-kind facility would require careful risk management
and an iterative approach.
Rather than mandating all of the project specs and waiting
for contractors to submit bids, the project team selected a
two-phase design-build approach. In the request for proposals, the team presented a list of performance specifications
that needed to be accomplished within a certain budget.
“The approach is performance-based,” says Dr. Detamore.
“Instead of saying, ‘We want a 60-watt light bulb in the
center of the room,’ we said, ‘Here’s what the researchers
say this project should do. How you do it, that’s up to you.’”
In phase one, bidding contractors worked with a firm
fixed price to develop the scope through preliminary
design. In phase two, they offered a firm fixed price for the final design
and construction.
The researchers who met with the project team to develop the performance
requirements were included in meetings at least once a week as the team moved
through the design and construction of the project.
“By doing a two-phase contract, we let the contractor reduce the amount of
risk by completing the preliminary design before giving a firm fixed price to
finish the design and construct the project,” says Mr. Larsen. “The contractor
reduces his contingency, and that money is converted into additional scope.”
That was but one example of the team’s sophisticated approach to risk reduc-
tion. When the integrated team, including members from the DoE’s Wash-
ington, D.C., headquarters and NREL, identified each of the project risks, they
hovered around 40. The list included possible scheduling setbacks if government
approvals took too long along with one rather unusual risk: construction work
shutdowns due to possible explosives. The project site was a decommissioned
“Instead of saying, ‘We
want a 60-watt light bulb
in the center of the room,’
we said, ‘Here’s what the
researchers say this project
should do. How you do it,
that’s up to you.’ ”
—Drew Detamore, PhD, PMP
Wire mesh keeps birds from
crashing into the windows
of the ESIF and also reduces
the amount of sun hitting
the east windows.
An air-intake
structure on the
NREL campus pulls
in air to cool the ESIF
data center. Such
structures help lower
energy costs in
the building.
The central
interaction space
in the ESIF
