| Arizona Board
of Regents
Named Owner of the Year
By
Angela Gabriel A bevy of lucrative construction projects at Arizona's
universities has led Southwest Contractor magazine to name the Arizona Board of
Regents as Owner of the Year.
|
During 2004, there were 19 new or remodel projects totaling $403.8 million
under construction at the state's three universities.
Gary Stuart, president
of the Arizona Board of Regents, said it's flattering to have the board honored
for its role in university construction.
"We have been on a tremendous
building effort on all three campuses, and that's because the need is so great,"
Stuart said. "We simply can't continue to wait to build out these campuses.
They have to be brought up to par now to provide 21st C-century education."
As
the governing body of Arizona's public university system, the Arizona Board of
Regents approves construction projects at Arizona State University in Tempe, the
University of Arizona in Tucson and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
The board is very involved in the planning process, which includes researching
whether the construction is necessary and determining funding needs and sources.
Once a project is approved, the university finds contractors, subcontractors
and architects to design and build it.
The regents are easy to work with,
said Mernoy Harrison, vice president and provost of ASU's downtown Phoenix campus.
"This
board has been very good about setting up a process that allows us to provide
for them upfront what it is we're planning to do, and then, as long as we don't
deviate from those plans, moving us through to completion fairly easily and quickly,"
he said.
Of the three universities, ASU had the most construction projects
in 2004, with 12 total. Three cost more than $70 million apiece:
The
$74 million Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building I will have 128,000
sq.uare feet. of space for an art laboratory and graduate education. It will be
completed in 2006.
Phase one of the The $73 million Arizona Biodesign
Institute Phase I, which was recently completed, , is a four-story, 140,000-sq.-ft.
uare-foot complex that houses the Arizona Biodesign Institute. It provides lab
and office space for cutting-edge research in areas such as neural rehabilitation,
molecular biophysics and bioscience.
Phase two of the The $73 million
Arizona Biodesign Institute Phase II will have 142,000 sq. ft. uare feet of bioengineering,
biotechnology, integrative biomedicine laboratories and animal care space. It
will be completed in 2005.
When selecting contractors and architects for
construction projects, ASU, like UofA and NAU, uses the construction- manager-
at- risk process, rather than the design-/bid/-build process.
Harrison
said construction manager at risk gives the university more control over the project's
design, and allows contractors to work with the architect and university early
on. He added that Harrison said there's less room for last-minute surprises.
"We
know that once we've agreed on the design and we have a price from the contractor,
then we can be pretty sure that the project will come in as we've articulated,"
he said.
Harrison said ASU's selection criteria include finding companies
that have experience with the type of facility ASU will be building, as well as
understanding what the university is trying to accomplish with that particular
project.
Joel Valdez, senior vice president of business affairs at the
University of Arizona, said UofA's selection criteria include working with local
businesses with a proven track record.
The University of Arizona had three
large projects under construction in 2004:
The $46 million Chemistry
Building expansion, a 46,800-net-sq.uare-foot. building, will house research labs
and faculty offices for the Department of Chemistry. The facility will open in
2006.
The $18 million Highland Avenue Parking Garage, a 1,500-space parking
structure, will be completed this yearin 2005.
The $8.6 million Residence
Life Building Renewal, phase onePhase I, will renovate underutilized lounge spaces
in Gila and Yuma halls to provide up to 80 additional beds. This first phase has
been completed.
NAU also has been busy in the construction arena. It had four
new projects under construction in 2004, two of which cost at least $20 million:
The $24 million New College of Business Administration is a 100,000-sq.uare-foot.
building that will include interactive spaces for students.
The $20
million Applied Research and Development Facility is a 50,000-sq.uare-foot. building
that just started construction and will include a terraced seating area for students,
faculty and staff as well as water retention capabilities.
On projects
such as these, NAU tries 's selection criteria include trying to work with local
companies and also find finding contractors and architects who have experience
with environmentally sustainable projects.
Rich Bowen, assistant vice
president of capital assets and services at NAU, said he also carefully examines
the backgrounds of people who would work on the buildings. He considers whether
team members have extensive experience on related projects, or were just associated
with them.
"We look beyond the superficial," he added.
Moving
forward, the regents and universities will be busy with several upcoming construction
projects, including the high-profile agreement between ASU and UofA to create
the Phoenix Biomedical Campus of the Arizona University System. This expansion
of UofA's College of Medicine into Phoenix will allow ASU to offer undergraduate
medical school education.
Another significant project will be the construction
of is building out ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. Plans call for several ASU Main
campus programs colleges to eventually move downtown, including the College of
Nursing and the , College of Public Programs and the Walter Cronkite School of
Journalism and Mass Communication.
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