Gather all the Information

Earlier this week I received a call from one of the Structural Engineers that we do a lot of work with. He was calling to talk about a project we had looked at together several month earlier. He proceeded to update me on the status of the project and quite frankly, the status was not great. He was deep into his structural analysis of a local shopping center that has had significant slab movement. In fact, the slab has moved several inches in the past 10+ years. Some repairs have been made to the retail center over the years, but the middle of the building continues to settle. This is not good for the building owner, the tenant and the property management team. My structural engineering friend was brought in to diagnose the situation and come up with a solution to the problem. He was calling me to ask for a meeting to brainstorm all of the things that need to happen inside this building in order for the floor to be removed, structural support installed, a new structural concrete floor poured and the scope of work to restore the space to its current function (it happens to be a bar/restaurant today). 

We sat down in the conference room and started to go through the different scenarios of what all might and might not need to be done in order to restore this building to the level of safety and functionality that the reasonable person would expect. As you can imagine, we came up with a long list of items that needed to be done (with a big price tag associated) along with the amount of time this tenant’s business would need to be closed in order for the work to be done.

Ultimately, we will present our findings to the building owner and let them decide how they’d like to proceed. By gathering all of the information up front, PDMi and our structural consultant, will be able to help guide this building owner through a tough situation. He may not like the cost of the repairs, but at least he will have the ability to make an informed decision. If PDMi can be of help on your next project, give us a call and let us help you gather all the information.

So Many Choices

Do you ever feel like little Annabelle after you have decided to take the walk and start a building project? (As a disclaimer, this is a photo of my daughter from about 7 years ago, she’s quite a bit taller these days!) You find yourself in the “pantry” with so many shelves, so many compartments and so many items to choose from - So Many Choices. You are not sure where to start. Some stuff you can reach, some you need to get on your “tippy-toes” to get to, and others you will need a stepstool. In Annabelle’s case, she was going for the snacks. Sometimes you can give in to the same temptation to skip the nutritious stuff and go right to the “fun” stuff. Don’t do it. It is not the heathy way to a successful project (Fun stuff comes after the nutritious stuff). 

When you are in the “pantry” of your next project, there are some first steps before you just start reaching for stuff. Let’s look at the things to put your hands on first. 

Reach for…                                                                                                                                   

• Things you value: You need to focus on a list with categories like: Scope – Quality – Budget - Schedule. When you are clear about what you value in each of these categories, your project will start well and end even better.

• An Engineer/Architect that you know, believe in & trust. Having a professional alongside you will calm the stress of the day to day decision making because this is what they do; nothing new here for them.

• A Project Delivery Method that is right for your project and fits your corporate culture. That method may be Design-Bid-Build, Construction Management or Design Build. There is not a right or wrong method BUT there is a best method for your project. The key is identifying it.

So if you find yourself in the pantry on your next project, give us a call. We can help you decide what to reach for next…

Does The Building Have Walls?

We recently finished the design of a new outdoor pavilion for a local church here in Fort Wayne. The church has been fundraising for several months and just recently decided it was time to make it happen and get the pavilion construction started. It will give them added outdoor space for lots of things such as Vacation Bible School, outdoor events and a new fellowship area. As you can envision, the pavilion is a simple open air structure with a roof and concrete slab. It will function wonderfully for the church and I am excited to see it completed and used on a regular basis during the warm summer months here in Northern Indiana.

We encountered one strange thing during the design phase of this project. Since the pavilion is an “assembly” occupancy, it requires two points of exit. This means that we were required to design the pavilion with two specific exit paths, which may seem normal until you realize that there are no walls on the pavilion! This is one of those instances that the building code is pretty black and white on how they interpret a specific space. The reasonable person would know that in the event of an emergency, you could exit the pavilion anywhere you want, but the state building code required us to specify two exit paths, both with concrete sidewalks leading to and from the pavilion. 

We here at PDMi pride ourselves on having a very good working knowledge of the building codes, whether they are logical or not. When you are ready to build your next building (even it doesn’t have walls), give us a call and we can help you navigate all aspects of the building process.