Last spring, the U.S. Navy Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) awarded a five-year, $50 million architect-engineering services contract to a joint venture between WSP USA and HKS for the Command’s medical facilities projects around the world.
This so-called indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract covers hospitals, dental clinics, medical clinics, veterinary clinics, laboratories, sustainment/restoration/modernization projects, military construction projects, and medical studies.
The contract is not exclusive to the two firms, but it lets NAVFAC assign certain projects to them. NAVFAC selected seven projects under this contract for 2018, including a 477,000-sf, $298 million health, education, and research facility for the Uniformed Services University at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.; and a 44,000-sf medical and dental clinic in Jacksonville, N.C. There’s also a renovation component, plus four research studies that will help define future projects.
See Also: N.Y. builder pushes to get military trauma centers up and running quicker
WSP, which has been active in the healthcare sector for a quarter century, decided to compete for this contract after noticing that the AE presence in the government sector was “not as strong” as in other sectors, says Nolan Rome, PE, U.S. Healthcare Director for WSP’s Dallas office.
Rome says that he had seen IDIQ-type contracts in the past and thought that a combination with an architecture firm might work for both companies and the client. Over the previous seven years, WSP and HKS had collaborated on 42 healthcare projects for the military and private sector.
“We promised a one-stop shop for whatever the government would need, and they perceived us as something new and different,” says Jim Whitaker, AIA, DBIA, Principal and SVP with HKS. “Now, we’re the Navy’s go-to task-order vendor.”
NAVFAC follows a Uniform Facilities Criteria that touches on everything from design to scheduling. It also leans toward design-bid-build delivery, whereas the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Veterans Health Administration prefer design-build. (Rome says WSP will self-perform 98% of the work under the NAVFAC contract.)
Each agency imposes spending limits, notably a 6% cap on total cost design services. “We’ve responded to those parameters with an integrated design approach,” says Alan Davis, Vice President for WSP’s Built Ecology, a national practice based on integration between architect and engineer.
Whitaker says that having a predetermined cost structure and pre-existing relationship can “make procurement easier.”
HKS and WSP have been talking with other government agencies about setting up similar contractual arrangements.
Related Stories
| Mar 3, 2011
HDR acquires healthcare design-build firm Cooper Medical
HDR, a global architecture, engineering and consulting firm, acquired Cooper Medical, a firm providing integrated design and construction services for healthcare facilities throughout the U.S. The new alliance, HDR Cooper Medical, will provide a full service design and construction delivery model to healthcare clients.
| Mar 1, 2011
New survey shows shifts in hospital construction projects
America’s hospitals and health systems are focusing more on renovation or expansion than new construction, according to a new survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). In fact, renovation or expansion accounted for 73% of construction projects at hospitals responding to the survey.
| Feb 22, 2011
HDR Architecture names four healthcare directors
Four senior professionals in HDR Architecture’s healthcare program have been named Healthcare directors.
| Feb 17, 2011
HDR Architecture sponsors national effort to green operating rooms
HDR Architecture, Inc. has joined the group of corporate sponsors of Practice Greenhealth’s Greening the Operating Room Initiative. This sweeping and prescriptive path to green the nation’s operating rooms was launched earlier this year to reduce the environmental footprint of the operating suites in hospitals across the country, which can produce between 20 and 30% of a hospital’s total waste.
| Feb 11, 2011
Iowa surgery center addresses both inpatient and outpatient care
The 12,000-person community of Carroll, Iowa, has a new $28 million surgery center to provide both inpatient and outpatient care. Minneapolis-based healthcare design firm Horty Elving headed up the four-story, 120,000-sf project for St. Anthony’s Regional Hospital. The center’s layout is based on a circular process flow, and includes four 800-sf operating rooms with poured rubber floors to reduce leg fatigue for surgeons and support staff, two substerile rooms between each pair of operating rooms, and two endoscopy rooms adjacent to the outpatient prep and recovery rooms. Recovery rooms are clustered in groups of four. The large family lounge (left) has expansive windows with views of the countryside, and television monitors that display coded information on patient status so loved ones can follow a patient’s progress.
| Feb 11, 2011
Two projects seek to reinvigorate Los Angeles County medical center
HMC Architects designed two new buildings for the Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Center as part of a $360 million plan to reinvigorate the campus. The buildings include a 120-bed hospital, which involves renovation of an existing tower and several support buildings, and the construction of a new multi-service ambulatory care center. The new facilities will have large expanses of glass at all waiting and public areas for unobstructed views of downtown Los Angeles. A curved glass entrance canopy will unite the two buildings. When both projects are completed—the hospital in 2012 and the ambulatory care center in 2013—the campus will have added more than 460,000 sf of space. The hospital will seek LEED certification, while the ambulatory care center is targeting LEED Silver.
| Feb 9, 2011
Hospital Construction in the Age of Obamacare
The recession has hurt even the usually vibrant healthcare segment. Nearly three out of four hospital systems have put the brakes on capital projects. We asked five capital expenditure insiders for their advice on how Building Teams can still succeed in this highly competitive sector.
| Jan 31, 2011
Cuningham Group Architecture launches Healthcare studio with Lee Brennan
International design firm Cuningham Group Architecture, P.A. (Cuningham Group) has announced the arrival of Lee Brennan, AIA, as Principal and Leader of its new Healthcare studio. Brennan comes to Cuningham Group with over 30 years of professional experience, 22 of those years in healthcare, encompassing all aspects of project delivery, from strategic planning and programming through design and construction. The firm’s new Healthcare studio will enhance Cuningham Group’s expertise in leisure and entertainment, education, mixed-use/housing and workplace environments.
| Jan 31, 2011
HDR Architecture Releases Evidence-based Design Videos
As a follow-up to its book Evidence-based Design for Healthcare Facilities, HDR Architecture, Inc. has released three video case studies that highlight evidence-based design principles in action.
