Oregon Top Project Manager - Don Kowalchuk
Skanska PM Tackles Tough KC Courthouse Job

The $70 million King County Courthouse seismic upgrade in downtown Seattle is one bump after another - but Don Kowalchuk wouldn't want it any other way.

by Sheila Bacon

Senior project manager Don Kowalchuk reviews plans with project engineer Patricia Nakamura on the King County Courthouse seismic upgrade job. Kowalchuk's calm demeanor and management skills make him a good fit on the demanding job. Photo by Lara Swimmer/Lara Swimmer Photography

The King County Courthouse seismic upgrade job is one of those demanding projects that encompasses a little bit of everything: a tricky site, a break-neck schedule and an ever-fluctuating scope of work with an unbending budget.

And Don Kowalchuk is one of those project managers who seems to have what it takes to tackle such a job with success.

As senior project manager for the county's daunting upgrade , Kowalchuk, 37, has led his Skanska USA Building (Seattle) team through $70 million in renovations at the courthouse; a task complicated because court proceedings are ongoing and high-level county executives and elected officials remain in the building.

"He's unflappable," said Jim Napolitano, King County's manager of major capital projects. "From the get-go, when we've had to bring bad news - we're going to be pouring 1,000 tons of concrete right over someone's head, for example - I've always used Don to explain that. He speaks with very high-level people and explains what's going on beautifully."

Steve Savage, structural project manager for Coughlin Porter Lundeen, the Seattle structural engineering firm that served as the prime design consultant on the job, remembers being uneasy when the county was in the process of finding a general contractor to do the job.

Savage said he was relieved when he heard Skanska's Kowalchuk - someone he'd worked successfully with on the earlier Smith Tower rehab project - would lead the job.

"There are few people who could handle this project," Savage added. "There are so many traps, both technically and politically speaking."

2001 Quake Spurred County

Kowalchuk and the Skanska team started emergency repair work on the courthouse after the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001 hit the region and damaged many of the older buildings in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood.

The quake sped up the county's efforts to solidify a seismic upgrade plan that was already under way, and Skanska was eventually hired to complete the work.

Since starting preconstruction work in July 2002, Kowalchuk has overcome stumbling blocks on a near-daily basis. Undocumented interior renovations over the years have resulted in unexpected structural elements not found on existing plans.

Because the building is occupied and functioning, noisy work must be performed outside normal business hours. The placement of concrete requires a dizzying path of pump lines through basement hallways, corridors and unused offices, while steel for the upper levels is painstakingly lifted in through windows with a tower crane.

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And the upgrades must coexist with many of the activities that are ongoing at the courthouse. Currently, the project team is figuring out how to ensure that a murder trial in the largest courtroom in the building can proceed uninterrupted - despite the fact that the space is square in the middle of Skanska's critical path.

Instead of shying away from such issues, Kowalchuk embraces them.

"I'm not the type to stand at an assembly line - I've got to be tasked all the time," he said.

He attended Green River Community College and earned a bachelor's degree in construction management from Washington State University. Kowalchuk got his first taste of construction working for his uncle in residential construction. After college, he spent eight months as a mechanical insulator before pursuing his longtime interest in heavy construction.

"I'd get bored building tilt-ups," said Kowalchuck, who's been with Skanska for the past 14 years. "This is challenging."

He's got a special affection for renovations and seems to enjoy unexpected surprises.

"Just when you think you're getting on top of it, 10 things come at you at once," he said. Like any good leader, Kowalchuck credits his superintendents, engineers, managers and subcontractors for making a difficult job manageable.

"Without my team, I'd be a walking wreck," he added. "If we were understaffed, didn't have the right people or had problem subs, this job would be a living hell."

It's a Team Effort

Tina Gilbert, project manager with owner's representative The Seneca Group of Seattle, works closely with Kowalchuk on a daily basis to keep the project running as smooth as possible.

She said she has been impressed with Kowalchuk's willingness to work out problems. A recent program change to planned work on the 10th and 11th floors of the courthouse has meant Skanska crews will get access to the space later than anticipated.

"He just works that into the schedule instead of coming back with delay claims and paperwork," Gilbert added. "He doesn't pull out the specs and drawings all the time and say, 'This is what it says we should have.' We all tend to work together."

It's that team effort that has saved this project from ending up a political nightmare, Napolitano said.

"If there ever was a county project that should have gone south, it's this," he added. Even though the project was $20 million over budget from the get-go and he faced the county executive's directive to not diminish the quality of the project in any way, Kowalchuk and his team have worked with the county to shuffle occupants, speed up the process and minimize risk.

And he has gradually tweaked the budget over the course of the project to match the county's requirements.

A carefully monitored schedule has also helped shave five months the original 27-month project timeline, and Skanska crews promise completion by noon on Aug. 13. A project manager of Kowalchuk's caliber is something every owner hopes for, and on this complex project, Kowalchuk's expertise and dedication to excellence was absolutely necessary.

"I don't get called in the middle of the night on this project - ever," Napolitano said. "I have a great deal of trust in him, and in Skanska. He's made a hero out of me."