Secrets of Top Project Managers

by Alex Padalka

We asked top project managers to share some secrets of their success. Unsurprisingly, preparation and coordination rank highest among their priorities. Here's what they did to deliver projects on time and on budget.

Sam Wright, Vice President
Parsons, Seattle

Concourse A at Seattle Tacoma Inter-national Airport was under construction when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, and the team had to radically alter the project to meet new security requirements or face a 1.5-year delay.

The South Terminal Expansion Team, led by Port of Seattle project managers and consultants, decided to created five “tiger” teams to oversee five major changes in the project and bring on new staff to focus on integration of the changes.

The teams consisted of NBBJ, Wood Harbinger, KPFF, Heery International, CH2MHill, Clark Construction, University Mechanical, Valley Electric and Parsons, and the changes tacked on $203 million to the overall cost, but the project was delayed only three months.

Sam Wright, vice president of Parsons, says there are no secrets to success, even on a changing project such as this, and the key to good project management is understanding the scope of the job and mutual respect.

“We said “do the right thing” and do not be confused by the stresses or politics or pressure of the day but focus on the job,” he adds. “In the end that was the answer. One of our client’s project manager’s favorite saying was ‘the dogs will bark but the caravan moves on,’ and it did.”

The project won the 2004 Large Project award from the Construction Management Association of America.

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Bill Forsythe, Vice President of Operations
Hoffman Construction, Portland

Bill Forsythe, who handles medical projects for Hoffman Construction, says that construction managers need a different approach when it comes to medical facilities. Forsythe cautions project managers that installation of sophisticated medical equipment often requires more coordination than owners expect, and since vendors often have to go through approvals that are outside the scope of construction managers, owners have to be more involved with the process.

“One thing I've learned about medical work is that for a job to be a success, [project managers] have to manage a lot of owners,” he says, adding that owners sometimes don't understand that medical equipment cannot simply be brought in at the end; its installation has to be coordinated early on.

“If you don't know what it requires, you're due for a surprise down the road,” he says.

Forsythe adds that smaller projects may require the construction manager to step in and assign his or her own staff, or he or she must work with the owner to coordinate timely and efficient delivery and installation.

As an example of good project management, Forsythe cites the $140 million Oregon Health and Science University Center for Health and Healing in Portland, which was completed in October. The 16-story, 412,000-sq-ft facility is applying for LEED platinum certification.

The facility features sunshades doubling as solar-power generators and an onsite microturbine plant, the first of its size in Oregon, which will reduce electricity demands by 30%. A wastewater treatment plant reduces water consumption by 56%.

In place of standard air conditioning, the center is the first large structure in the U.S. to use a more efficient chilled-beam system, which carries chilled water through the beams and uses natural convention currents to bring cool air down.

Patrick O'Brien, Principal
O'Brien Constructors, Portland

O'Brien Construc-tors served as construction manager for Penner-Ash's $3.7 million, 16,500-sq-ft winery in Newberg, Ore., designed by Waterleaf Architecture of Portland and completed in 2005.

The project included a three-level gravity feed winery and a building that was originally to include a high-tech food processing space. When the project was already under construction, however, Penner-Ash decided to add high-end hospitality features to the building.

Patrick O'Brien, principal at O'Brien Constructors, says that open lines of communication between the owner, architect, contractor and subcontractors let them adjust to the change effectively. 

“Establishing these early in the project—through meetings, schedule review and informational e-mails—allowed us to incorporate the completion of the hospitality portion of the winery (originally planned as a second phase) into the primary construction schedule without missing the scheduled Memorial Day grand opening,” he says.

Rick Whitworth, Project Manager
BNBuilders, Seattle

BNBuilders teamed up last year with designers Miller Hull Partnership of Seattle on a $12 million design-build contract to deliver five 5,000- to 6,000-sq-ft libraries for the King County Library System in Washington over a two-year period.

While the buildings had similar floor plans, their exteriors varied, and each of the five communities—Snoqualmie, Fall City, Black Diamond, Carnation and Muckleshoot—had different interests.

“Each of these communities has its own public review and permitting process,” says Rick Whitworth of BNBuilders. “And because these libraries will become a central part of their community, the public is interested in participating and contributing to their design.  It is very difficult to satisfy each of the interest groups that are involved in this process.

“Something I’ve really come to appreciate is the value of our design partner. This is truly a design-build team. Our designers have been through public comments and permitting plenty of times.  They understand how to incorporate or deflect public criticisms.”

Steve Stroming, Senior Project Manager
Rafn Co., Bellevue

Rafn Co. is serving as the construction manager on the $9.5 million, 69,900-sq-ft Terry Avenue Office Building at Terry and Thomas streets in South Lake Union for First Western Development Services.

Designed by Weber + Thompson, who will be the primary tenants, the building will seek LEED gold certification and will reduce energy use by 30% through both passive and active energy saving designs.

A mandate for underground electrical service by Seattle City Lights in the preconstruction process threatened to blow the project out of budget, but the team was able to keep all the LEED elements intact despite some sacrifices.

Steve Stroming, senior project manager, says the key to effective collaboration between the owner, architect and Rafn was the construction manager's early involvement with the entire process.

“The best project manager will have had an integral role in estimating, scheduling and value engineering the project, and then follow through during the construction phase in close collaboration with the superintendent to assure delivery of what was promised,” Stroming says. “The best project managers always have mud on their boots.”