collaboration for a cure THE KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING AND THE CULTURE OF INNOVATION
BRIAN LIBBY
collaboration for a cure THE KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING AND THE CULTURE OF INNOVATION
BRIAN LIBBY
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
For my partner of 24 years, cancer survivor and Knight Cancer Institute patient Valarie Smith And for all those who have bravely struggled to overcome this disease
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea for this book originated with the team of architects, builders and owner representatives leading the Knight Cancer Research Building’s design and construction process. It was a privilege to be entrusted with their story. A big thank-you goes to Stefanie Becker of the McCarthy/Andersen joint venture, who not only guided the highly collaborative integrated design and construction culture this book celebrates but was also a wise, trustworthy and encouraging presence as the manuscript came together. Thanks also to Kip Richardson of SRG Partnership for his first-rate editorial skills and for recommending me as author; to Leslie Boll of SRG for bringing the book alive graphically; and to Tiffani Howard of the Knight Cancer Institute and Ed Trotter of Oregon Health & Science University for their leadership. And a special thank-you goes to Jacquelyn Martin of McCarthy/Andersen, who served as a project manager and much more. From choreographing hundreds of logistical steps to acting as a co-interviewer to helping edit the manuscript, she was a collaborative partner throughout.
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Foreword — 06 Introduction — 08
6
Rise of the Knight Cancer Institute 11
Cover Graphic representation of artwork in KCRB lobby: 10,000 hand-painted dots represent the 10,000 donors who came together to raise $1 billion for cancer research at OHSU. Inspired by a challenge from Phil and Penny Knight, these donors from all 50 states and 15 countries united to help end cancer as we know it.
OHSU’s Journey from Marquam Hill to South Waterfront 21
Creating a Vision 29
Overcoming Design Challenges 41
CONTENTS
7
A Better Way to Build: Integrated Project Delivery 49
Focus and Flow: Embracing Lean Construction
Coming Together at the CoLo
71
79
Touring the Completed Knight Cancer Research Building 87
Voices of the Knight Cancer Research Building 105
Timeline — 116 Opening Ceremony Speech — 128 Afterword — 131 Cast & Credits — 134
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
FOREWORD
8
Kate Brown 38th Governor of Oregon
FOREWORD
Oregon has always been home to pioneers and dreamers. From timber to high tech to sneakers, from the state’s earliest indigenous residents to its most recent immigrants, people come here from all over the world—not just because of Oregon’s wondrous natural beauty, but because ours is a culture that embraces a better future. On September 7, 2018, on behalf of all Oregonians, I had the privilege of participating in the ceremonial ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Knight Cancer Research Building at Oregon Health and Science University. In the light-filled laboratories of this fantastic building, talented scientists will embark on a journey toward the ultimate goal: to end cancer as we know it. Today, that goal seems more attainable than ever thanks to the leadership and vision of Dr. Brian Druker, the Knight Cancer Institute’s director, and his multidisciplinary team. Scientific innovation starts by breaking down silos and preconceived notions; by approaching longstanding problems from new angles. When we ask people to work together in innovative ways, we see better outcomes. That same spirit of teamwork defined the KCRB design and construction process. The building industry has struggled just like scientists to find better ways to work collaboratively: to produce the best, user-first designs on time and on budget. I’m proud to say that the team that designed and built the Knight Cancer Research Building was just that: a team. Architects, contractors, tradespersons—they came together early to share ideas and find common solutions in a manner that will be a lesson across the industry. Whether it’s lean construction or integrated project delivery, it all requires the same thing: collaboration—with trust and with passion—and letting the best ideas win. As this world-class building and the quest to end cancer reminds us, it really does take a village. It takes
great scientific talent like we have at OHSU and the Knight Cancer Institute. It takes people of both great and humble means pursuing and funding a cause together, as we saw in the Knight Cancer Challenge, pairing philanthropists’ hundreds of millions with the equally-meaningful earnings from children’s lemonade stands. It takes the voices and values of the wider community, which we saw in $200 million of support from Oregonians. It takes design and construction expertise to make that dream a built reality—thinking outside the box to build a better box. And it compels us to tell the story. In these pages you’ll hear from scientists and building industry veterans alike: not just multidisciplinary teams, but collaborating disciplines, industries, and communities. That’s the Oregon way: we blaze the trail, but we do it together.
9
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
INTRODUCTION
10
INTRODUCTION
The Knight Cancer Research Building (KCRB) is one of the most advanced oncology laboratories in the world, but the real story chronicled in this book is how teamwork and culture give birth to innovation. This building is designed to enable and encourage team science, a major developing trend in medical research: the idea that groups of people with diverse skill sets can better solve complex problems than individual researchers working solo. This same unified approach is also changing the building industry, where the methodology is much different from 30 years ago. For too long, architects, contractors and clients have operated in separate realms, only coming together occasionally at critical junctures in the multi-year process of designing and constructing a major building. Today, methods such as integrated project delivery and lean construction are showing that close collaboration from the outset reduces conflict, saves money and produces a better building. That’s why early on the Knight Cancer Institute set the tone for the collaborative KCRB design and construction process: by establishing a multi-disciplinary team working not just prior to groundbreaking, but before the design was even generated. For seemingly everyone on our team, this job felt very special. No doubt that comes in large part from the building’s heroic purpose: ending cancer. But whether in our jumbo-sized colocation trailer or on the job site, something extraordinary transpired: a level of teamwork and camaraderie that was uncommon and inspiring. Like any building project, there were moments of difficulty and tension. So many of us were new to IPD and lean construction, or new to our positions. Yet we were able to ask a lot of the questions up front that normally get asked in the heat of construction. We stayed ahead of the curve. Group dynamics and making decisions by committee can be tough. There has to be the right balance of
deliberation and action. You can’t spin your wheels all day, or no building would ever get built. Success starts by putting in the time to listen and to develop the right team, one empowered to act confidently and decisively. And it takes vigilance. The adversarial nature of construction means that developing trust and establishing a culture where all are working for the good of the project can be tough. Good teams do not happen just by throwing good people together. They take time, effort and coaching to truly perform at their peak. Good teams are also enabled by being together. A large CoLocation space for this project was crucial for bolstering these relationships, providing the opportunity to interact professionally as well as personally, which in turn strengthened our bonds. Through the course of building the KCRB, many of us had the opportunity to interface with Knight researchers, women and men on the frontier of cancer research. Their drive, humility and dedication to the fight against cancer motivated all of us. These people are our heroes, our friends, and an inspiration. While every major building project has its struggles, we believe that together—as contractors and architects building a building, as scientists and researchers turning the tide against cancer—we are stronger.
11
CHAP TER 1
RISE OF THE KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE
In 1986, just after reaching its 100th anniversary, Oregon Health & Science University embarked on what would become the institution’s greatest mission: ending cancer. It was a relatively modest move, but it provided an important catalyst: OHSU Foundation Board members led by Charlie Allis and Dick Rubinstein successfully raised funds for what became the university’s first endowed chair devoted to oncology.
13
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
14
“IS THERE A HIGHER CALLING THAN CURING CANCER?” Phil Knight
CHAP TER 1: RISE OF THE KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE
Over the next decade, OHSU began to build a real
THE GLEEVEC REVOLUTION
institution devoted to cancer research and care. In
By the turn of the 21st century, equipped with a new
1992, the Oregon Cancer Center was established
name—the OHSU Cancer Institute—advancements
within the university, with President Peter O. Kohler,
kept coming. In 2001, the United States Food and Drug
M.D., appointing Grover Bagby, M.D., as the institute’s
Administration approved Gleevec, the world’s first tar-
first director. Just a year later, Bagby was able to suc-
geted cancer therapy for treatment of chronic myeloid
cessfully recruit the visionary doctor Brian Druker, who
leukemia, and developed by Dr. Druker. Gleevec was
would come to lead the Oregon Cancer Center to new
later approved for treatment against nine other forms
heights.
of cancer, including the first new pediatric cancer
Within five years of its 1992 founding, the Oregon Cancer Center received the industry’s most important
therapy in more than a decade. Indeed, the results of a five-year study conducted at
and prestigious validation: a National Cancer Institute
117 centers in 16 countries and published in the New
designation from the National Institutes of Health. This
England Journal of Medicine in 2006 were astonishing.
made the OCC the first and only such designee in Oregon.
Prior to Gleevec there was a 70 percent mortality rate
Shortly after moving into its new home at the Mark
for those inflicted with chronic myelogenous leukemia
O. Hatfield Research Center on OHSU’s main Marquam
(CML). Now the results showed a nearly miraculous 90
Hill campus, the Oregon Cancer Center’s efforts began
percent survival rate. “We’ve completely changed the
to pay dividends in the fight against this deadly dis-
outlook for patients with this disease,” said Dr. Druker,
ease, as research here helped establish colonoscopy
who also led the study. “Before Gleevec, patients were
as the international standard of care for early detection
fortunate if they lived five years. Now, we’ve given
of colorectal cancer. For the first time, oncologists
patients a hopeful future.”
from OHSU were making a major contribution to the world’s body of knowledge in the fight against cancer.
Gleevec was an advance that made the world take notice. “There is new ammunition in the war against cancer. These are the bullets,” a May 29, 2001 Time magazine cover headline proclaimed, next to a picture of Dr. Druker’s capsules. “Revolutionary new pills like Gleevec combat cancer by targeting only the diseased cells. Is this the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?” On the strength of that success, the momentum continued. In 2006, the OHSU Cancer Institute established one of the nation’s first cancer programs specifically targeted at adolescents and young adults, thanks to the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s support. That same year, the OHSU Prostate Cancer Program
15
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Above Brian Druker, M.D. (OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff) Left Lisa Coussens, Ph.D. (Photo courtesy Metro/ Sally Painter)
16
Below (left to right) Sancy Leachman, M.D., Ph.D. (OHSU/Fritz Liedtke) Joe Gray, Ph.D. (OHSU/Chris Hornbecker)
CHAP TER 1: RISE OF THE KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE
was selected to join a national consortium to share
the OHSU Cancer Institute was renamed the Knight
knowledge, tools and technology.
Cancer Institute.
By this time, the OHSU Cancer Institute was ready
With a new sense of momentum, the Knight Cancer
to expand its offerings. A radiation-based patient
Institute began growing in size and achievement. Dr.
treatment facility was opened in the newly built
Druker’s team attracted some of the world’s most
Peter O. Kohler Pavilion, for example, and as part of
renowned scientists and oncologists. Lung oncology
OHSU’s broader expansion into the South Waterfront
expert Alan Sandler, M.D., became chief of hematol-
district, cancer clinic space was opened in the new
ogy and medical oncology in 2009. Prostate cancer
Center for Health & Healing. All told, the Institute now
expert and surgeon Chris Amling, M.D., was hired as
totaled more than 200,000 square feet of clinical
chief of urology. Joe Gray, Ph.D., an internationally
and laboratory space dedicated solely to cancer care
recognized innovator in genomics—the branch of
and research. Yet these facilities for the OHSU Cancer
molecular biology concerned with the structure, func-
Institute were noticeably scattered.
tion, evolution and mapping of genomes—joined the team in 2010. His joining the Knight Cancer Institute
THE DRUKER-KNIGHT ERA BEGINS
helped to intensify efforts to understand how cancer
Just over 20 years after its initial founding, the OHSU
grows in order to develop more targeted therapies
Cancer Institute saw two milestones in 2007 and
and save more lives. Lisa Coussens, Ph.D., joined the
2008. First, with Dr. Bagby’s retirement, Dr. Brian
OHSU Knight Cancer Institute in 2011 to continue her
Druker was named director, a position he continues to
research into the role of immune cells in cancer. And in
hold today. Within a year, Dr. Druker was named winner
2013, Sancy Leachman, M.D., Ph.D., was recruited to
of the Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical
serve as the new chair of the Department of Dermatol-
Research, widely regarded as the most prestigious
ogy and director of the Melanoma Research Program
research award in the United States.
at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. That year an
“We are making significant progress in the fight
important private-sector partner also came on board
against cancer and are providing hope to millions of
as OHSU entered a collaboration with Intel to decode
patients and their families,” said Druker. “We are well
the root causes of cancer and other complex diseases,
on our way to making effective and non-toxic therapies
blending the tech industry giant’s expertise in extreme-
a reality for all cancer patients.”
scale computing with OHSU’s biomedical imaging and
In 2010 the heroic work being done to fight cancer earned the attention and support of Phil and Penny Knight, who bequeathed $100 million to the Institute’s mission. In honor of the Nike co-founder and his wife,
genomics expertise.
17
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
THE KNIGHT CANCER CHALLENGE
port Brian Druker’s incredible vision,” Knight added.
In 2013, boosted by a world-class team of scientists
“This is the man who can get this done.”
and an innovative approach to cancer treatment gaining national headlines, leaders of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute met with its namesake benefactors,
accepted the historic challenge. “It is not often that
Phil and Penny Knight, with an audacious sugges-
one is given a billion-dollar challenge. But the cause
tion. With a vision for team science to improve early
is great,” he said. “Failure will not be an option. The
detection of cancer, Dr. Druker’s team sought a billion
Knight Cancer Institute will now have an opportunity to
dollars to build world-class facilities. “That was a lot
position itself—this is not hyperbole—as the premier
even for Mr. Knight,” recalls Steve Stadum, the Knight
cancer institute in this country.”
Cancer Institute’s former chief operating officer (now
“This is a transformative moment,” he added, “not
the chief operating officer for Seattle’s Fred Hutchin-
just for OHSU and for Oregon, but for the people who
son Cancer Research Center).
matter most. This is about changing the lives of cancer
Initially the Knights did not respond to the request, but as Stadum recalls, on the eve of the Knight Cancer 18
On behalf of OHSU and the Knight Cancer Institute, the university’s president, Joe Robertson, M.D., M.B.A.,
patients around the world.” Dr. Druker, as he took the stage, beaming and smil-
Institute’s biannual fundraising gala in September,
ing, was taken aback. “I had a speech prepared, and
Knight asked if he could introduce Dr. Druker to the
I’m just going to rip it up,” he told the audience, “Phil
audience of 400 supporters. Without telling anyone his
and especially Penny, thank you so very much. I just
plan, that evening Knight announced his pledge.
cannot begin to express how grateful we are. You in-
“As I speak, there is a grandfather, a mother, a
spire us to do more and you inspire us to do better. You
child, who hugs a loved one who he or she would not
give us an enormous amount of responsibility to create
be able to hug if it were not for Brian Druker,” Knight
something and to cure cancer. And I can promise you
told the audience. “It is incumbent on everyone in this
from the bottom of my heart that we will do everything
room to do what he can to keep the miracles com-
we can to take the words of Dan Wieden and to tweak
ing. And I speak to myself as well as to all the rest of
that famous Nike slogan, and to just cure it.”
you. Accordingly, I make the following pledge: Penny
The fundraising campaign began quickly, bolstered
and I will donate $500 million dollars to OHSU if it is
by an effort to secure $200 million of the $500 million
matched within two years in a fundraising campaign.”
goal from the Oregon Legislature. While everyone
As Knight made his announcement, there were audible
wants to see cancer cured, there was still pushback.
gasps from the audience.
“The state of Oregon is not a philanthropic organiza-
“Penny and I hope to motivate every person who
tion,” Chuck Sheketoff of the Oregon Center for Public
has a stake in curing cancer to come forward and sup-
Policy told Willamette Week in a December 2013 interview. Legislators from both parties shared the skepticism, citing a host of other funding priorities that could be crowded out. But Senate President Peter Courtney,
CHAP TER 1: RISE OF THE KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE
himself a cancer survivor, endorsed the university’s proposal. “The Knight Cancer Institute would be able to attract the leading researchers in the world to Oregon,” Courtney said in a prepared statement. “Their research would have the potential to save millions of lives.” The Oregon Senate approved the measure by a vote of 28–2 in March 2014. But there was still the matter of another $300 million to raise. There were already multiple $1 million donations, but there were also smaller yet perhaps even more symbolically significant donations, like several hundred dollars from a donut sale organized by a nine-year-old girl, or the $68,868
“This is a transformative moment, not just for OHSU and for Oregon, but for the people who matter most. This is about changing the lives of cancer patients around the world.”
that was raised by OHSU employees in just a 24-hour period with matching gifts from a variety of local companies. The largest single donation was $100 million from Gert Boyle, chair of the Oregon-based Columbia Sportswear. Boyle’s late sister, a molecular biologist, died of brain cancer and was a scientific mentor to Druker when he was an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego. The campaign ultimately received more than 10,000 donations, given from people in 14 countries and every U.S. state. Yet three-quarters of the money came from donors in Oregon. The campaign benefited from creative outreach as well as financial contributions. In May of 2014, twopage newspaper ads ran in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times and San Francisco Chronicle, designed pro-bono by Portland-based advertising giant Wieden + Kennedy. The left side of the page showed a pair of scissors and an orange ribbon with one end snipped off. The right side read: “Cancer doesn’t need another ribbon. It needs another cure.” It went on to explain how OHSU and Dr. Druker revolutionized the treatment of chronic
myeloid leukemia with Gleevec. “That’s one cancer down. We are going after cancer as aggressively as it goes after us…Help us make cancer the victim.” The ads prompted a flurry of interest and online donations, with an ensuing 50 percent increase in visits to the campaign’s site. Billion-dollar campaigns are still relatively rare, said Bruce Flessner, a fund-raising consultant at Bentz Whaley Flessner in Minneapolis, in Nature journal. When universities do set out to raise that much, he noted, they take an average of seven years. He also noted the extra degree of difficulty for the Knight Cancer Challenge aiming to fund a single institute at a university far from the clusters of wealth found in New York City or Silicon Valley. “Portland is a great city, but it’s not minting billionaires at a fast rate,” Flessner said. “If there is a wealthy person in Oregon who hasn’t been asked to make a gift to that cancer program, I would be shocked.” On June 25, 2015, OHSU announced that it had reached its $500 million target in 22 months. It was the largest amount a U.S. institution had ever raised to
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Live: 23.75"
.5"
Gutter
.5"
Live: 23.75"
Live: 21"
CANCER DOESN’T NEED ANOTHER RIBBON. IT NEEDS ANOTHER CURE. At OHSU, we take a different approach to fighting cancer. We revolutionized the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia with Gleevec. For hundreds of thousands ®
of people, CML is no longer a death sentence. That’s one cancer down. Cancer doesn’t need more awareness. It needs more Gleevecs.
We are going after cancer as aggressively as it goes after us. And because time is of the essence, Nike cofounder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, have pledged $500 million if we can raise a matching amount. Help us make cancer the victim.
From TIME Magazine, May 28, 2001 ©2001 Time Inc. TIME ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc. and is used under license. TIME and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Licensee.
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JOB 9PBOHSM14012 TITLE OHSU Ribbon CLIENT Oregon Health & Science University FILE 9PBOHSM14012_Ribbon_23.75x21 OFFICE USA–Portland ECD Susan Hoffman/Joe Staples USAGE
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Cancer’s cure is Oregon’s new frontier. Charting new territory. It’s always been the Oregon way. We’ve blazed trails, changed history, and accomplished the impossible. Now, the pioneers at Oregon Health & Science University are mapping the most direct route to curing cancer. OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute is launching an unprecedented $1 billion campaign to end cancer as we know it. Many Oregonians have already joined us but we need the support of even more pioneers like you. Visit knightcancerchallenge.org to learn how you can embark on this important journey with us. A cancer-free frontier awaits.
Knight Cancer Institute
Images courtesy of OHSU Foundation
Consult Art Production for usage information.
CD AD CW SD SM PM
Hal Curtis, Jeff Gillette, Anthony Goldstein Chris Thurman Andrew Dickson Dani Guralnick Lenore Prato Andrea Nelsen
AE AP PHOTO ILLUS DESIGN COLOR
Wayne Kasserman Marni Beardsley Marcus Swanson n/a n/a Saski Thomson
PUB New York Times ISSUE May 07, 2014 LIVE 23.75 x 21” GUT TER n/a DMA X 240
CHAP TER 1: RISE OF THE KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE
to clinic and I have patients who were told they have months to live and because of the drug we developed,
“We are going after cancer as aggressively as it goes after us… Help us make cancer the victim.”
Gleevec, for chronic myelogenous leukemia, some of them are 15, 16 years out. So I can see the impact we can make by attacking cancer at its very roots. We want to do that for everybody.” “I think everybody has a connection to cancer,” Knight told Roberts. “My father died of leukemia and a beloved aunt died of breast cancer. So cancer has touched everybody.”
win a challenge grant. “Publicly we were always very confident, because if you aren’t, people aren’t going to donate,” Druker told Nature journal. “But when we first got started, we thought, ‘How are we going to do this?’” When OHSU made the announcement, Phil Knight and Dr. Brian Druker appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America to talk about the milestone that had just been reached. Asked by interviewer Robin Roberts what had motivated him and Penny Knight to make the pledge, Knight recalled being approached at an awards dinner by a woman who offered her thanks. “She said, ‘Your Dr. Druker saved my son’s life,’” Phil Knight recalled. Knight went on to express his belief in Dr. Druker, saying, “He’s a champion. He hides it well with his modesty. I used to call it false modesty but he really is modest. But he’s a genius in what he’s done. What he’s done up at OHSU is truly remarkable. They have 40 new cancer research doctors up there, and they’re on the move, and they’re gonna win.” Roberts asked Knight and Dr. Druker how cancer had affected them personally. “My wife was five years old when her mother died of breast cancer. I lost my father to leukemia and two years ago lost a brother to prostate cancer,” Druker explained. “But every day I go
Dr. Druker told Roberts he was ready to get to work. “Now we have to take the knowledge of what we know about cancer and use it to detect it earlier, when it’s more curable, when it’s easier to treat, and save people from having to go through chemotherapy or radiation, or other debilitating treatments,” he said. “So it’s setting the stage for moving from advanced cancer to early detection and ultimately to prevention.”
21
CHAP TER 2
OHSU’S JOURNEY FROM MARQUAM HILL TO SOUTH WATERFRONT
The roots of Oregon Health & Science University stretch back nearly as far as the State of Oregon itself. In 1867, just eight years after Oregon received statehood and less than a quarter-century after the opening of the Oregon Trail that would carry hundreds of thousands of pioneers here to start a new life, Willamette University welcomed its first medical students to its Salem campus. A decade later, the medical program relocated to Portland, and merged with the Oregon College of Dentistry to form what for more than a half-century would be known as the University of Oregon Medical School.
23
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Left Marquam Bridge under construction, 1964 (OHSU)
24
Above Marquam Hill, c. 1930s (OHSU) Right Marquam Hill, 1997 (OHSU)
Left Aerial view of SW Waterfront, 1939 (OHSU)
CHAP TER 2: OHSU ’ S JOURNE Y FROM MARQUAM HILL TO SOUTH WATERFRONT
A SCHOOL ON A HILL
bridge in North America) and the Physicians’ Pavilion
After initially locating in downtown Portland, the
for expanded outpatient services.
Marquam Hill campus got its start in 1917 when
At the turn of the 21st century, as OHSU separated
the Oregon-Washington Railroad donated 20 acres.
from the Oregon State System of Higher Education
Coupled with an 88-acre tract donated by the family of
to become a public corporation, the school reached
C.S. Jackson, former publisher of the Oregon Journal
perhaps the apex of construction of its Marquam
newspaper, it created a real home for the school with
Hill campus with facilities like the Mark O. Hatfield
room to expand. By 1919, the campus had its first
Research Center and the Peter O. Kohler Pavilion. Yet
building: Mackenzie Hall. It was named after Kenneth
OHSU’s leaders were increasingly confronted with a
A.J. Mackenzie, M.D., the medical school’s second
larger problem: running out of room on the hilltop.
dean, who in his previous job as the railroad’s surgeon
But if one were to look east from campus towards the
had convinced the company to donate the hilltop site
banks of the Willamette River, a solution was waiting.
when it proved useless for their needs. From here, the institution began to take shape and
BIRTH OF THE SCHNITZER CAMPUS
serve the community. In the 1920s the Multnomah
Before the 20th century, the land along the west side
County Hospital opened on Marquam Hill, provid-
of the Willamette was barely land. Rather, it was a
ing services to patients for the first time, as did
marsh, where water covered the grassy terrain for
Doernbecher Memorial Hospital for Children, the first
long periods of time from autumn through winter, and
full-service children’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest.
Ross Island formed one of the river’s widest channels
In the 1930s came a new outpatient clinic and an
before emptying into the mighty Columbia River a few
accompanying nursing-education program. The institu-
miles north. But in the early 1900s, the city drained the
tion continued expanding after World War II, and by
marsh and filled the land with topsoil to create more
1974, the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center
usable riverfront industrial property.
was formed as an independent institution. In 1981 it
On this land that would become the Schnitzer
was renamed as Oregon Health Sciences University,
Campus and future home of the Knight Cancer Re-
becoming Oregon’s only official academic health
search Building, a sawmill was built in the 1910s. The
center and one of 125 in the nation.
banks were expanded with topsoil during World War I
The 1980s and ’90s saw growth accelerate. In
to create room for shipyards, and afterward the land
1987, construction was completed on the Vollum
filled with warehouses and a pesticide plant. Just
Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research building.
to the south, the Zidell Marine Company began as a
The early 1990s brought completion of the Casey Eye
scrap metal business. During World War II, both pieces
Institute and the Biomedical Information Communica-
of property became shipyards. Afterward, both the
tion Center (the first fully computerized research library
Schnitzer and Zidell properties became scrap yards,
in the United States), soon followed by the Veteran’s
with the Schnitzers gathering fuel for their growing
Affairs Medical Center Bridge (longest enclosed sky-
portfolio of steel mills while the Zidell expanded from
25
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
breaking down hundreds of ships that had helped win
And city leaders set ambitious goals to accommodate
the war to building new barges over the next three-
10,000 jobs and at least 3,000 units of housing. In
quarters of a century.
2003, the city created a new street-grid plan and
Yet by the mid-20th century, the central city and its infrastructure were inching closer. The Marquam Bridge
renamed what had been known as the North Macadam District to the South Waterfront District.
was completed in 1966, comprising the final link in the
In 2004, as the South Waterfront was just begin-
Interstate 5 freeway system stretching from America’s
ning to come to life, OHSU’s history began a major new
border with Mexico in southern California to the
chapter. The Schnitzer Investment Corporation donated
Canadian border in Washington. As I-5 stretched north
nearly 20 acres of riverfront property on the South
toward the bridge, it also made this land a kind of island,
Waterfront to OHSU.
disconnected from the rest of Southwest Portland. waterfront land was also growing, as was happening
THE PORTLAND AERIAL TRAM AND THE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND HEALING
in cities throughout America. In 1973, the Willamette
There was just one challenge when it came to OHSU’s
River Greenway Act was passed by the Oregon Legisla-
new land. How would people get there from Marquam
ture in cooperation with local governments, its goal to
Hill, more than two miles away on a winding little road?
enhance the scenic, recreational and natural qualities
After studying several options, OHSU and the City of
of the river and its adjacent lands. At the same time,
Portland’s Bureau of Transportation concluded that an
developers were eyeing this waterside property. 1975
aerial tramway would be the best option. In April 2006,
brought the opening of John’s Landing, a mixed-use
City Council voted by a 3-2 margin to approve a final
residential area just to the south of the Zidell and
budget of $57 million, with the city contributing $8.5
Schnitzer industrial properties. In 1978, just to the
million, or 15 percent of the total.
The public’s interest in reclaiming former industrial
26
north, downtown Portland saw the completion of Tom
An international design competition was held to
McCall Waterfront Park, replacing a highway. That
produce the design, the first in the city since 1979 for
only hastened the southward expansion of downtown,
the Portland Building. Zurich/Los Angeles architecture
particularly with the 1985 opening of Riverplace, a
firm AGPS, co-led by Portland native Sarah Graham,
mixed-use district at the southern edge of the park.
was announced as the winner on March 26, 2003.
By the close of the 1990s, this industrial land was on its way to a different future. In 1999, with much of the land along the Willamette now vacant and under-
Construction began in August 2005, and opened to the public on January 27, 2007. About the same time the Portland Aerial Tram
performing, City Council directed the Portland Develop-
competition was announced in 2003, ground was
ment Commission (now Prosper Portland) to create the
broken on OHSU’s first building on the South Water-
North Macadam Urban Renewal Area, comprised of
front: the Center for Health and Healing. Designed by
447 acres, with a focus on transitioning from industrial
GBD Architects, a leader in sustainable design, with an
to mixed-use residential and commercial development.
assist from healthcare design specialists PKA Architects, the $140 million, 16-story building is dedicated
CHAP TER 2: OHSU ’ S JOURNE Y FROM MARQUAM HILL TO SOUTH WATERFRONT
to physician practice, surgery and imaging, education and research facilities. Opened in 2006, the CHH was the largest healthcare facility in the United States to be granted the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest certification level, Platinum, in its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for green architecture. The Center for Health and Healing and the Portland Aerial Tram became the foundation for what was a new urban district emerging from scratch—and quickly. From 2005-08, a number of projects followed in the South Waterfront next door to the tram and the CHH, including the twin 21- and 24-story Meriwether Condominiums, the 31-story John Ross Tower, and the 23-story Atwater Place. The South Waterfront represented a new approach to urban design in Portland. In the past, buildings this tall were not allowed to be built alongside stretches of the Willamette River for fear of blocking views. But these towers’ developers argued that the structures would also be thinner, allowing views through the buildings toward Mt. Hood, citing the success of such a formula in Vancouver, British
Portland Aerial Tram Portland Aerial Tram passing the Center for Health and Healing, 2006. (OHSU/Tim Jewett)
in two ranks parallel to the river with a landscaped central promenade between.” The plan formally divided OHSU’s land holdings in South Waterfront into two parcels: the Schnitzer Campus to the north near the Marquam Bridge, and the South Waterfront Central District to the south, congregated around the Portland
Columbia. City leaders agreed.
Aerial Tram and the Center for Health and Healing.
PLANNING FOR GROWTH
Campus. Two of those were combined into one facility:
After that initial growth period in the South Waterfront from 2003-08, the nation’s (and the world’s) economic fortunes took a drastic turn that for a time halted additional development. Leaders at OHSU knew that expansion into the South Waterfront would continue over the coming years and even decades. But the Great Recession, as it became known, was an opportunity to pause and plan. In 2011, OHSU released its 20-Year Facilities Master Plan, the focus of which was to “arrange buildings
OHSU initially planned three buildings for the Schnitzer the Robertson Life Science Building. The other planned facility was a research laboratory, which would become the Knight Cancer Research Building. In between the two parcels is the Zidell Yards, a 33-acre area owned by the Zidell Marine Company that for decades housed its barge-building operations but has been planned for mixed-use redevelopment, including new open space along the river. But things might have turned out differently. “There was a time when OHSU approached Zidell about doing some kind of a land swap,” recalls Brian Newman, OHSU’s former
27
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
vice president of campus development. “There was an
really complement our two areas of development, and
interest in having contiguous land not separated by the
vice-versa. When South Waterfront is built out, I think
Zidell property. But now I’m glad that didn’t happen.
walking from the KCRB to the tram will have this sense
We don’t want South Waterfront to become a company
of authenticity that it might otherwise not have if the
town for OHSU. Our core competency is not grocery
district was just a pocket of OHSU growth. We want to
stores or restaurants or hotels, but those are all part
be part of a vibrant district and central city.”
of a thriving, diverse neighborhood. By having the
OHSU’s leaders also saw an opportunity in South
Zidell yards between our two bookends, I think it will
Waterfront to create a campus where the space be-
guard against the excesses of just having institutional
tween the buildings was as important as the architec-
development. What they have envisioned I think will
ture itself. “We went through a long conversation with
MARQUAM HILL CAMPUS
SOUTH WATERFRONT LOWER TRAM TERMINAL
MARQUAM HILL UPPER TRAM TERMINAL
28 TILIKUM CROSSING BRIDGE
Photo by Brad Feinknopf
CENTER FOR HEALTH AND HEALING
ROSS ISLAND BRIDGE
ROBERTSON LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING
KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING
CHAP TER 2: OHSU ’ S JOURNE Y FROM MARQUAM HILL TO SOUTH WATERFRONT
staff here [at the university] to say, ‘What are our needs and aspirations?' What we heard was that everyone agreed that OHSU needed to secure land to grow, but more than that, they wanted to learn from the experience on Marquam Hill and create a sense of place,” Newman explains. “Marquam Hill is just a jumble of buildings. There are some special areas I enjoy, but it doesn’t necessarily have the feel of a university
“We want to be part of a vibrant district and central city.”
campus. It’s basically a very heroic campus on top of a hill with these buildings spanning canyons and hillside. When we have researchers coming from all over the world and from the rest of the United States, it doesn’t
predicted to use 45 percent less energy than a building
have that sense of place. We wanted to make sure we
designed to code and 62 percent less potable water.
created that in South Waterfront.”
This building and the Center for Health & Healing established a precedent for world-class sustainable
ROBERTSON LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING AND TILIKUM CROSSING The first building constructed on OHSU’s Schnitzer
design on the South Waterfront that the KCRB would be expected to meet or even surpass. That summer of 2014 also brought a transformative
Campus was the Robertson Life Science Building,
work of infrastructure to the South Waterfront that has
(originally known as the Collaborative Life Sciences
substantially improved connections to the rest of the
Building). It brings together Portland State University,
city. Tilikum Crossing is the first multi-modal bridge in
Oregon State University, and Oregon Health & Sci-
the United States that is off-limits to private automo-
ence University programming in a single structure.
biles. Instead, it carries pedestrians, bicycles, buses,
The 650,000 square-foot complex, designed by Los
and Portland’s two passenger rail systems: MAX (which
Angeles firm CO Architects with Portland firm SERA
connects the city with its suburbs) and the Portland
Architects and completed in 2014, consists of two
Streetcar (for connecting local neighborhoods). Yet
parts: the 12-story Skourtes Tower on the north and a
along with the tram, this infrastructure has transformed
5-story building to the south, connected by an atrium
the South Waterfront from an isolated strip of former
with walkways crisscrossing the multi-story open
industrial land to a well-connected central city district.
space. Inside the RLSB are a variety of teaching and research spaces: simulation rooms for mock surgeries, exam rooms, and an electron microscopy lab with microscopes so sensitive that they rest on their own underground foundation. The RLSB, which received a Platinum-level LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, is
29
CHAP TER 3
CREATING A VISION
Although the groundbreaking of any building project marks the beginning of a journey, by the time the Knight Cancer Research Building’s construction commenced on June 16, 2016, years of research and planning had gone into the effort to coalesce the Knight Cancer Institute’s disparate facilities and build one of the premier cancer laboratories in the world.
31
CHAP TER 3: CRE ATING A VISION
The KCRB process began with an emphasis on team
ing variables. It is seen as a promising approach to
science envisioned by the Knight Cancer Institute’s
accelerate scientific innovation and the translation of
director, Dr. Brian Druker, who believed the next
scientific findings into effective policies and practices.”
generation of early detection would likely include a
Particularly as it relates to cancer, team science is a
mix of technologies and expertise. “We have to learn
necessary approach. “When you have a complex prob-
about the biology of early cancer as it transitions from
lem such as cancer that has multiple parameters and
something that won’t kill you to something that will,”
changes over time, you have to bring what we call a
he said in a 2014 speech. “We want to see a future
systems engineering approach to solve that problem,”
where we each understand our own risks and can
says Dr. Sadik Esener, director of the Knight Cancer
intervene and use information to change the outcome.
Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research
We’ll be making a mini-Bell Labs or NASA or Manhattan
(CEDAR) Center. “In addition, most of the tools that
Project. We’ll bring the best and brightest people here.
we’ll be developing and are being developed require
It’s different than the way science is usually done,
knowledge in electronics, in optics, in biology, and in
with individual people putting the pieces of the puzzle
cancer. So, you really need to merge all these technolo-
together.”
gies and knowledge together. It’s not a one-person so-
As noted by the National Cancer Institute in its
lution. We have to have a team that is multi-disciplinary
Team Science Toolkit, over the past two decades there
and people who can talk the same language, although
has been an emerging emphasis on addressing multi-
they are coming from different fields.”
faceted problems such as climate change and the rise
Although the Knight Cancer Institute’s goals are
of chronic disease teams of diversely trained experts.
ambitious, the move toward team science is partly
This has led to “a surge of interest and investment
born from pragmatism. “I think it’s come out of the fact
in team science,” notes the Toolkit report, in which
that money is tighter now, so competing for research
“scientists across many disciplines and settings are
dollars has become much more difficult,” explains Paul
engaging in team-based research initiatives.”
Howard, the laboratory and operations manager for the
Team science is rooted in cross-disciplinary inquiry,
CEDAR Center. “A logical answer to that is to stop try-
in which collaborators with training and expertise in
ing to reinvent the wheel every time you open a lab and
different fields work together to combine or integrate
work more collaboratively. We’re responding to a trend,
their perspectives in a single research endeavor. As the
but perhaps under-appreciated by some researchers
NCI notes, “cross-disciplinary team science has been
in academia, what we’re doing is a little bit of a hybrid
identified as a means to engage in expansive studies
with industry. Industry often has bottom lines. People
that address a broad array of complex and interact-
tend to operate in larger teams. So, we’re trying to marry the best of both worlds.”
Left Rendering of the social interaction spaces adjacent to the main staircase. Providing spaces for both planned and unplanned encounters was a key component in the design concept.
If team science is partly pragmatic, its pursuit at the Knight can also be particularly uplifting. “25 years ago when I started at OHSU, the culture in research was
33
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Top Rendering at right: Daylight and views for everyone in the building, including the lab spaces, was an important goal for the project. Middle Brian Druker (right) speaks with Sadik Esener, Ph.D., Director, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Center for Early Detection Research. (OHSU) Bottom Rendering illustrating the level of transparency between computationalists and researchers, as well as connections between indoor and outdoor spaces.
34
“We don’t want the building to get in the way of great science. We wanted to build it from the inside out.”
CHAP TER 3: CRE ATING A VISION
much different,” Howard says. “There was more research
what was exciting was the connective tissue between
money, more camaraderie and intellectual endeavor. As
the workspaces: what I would call the soul of the build-
the years went by, money became so much harder to get
ing,” Newman explains. “That completely got applied
that it became more business-like and cutthroat. It got to
to the planning and design process for the KCRB.”
the point where I wasn’t having fun anymore and I wasn’t
Along with the guidance provided by OHSU’s 20-Year
able to focus the majority of my time on research.” The
Facilities Master Plan, the team spent three months
Knight Cancer Challenge funds will make it possible for
preparing a preliminary programming document before
the Knight Cancer Institute’s scientists and researchers
issuing a request for proposals from architects and
to pursue their work without the distraction of having
general contractors. “We wanted to get key stakehold-
to constantly pursue grants. “What the Knight’s doing,”
ers talking about their vision for this building,” explains
Howard adds, “is removing many of the obstacles that
Sara Vonde Veld, OHSU’s current director of campus
were driving me out of the lab.”
planning and real estate. “How could the design change their culture? What could the building really do for
DESIGNING THE DESIGN
them? It was the first time many scientists were coming
Prior to selecting a design and construction team, OHSU
together from across campus. What was the opportunity
and the Knight Cancer Institute sought to learn as much
there? We learned they wanted the building to further
as they could about what would constitute a state-of-
team science.” The stakeholder groups were more than
the-art cancer research laboratory, where leading-edge
informal conversations; facilitators from ZGF Architects
team science was headed, how oncology existed within
and Cameron MacAllister Group were hired to obtain as
the broader realm of scientific thinking, and what the
much tangible feedback from participants as possible.
industry’s best practices and most world-class facilities
“They actually called each person who was going to
indicated about the architecture.
attend the meeting and talked to them before we did,”
“Brian Druker and I said to the OHSU leadership, ‘We don’t want the building to get in the way of great science,’” Steve Stadum explains. “We wanted to build it from the inside out.” Members of OHSU and the Knight toured state-of-
Vonde Veld remembers. “They had a wide variety of perspectives even before the meeting.” Perhaps there was no better place to search for a model of how a laboratory of the future should look than to Dr. Brian Druker himself. Vonde Veld believes
the-art cancer centers and research institutes through-
the stakeholder facilitations also gave Dr. Druker “a
out North America, including facilities at Princeton
forum to tell us what he was thinking. I remember him
and Harvard Universities and the Broad Institute. They
talking about one of his favorite times in life, college,
also looked at combined spaces for public and private
and wanting this building to feel collegiate, where
sector entities where professionals from different dis-
creative juices are flowing and maybe it’s less formal,
ciplines could work together, such as the Cambridge
but people are excited to be there. That was part of
Innovation Center in Massachusetts. “They may have
his vision for the KCRB: just a fun place to work. If you
lab space, or they may have computational space, but
walk through Brian Druker’s lab, it’s a hub of activity.
35
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Some wet labs tend to be quieter. His is just bustling
ENVISIONING THE KCRB PROCESS
all the time and has good energy. How do you make a
When OHSU issued a request for proposals, one of the
building foster good energy? A building can’t do all of
most important early decisions was to call for contrac-
it, but it was a good conversation to have.”
tors and architects to submit as teams, as part of an Integrated Project Delivery model. “The basic notion is
36
MISSION STATEMENT AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
to align the contract between the owner, architect and
All of this input enabled the Knight leadership to
contractor financially,” explains Stadum. “If you can
identify how it wanted to operate and what design ele-
do it, which is not easy, you make better decisions. If
ments were needed in the building in order to support
you involve the contractor early in the design and the
the collaborative culture they desired. When the design
architect during construction, there’s no hand-off from
and construction team was assembled, they responded
one to the other,” which happens in the traditional
with their own mission statement: “Create a dynamic
design-bid-build delivery method.
environment that fuels transformative cancer research
“The institution was already on this journey em-
by driving innovation and discovery.” They also created
bracing IPD,” recalls Brian Newman. “We hadn’t had a
a series of Guiding Principles, which were then broken
project under our belt that really implemented those
down into Operating Principles and Design Principles.
ideals on the ground. We had never done IPD for any of
Go
Standard Project Delivery
Architect designs $
Owner
Integrated Project Delivery $
Contractor builds
CHAP TER 3: CRE ATING A VISION
GUIDING PRINCIPLES THE OPERATING PRINCIPLES:
THE DESIGN PRINCIPLES:
/ For scientists who are part of the Early Detection Program, and increasingly for the Knight Cancer Institute’s other cancer research efforts, multi-disciplinary teams have to be able to work together toward a common goal.
functional & flexible space
team science
/ Lab space will be flexible, reflecting the fast-changing scientific landscape, and it will support the non-territorial culture and the conduct of team science.
/ The building will include visual and physical connections between floors to promote interaction and collaboration between researchers and an internal campus feel.
vertical connections
/ One common goal or set of goals will unite research teams. The focus should be neither on grants nor individual publications, but rather on collaborating and sharing of knowledge to achieve collective success.
team results
/ The KCRB will be the heart of the Knight Cancer Institute. Services and amenities for the Knight will draw others to meet and collaborate, promoting a sense of community with social events, scientific conferences and seminars.
intellectual & social hub
non-territorial / Researchers are asked to think of themselves as co-owners of the entire building, while merely temporary occupants of a particular lab area. Lab heads need to expect their space assignments to be reviewed frequently and should anticipate moving to different parts of the building as needed to support scientific collaborations.
/ The building will operate like a vertical campus. The first floor of the building was conceived as public space where building occupants can interact with members of the OHSU community and the public. It will contain traditional retail space and public entrances, a food-service hub, as well as a state-of-the-art conference center. Access to the remainder of the building will be secured but will maintain an open and welcoming environment. The upper floors will have an engaging community feel much like a high-tech company working toward a common goal in a creative team environment. vertical campus function
shared scientific resources / The Knight Cancer Institute spaces will maximize efficiency by centralizing shared scientific resources to the extent appropriate. In some cases, this will be achieved by centralizing a given service for the entire building, and in other cases, two or more labs may share common equipment and lab staff. This model will have the added benefit of fostering opportunities for researchers to interact with one another.
primary corridor / Each floor will have a primary corridor to channel all pedestrian movement into a common space, encouraging interaction between researchers and enhancing a sense of continuity and team science.
/ At the more public groundfloor level, a state-of-the-art conference center and dining facility will expand the reach of the Knight Cancer Institute, inviting in visitors, partners and other Knight Cancer Institute and OHSU departments not located in the building. Other conference spaces, eating areas and amenities on upper floors will encourage interaction among researchers and other building occupants.
conference & social amenities
shared services / Shared resources will be logically distributed in the building in prominent locations to encourage interaction and improve efficiency. clustering offices near labs / Researcher offices will be located near their lab spaces to maximize convenience and efficiency, and to provide a visual connection from office to lab.
These Guiding Principles provided a common language for discussing design and construction and created the framework for the team to make hard decisions when tradeoffs became necessary. The Principles for the KCRB’s design and construction team also set a precedent for how the Knight Cancer Institute itself will approach building its culture.
37
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
our major projects. The OHSU team had been work-
STUDYING THE USERS
ing for a couple years on trying to change our form of
Even before the selection of the combined design and
agreement to implement IPD. It nicely dovetailed just
construction team—a joint venture between McCarthy
as the master plan laid the groundwork for the KCRB.”
Building Companies and Andersen Construction,
The impetus for Integrated Project Delivery and its early collaboration between owner, architect and
impacted the design of the KCRB. “When we went
contractor was part of a larger initiative within OHSU
into the team selection, we assumed it would be a
to manage its capital projects in-house, “and be very
pretty vertical building,” Stadum explains. “SRG really
forward-looking in basing the delivery around modeling
challenged that and said it should be more horizontal.
better behaviors,” recalls Bill Bowen, who manages
I give them a lot of credit, especially [firm principal
major capital projects at OHSU; he cites the university’s
and co-founder] Jon Schleuning. We ended up picking
then-director of design and construction, Kyle Maj-
them and McCarthy/Andersen in part because they
chrowski, for spearheading the effort. “It was getting
challenged our thinking.”
people to build trust in order to change the culture:
38
with architecture firm SRG Partnership—they already
Reducing the amount of floors and widening them
building highly collaborative teams, putting all the
was key for the architects. “They said, ‘We want to be
experts in the room early on, including consultants and
more flexible, like Google or Apple.’ We realized that
sub-consultants, and leveraging that expertise early in
Google and Apple are not headquartered in high-rise
the design phase. It’s breaking down the building into
buildings,” Schleuning explains. “That’s very intentional.
systems and setting targets for those budgets. It inher-
Horizontal interaction is much greater than vertical.” By
ently felt right and a better way to deliver a project.”
going with wider and thus fewer floors, “it meant you
An extra $2 million was invested to bring more people
could make this largely a stair-based building rather
onto the project early, which in turn has resulted in an
than an elevator building,” with open stairways connect-
estimated $20 million return on investment.
ing floors. “The route to the coffee or to a colleague you
“It was getting people to build trust in order to change the culture: building highly collaborative teams, putting all the experts in the room early on, including consultants and sub-consultants, and leveraging that expertise early in the design phase.”
CHAP TER 3: CRE ATING A VISION
need to ask a question of passes by people you might
clinical models, and the demographic changes taking
not see otherwise, and that leads to still other conversa-
place within the institution’s workforce.
tions. The idea is to get a beehive going.” Within each individual floor, adds SRG Partnership
“The scientific leadership at OHSU was convinced this building does not exist anywhere in the world. It’s
principal Tim Evans, increasing its horizontality “is like
a new thing,” recalls Bryan Croeni, a principal with
a chemical reaction. There’s more people bouncing
B+H. “If the building was to serve as a transformational
off each other and sharing things. Behavioral science
platform, there was value in looking at how the work
shows people are more likely to interact with others on
gets done, and possibly looking to other sectors for
a given floor than they are with colleagues on different
translatable lessons.”
floors.” Collaboration was in mind before the design
B+H has worked with many tech-industry clients, including Microsoft, Amazon and Google, and Croeni’s
process began. Newman suggested and SRG
team suggested to their OHSU and Knight Cancer
Partnership concurred with the need to study
Institute clients that some aspects of these workplaces
workplace strategy in a pre-design phase, which
could be translatable. “Initially we got pushback,”
included working with consultants such as B+A
Croeni recalls. “It was, ‘We’re not Google. You need to
Architects (through what’s called their Advance
see how we work.’” But luckily that was the plan. B+H
Strategy team) and Jacobs Consultancy to determine
began conversations with a variety of scientists and
just what a state-of-the-art or beyond state-of-the-art
researchers, much as OHSU’s leadership had. But this
cancer research laboratory would look like. The idea
time it wasn’t in a conference room and it wasn’t just
was to take a holistic look at what the KCRB needed
talking. The consultant team acted more like anthro-
to be and do: an evaluation of new technologies, new
pologists, observing scientists in their natural habitat. “We documented how they moved, whether they were working collaboratively or individually, and
Originally envisioned as a taller building served by elevators, the design team turned the tower on its side and created a larger floor plate with social hubs connected by stairs.
39
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
collected data,” Croeni adds. “We observed five
the computationalist side was growing, and it behaved
different lab groups and 17 different scientists: a
differently.
cross-section through their research ecosystem. That
pattern: they don’t move around as much,” Croeni
how these folks moved through their habitat over the
explains. “We were able to go back after this and pres-
course of a day.”
ent our findings, and tell them, essentially, ‘You’re not
Traditionally cancer research laboratories are
Google yet, but a third to a half of your people are go-
comprised of two sides. There are biology and wet lab
ing to be more Google-like than you’re used to seeing.
experimentalists (also known as bench scientists),
And to build this capacity, you’re increasingly going to
who come from a variety of sub-disciplines, including
be competing with the Googles and Facebooks in the
microbiology, biotechnology, and biochemistry. Then
talent market.’ ”
there are computationalists, who use computer model
“All of us working together at this stage—SRG,
simulations and visualization in tandem with complex
Jacobs, B+H—really argued for more space for com-
data analysis to come at the research in an entirely
putationalists because they’re increasing in numbers
different way. But experimentalists are increasingly
and importance,” Evans recalls. “Normally it would be
dependent on computational research to solve big
an equal split, but we increased the ratio. We reduced
problems. What the consultant team found was that
experimentalists from 51 percent down to 48 percent and increased the computationalists from 16 to 24 percent. We got a two-to-one ratio.” Going from a nine-
COM P
ONALIST RESE ATI A UT
HER RC
ALIST RES ENT EA IM
HER RC
ER
story tower to a seven-story building with wider floor
EXP
40
“Computationalists have a different movement
enabled us to gain insight and have hard data on
ADMIN
07
ADMIN
06 05
MECHANICAL
EXPERIMENTALISTS LABS
04
TERRACE/ LOUNGE
COMPUTATIONALISTS LABS
03 02 01 P1 P2
CONFERENCE CENTER MOODY
SERVICE
CAFE/ RETAIL
RETAIL
PARKING / SERVICE
PROMENADE LAB SUPPORT
CHAP TER 3: CRE ATING A VISION
plates also meant that the computationalists could be
ent in the years ahead, and the kinds of design aspects
clustered together instead of scattered throughout
they would need to be effective in this new building.
different floors of the building. “There’s a tendency to
“The incoming workforce does not have much patience
think of computationalists as providing data in sup-
for hierarchy,” Croeni explains. “They preferred a flatter
port of what experimental researchers are doing, but
transparent culture. That’s a challenge for more tradi-
actually computationalists increasingly generate a lot
tional, hierarchical thinkers.” There was a desire for an
of their own research,” Evans says. “We had to account
open, collaborative environment at the KCRB that was
for that.”
not about closed-door executive offices. It would be a
SRG and the consultants also wanted to understand
place where everyone felt equal, and where the best
how the workforce that would populate the KCRB was
ideas would win, no matter where in the organizational
changing—in particular, the human tendencies of
hierarchy they came from.
individual scientists of different ages and generations. They ran a focus group dubbed the “Young Scientists
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL SPACE
Club,” and completed a series of exercises around
Related to the notion of an open, collaborative environ-
cultural visioning: how they saw research being differ-
ment, the entire team knew that places outside of the laboratory where scientists and colleagues could come
Knight Cancer Research Building (KCRB) Major Building Occupants April 6, 2015
M
CURRENT PROGRAM
“It’s not always common in laboratory buildings, but we felt for team science to work you needed a generous amount of different collaborative and social interaction spaces,” Evans explains. “You needed cafés and open stairways, but also things like quiet rooms.
EXPERIMENTALISTS Lab Head: 48
together would be paramount.
Research Staff: 384
If you’re working on a grant application or crunching data, you need places to concentrate. It’s trying to understand the patterns of use in the building and the spaces that foster that use, whether it’s collaborative
Experimentalist Data Analyst
Senior Scientist/ Lab Manager
COMPUTATIONALISTS Lab Head: 24
Research Staff: 120
work or social interaction.” These collaborative and interactive spaces also needed to be distributed throughout the building, offering a variety of choices. “When you distribute the attractors, and have multiple places for people to go to,” Evans says, “people will self-select the venue in which they feel most comfortable. You can’t force people to
Lab Heads Research Staff
72 504
Total
576
interact, but if you give them multiple venues, they will gravitate there.”
41
CHAP TER 4
OVERCOMING DESIGN CHALLENGES
The site in South Waterfront presented challenging conditions for the project from the outset. “It was industrial land for a century, and that use left behind some significant contamination,� explains Matt Johnson of KPFF Consulting Engineers, who provided civil engineering services for the project. As a longtime scrap yard, the property was contaminated with PCBs, benzene and other toxic chemicals, as well as hundreds of small residual pieces of rusting metal and some 2,200 pilings still in the river from docks dating back to the shipbuilding days of World War I.
43
CHAP TER 4: OVERCOMING DESIGN CHALLENGES
The adjacent property owner, Zidell Marine, worked
LEED BY EXAMPLE
with the City of Portland on a voluntary 20-year, $30
Over the past 25 years, the biggest change in the
million effort to clean not only the banks on their own
building industry has been the rise of sustainable
property, but a strip of riverfront that is part of the
design and construction practices. According to
Schnitzer Campus. A large-scale sediment-cap reme-
figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administra-
diation was pursued in which multiple layers of sand
tion, buildings today are responsible for 47.6 percent
and rock were used to cover the contamination. The
of all energy consumed. While energy conservation
process, guided by scientists, habitat specialists and
and early green design had first bloomed in the 1970s
landscape designers, created a natural barrier through
in response to the energy crisis, then dissipated in
which contaminants would for the most part not pass
the 1980s, the modern sustainable building move-
through. On top of those layers were several inches
ment began in 1994 with the establishment of the
of soil to which the topsoil was added, an act of soil
U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in
bio-engineering wherein the roots of trees and plants
Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for
become a kind of skeleton that holds the riverbank’s
sustainable buildings. In the ensuing years, additional
new soil layers together, preventing erosion.
green-building rating systems have joined LEED, such
“Because of the industrial history, you couldn’t just
as Green Globes and the Living Building Challenge. But
approach this as a typical project where you dig the
the basic idea is the same. Through tighter building
foundations and go,” Johnson explains. “There’s a soil
envelopes, more robust insulation and windows and
cap we had to respect. There was a lot of prep work
use of alternative energy, buildings have the potential
to get to a point of excavation, and a certain protocol
to not simply use far less energy, but to in time become
that made this site different. I’ve worked on other sites
positive sources of energy generation.
that had soil contamination, but the approach was,
For building owners, the bottom line provides plenty
‘We’ll stay away from those boundaries.’ Here in South
of incentive. For all the millions that may be spent
Waterfront that’s not an option.”
constructing a building, if it is occupied for a generation
Even beyond the cleanup and site work necessary for
or more, then the resources it consumes, such as water
the riverbank, the water itself presented a potential haz-
and electricity, will ultimately be a greater expense than
ard. “South Waterfront’s greatest asset is also its greatest
the initial construction cost. Strategies such as cutting
threat: the river,” Johnson says. “We were looking at data
potable water consumption by using gray water for
from the 1996 flood and had to take into account the
flushing toilets, though, can reduce water bills immedi-
possibility of a massive flood event like that, especially
ately. Or adding extra insulation and multi-pane win-
given the impact of climate change. Designing a site
dows can reduce heating and cooling costs. Yet an even
immediately adjacent to a river, you must respect that.”
greater factor is how a building’s sustainable design can impact human physiology and thus performance.
South Waterfront, 1964 Ships being decommissioned on the site of the future KCRB, with the Marquam Bridge under construction in the background. Photo courtesy City of Portland Archives.
For most private and public-sector entities alike, labor is the greatest cost. More productive workers make for
45
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
decisions according to how they would impact efficiency. “It’s going to be an extremely efficient building, especially considering its use,” explains Nick Collins of
“We were encouraged to challenge ourselves. We didn’t call it done when we got to a reasonably efficient level. We kept looking at it.”
PAE, the project’s mechanical engineering contractor. “It’s challenging to bring the energy use of a research lab down without compromising the performance, but we ended up with an EUI [energy use intensity] rating of 106.8 for the building when it was projected to be around 170. It was a continual process of updating the modeling and making system choices that had the biggest effect.” The design includes a heat recovery ventilation unit, as well as energy-efficient lighting systems that work in tandem with the extensive use of
46
more productive companies and institutions. Studies
glass to minimize the electric lighting load. The team
have shown, for example, that introducing more natural
of architects and trade partners also collaborated to
light into a building can improve schoolchildren’s test
right-size the mechanical system, avoiding the com-
scores, or the amount of breaks an office worker takes,
mon industry tendency to choose oversized equipment.
or the sales figures of a retail establishment. As a result,
“That’s really what gets you to that high level of energy
a sophisticated, research-based strategy of investing in
efficiency,” Collins says. “We were encouraged to chal-
well-placed windows and skylights can basically pay for
lenge ourselves. We didn’t call it done when we got to
itself.
a reasonably efficient level. We kept looking at it.”
The KCRB was designed to achieve a top-level
Sustainability is not just about saving energy, but
Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building
also creating healthy interior environments for the oc-
Council’s LEED rating system, and to even meet the
cupants. In partnership with Brightworks, the project’s
2030 Challenge, which calls for a reduction in fossil
sustainability consultant, SRG helped create what was
fuel consumption to be 80 percent below the median
known as the Healthy Materials Initiative to evaluate
for the corresponding building type by 2020. This
the potential human impact of different materials
process began with an eco-charrette (a design brain-
selections. The team implemented LEED v4 Materials
storming session) at the outset of the project with key
and Resources suite to find and vet materials for the
stakeholders and building occupants to identify and
project that would positively impact the day-to-day
rank values related to sustainability, and to make sure
experience of the research scientists occupying the
the building’s sustainability strategies were in align-
building. “We said, ‘Let’s do our best to get rid of
ment with the client’s mission and values.
carcinogens in the building,’” recalls Tim Evans. “We
The KCRB’s approach to energy efficiency began with extensive energy modeling, which weighed design
decided we really needed to analyze the materials going into the building for their physiological impacts.
CHAP TER 4: OVERCOMING DESIGN CHALLENGES
It became important enough that OHSU decided to
about its ground-floor level and proper accessibility
incorporate this kind of thinking into their master de-
along SW Meade Street. Following revisions, the design
sign standard for interior materials in projects around
was formally approved. In the conclusion to the report
campus.” The designers sought not only to provide
the building was praised for the contribution it will
a healthy indoor environment at the KCRB through
make to OHSU’s growing campus.
strategic selection of building materials without any
“The Knight Cancer Research Building will be at
carcinogens or dangerous chemical components, but
the heart of the growing OHSU Schnitzer Campus,” the
to leverage this effort across OHSU and to advocate for
Design Commission report reads, “and will face the
transparency and healthier materials manufacturing
future OHSU Commons to the east, giving this building
throughout the industry.
a distinct urban presence and an opportunity for views and connection to the Commons, the Greenway, the
DESIGN REVIEW
Willamette River and views beyond. The building is
The design had to work not just for the KCRB’s oc-
impressively detailed with high-quality materials, and
cupants but also the larger community. The City of
is compositionally expressive of the critically important
Portland’s approval process for new buildings in its
cancer research functions that will be going on within.”
Central City includes a review from its Design Commission, a volunteer body that seeks to maintain
TAILORING THE SUIT
overall design quality in the downtown core, with an
While the building’s design had now taken form, there
emphasis on the ground-level pedestrian experience.
was still much fine-tuning to be done. The team con-
Many issues were discussed in testimony. Commission
ducted a series of mockup exercises and workshops
members were concerned with maintaining a view
with the building’s future tenants.
corridor from the historic Lair Hill neighborhood to the
Not everyone can look at a two-dimensional
west. They also raised the topic of exterior glazing,
rendering and get a feel for what it’s like to move
particularly at the north side, where there are fewer
inside a space and understand its proportions. For the
windows because the façade will be hidden in the
building’s design to be vetted by users, the team used
future by another building. Treatment of the penthouse
both full-scale mockups and virtual reality headsets to
was also discussed, particularly how far recessed from
provide different perspectives and experiences of the
the perimeter of the building it would be.
design. While virtual reality has made substantial leaps
The KCRB went before the Design Commission
in quality of imagery, in this case cardboard mockups
four times: twice for what is called Design Advice,
were still the most useful in giving users a sense of
comprised of an initial, non-binding response from this
their future space.
volunteer body; and twice for official Design Review on
Sometimes the mockups had to do with how
April 7, 2016 and May 19, 2016. After the first Design
the scientific equipment fit into a space. In January
Review hearing, the project was not yet recommended
2016, for example, there were mockup exercises with
for approval, due to Commission members’ concerns
researchers devoted to tissue culture rooms, while
47
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
The design and construction team built a series of mockups for the users, starting with simple cardboard constructions and ending with actual furniture systems.
48
CHAP TER 4: OVERCOMING DESIGN CHALLENGES
February brought mockups for office furniture with
recommendation. Skipping any one of those steps
administrative workers, and March was a time for
likely meant that circling back would be necessary.”
lab bench workshops. One mockup looked at where
Most buildings constructed from the traditional
to place the glass wall between wet labs and their
design-bid-build process are like suits purchased off the
adjacent offices, another at types of office furniture
rack, needing alteration after handover to the customer.
available. “We knew mockups were essential, and
But a design vetted by end users through extensive
it speaks to the client’s commitment that they were
mockups is more like a tailored suit. It’s not always easy
willing to make the commitment to get the design
making time for all the measurements in advance, but in
truly dialed in,” explains Phil Lopez, a senior associate
the end no other garment has a better fit.
and architect with SRG Partnership. “It’s the only way to make sure that when everything is installed, that everybody feels good about it.” One key to mockups was getting a robust number of end users to participate. At times it wasn’t easy to convince a range of scientists and other future occupants of the KCRB to walk through a series of cardboard laboratory configurations inside a warehouse and really immerse themselves in the proposed design enough to speak up and provide tangible feedback. The team also had to learn how to present design concepts to stakeholders. “In the beginning, we gave too specific of information to stakeholders,” recalls Tiffani Howard, Ph.D., the Knight Cancer Institute's Program Director and project liaison for the new building. “And in some cases we presented design ideas that were unlikely to be carried out because of budgetary concerns or other reasons. In retrospect, we immersed them too far into the details too fast.” Eventually a working formula took hold. “First, we gave stakeholders a heads-up that the topic was coming for their input. Second, we gave them an opportunity to weigh in regarding what was important to them about the topic. Finally, we came back to users with two to three clear design options, accompanied by our strong
49
CHAP TER 5
A BETTER WAY TO BUILD: INTEGRATED PROJECT DELIVERY
Over the past half-century or more, it has been widely recognized and documented that the design and construction industry has not kept pace with the productivity and efficiency gains other industries have achieved. That’s not to say buildings haven’t become more sophisticated, safe and energy-efficient. Yet there is an inordinate amount of waste in the process due to rework, redundancy and lack of coordination.
51
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
Even when new technologies are introduced, such as
throughout the industry, it is still not uncommon for
BIM (Building Information Modeling, which creates
general contractors to be hired well into the design
one evolving, three-dimensional, virtual model shared
process. As a result, elements of the building program
by designers, contractors and subcontractors alike),
have to be cut or the quality of its materials must be
design teams and building teams typically don’t share
reduced through what’s known as value engineering—
the same system. It is not uncommon for a design
which could easily be called value-reduction engineer-
team to produce a detailed model of the building, only
ing. Regardless, these late cost-cutting moves argu-
to have the contractor redevelop significant portions
ably result from contractors having less input earlier in
of the overall model so that it is compatible with their
the process. And once the building is occupied, teams
shop drawing and fabrication systems and those of the
do not usually stay involved to make sure it’s operating
trades that work with them.
as designed and that the client and users are happy.
An even bigger problem than the waste—or perhaps
The team behind the Knight Cancer Research
its root cause—is the adversarial relationship that
Building believed there was a better way to work: a
developed over the years between contractors and de-
team effort from the beginning, a marriage of owner,
sign teams because of litigation around liability. Both
architect and general contractor that included key staff
sides became more focused on pointing fingers to
working together in a shared jobsite location.
protect themselves than in solving problems together,
To fine-tune these details of any building, but espe-
and litigation grew all too common. Not only is this
cially a sophisticated science laboratory like the KCRB,
lack of collaboration counterproductive and wasteful,
it took a great deal of collaboration between not only
but it also suppresses the kind of innovation that is
the architect and general contractor but the owner,
generated when problems are analyzed from multiple
subcontractors and trade partners. And that collabora-
perspectives.
tion couldn’t just be something verbally agreed to or
The traditional building process also suffers from
viewed as a good intention. It needed to be written into
its assembly-line-like structure and its lack of long-
the contract, committed to by everyone and embedded
term accountability. Until recently, in most cases the
in the delivery model from the beginning.
architects developed the design without input from the
The story of the KCRB is one of how its culture was
contractor. As a result, when the contractor was later
created: by employing leading-edge delivery methods
brought on board and developed cost estimates, the
such as Integrated Project Delivery; by what are known
project would be declared over-budget. This in turn
as Lean construction methods that help the team oper-
required redesign by the architect, making for an ineffi-
ate smartly and assure that the best ideas always win;
cient and expensive process. While today coordination
and quite simply, by gathering together under one big
amongst architects and contractors has improved
roof—architects, contractors, subcontractors, owner’s representatives—in one of the biggest, nicest coloca-
Left The pull planning wall in the CoLo served as an important tool for communicating progress on milestones between all members of the team.
53
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
54
IPD Poster Graphics were used throughout the CoLo to communicate the culture and goals of IPD.
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
tion trailers (informally known as the CoLo) anybody
integrated—specifically as it relates to collaboration
has ever seen.
among the owner, architect and general contractor,
“Every person out there, glazing the building or putting a stick of drywall up, believed they were part of curing cancer. The belief ran pretty deep,” says
commencing at the beginning of or early in the design stage. “With IPD it’s not just about the outcome. It’s
McCarthy/Andersen project director Tim Albiani. “I’ve
a process,” says Albiani. “IPD is something that is
built hospitals where I never felt everyone was aligned
organically developed. It is not something mandated.
the way they are on this job. But again, it goes back to
If it is, it’s a task-driven component and you don’t have
the university and the Knight—the culture they built.
the culture behind it. It has to start from the top down.
They’re the reasons this worked. Even when they were
This job, the owner came in with this vision. They said,
scared they believed in it.”
‘We understand we need to do this with you. We can’t
Anyone can talk about collaboration and teamwork, but the KCRB team has lived it, in a way that
stand back and watch.’ OHSU dove in head-first.” There is no panacea for guaranteeing a healthy
all agree was a rewarding act of culture building. As
project rooted in collaboration and trust. But IPD offers
is inevitable, mistakes were made along the way, but
an environment where, as the Guide puts it, “facilities
those moments became learning opportunities and the
managers, end users, contractors and suppliers are all
team continued to get better and solve problems with
involved at the start of the design process,” “processes
ingenuity born of trust and empowerment.
are outcome-driven and decisions are not made solely on a first cost basis,” “all communications throughout
INTEGRATED PROJECT DELIVERY
the process are clear, concise, open, transparent, and
In Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide, the American
trusting,” “designers fully understand the ramifications
Institute of Architects defines this project delivery
of their decisions at the time the decisions are made,”
approach as one that “integrates people, systems,
“risk and reward are value-based and appropriately
business structures and practices into a process that
balanced among all team members over the life of a
collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of
project,” and where “the industry delivers a higher
all participants to optimize project results, increase
quality and sustainable built environment.”
value to the owner, reduce waste, and maximize ef-
If a project is not contractually IPD – one contract
ficiency through all phases of design, fabrication, and
signed by the owner, architect and contractor – but
construction.”
seeks to employ its principles, the collaborative
IPD is sometimes viewed not as a specific proj-
process should still start with some form of agreement
ect delivery method, such as CM/GC (Construction
between the three parties to outline expectations. For
Manager/General Contractor) or Design-Build, but a
this project, OHSU signed separate contracts with the
philosophy that can be employed in any of these. The
McCarthy/Andersen team and SRG using used a CM/
point, in a certain sense, is not necessarily to be offi-
GC-style agreement. There was a secondary contract
cially IPD but to embody the first letter of that acronym:
document, however: a three-party agreement between
55
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
the owner, contractors and architect. The three-party
and mutual respect that would bring out the best in
agreement also included an official Behavioral Memo-
everyone working on the project.
randum of Understanding that described the relation-
members. Representing the Knight Cancer Institute as
expected to behave. On all collaborative projects, team
a project liaison was Tiffani Howard, Ph.D., who spoke
members have found that the contract is not as impor-
for the scientists and their needs to the architects and
tant as the attitude that everyone brings to the project.
contractors. “My role was designed to make sure that
There was also an incentive pool where innovations,
the architects heard what the science users needed
collaboration and efficiency were rewarded. The
and were able to interpret it correctly, and to engage
contract required the integrated team (SRG Partner-
our scientists, the future occupants, in the design pro-
ship and McCarthy/Andersen joint venture) to place 50
cess,” Howard recalls. A research scientist with OHSU
percent of their estimated profit at risk.
for 24 years after earning her Ph.D. at the university,
“OHSU had never done a straight IPD contract. We
56
The KCRB Core Team was comprised of four
ship between the parties involved and how they were
Howard specializes in cell and developmental biology.
have reams of CM/GC contracts,” explains Mark Wil-
Representing OHSU on the Core Team was Ed Trotter,
liams, the Knight’s chief strategy officer. “We came up
a senior project manager and longtime construction-
with the idea of having a fairly traditional delivery con-
management veteran. Before joining OHSU, he helped
tract with the architecture and general contractor, but
deliver projects ranging from correctional institutions
joining the parties together with the owner as a way to,
to resort hotels to wastewater treatment facilities.
in essence, graft elements of IPD onto what had been a
“We are the first level of upstream decision-mak-
fairly traditional delivery system. Our agreement is not
ing,” Trotter told the Tribune. “We have Tiffani heavily
100 percent IPD. It’s probably 85 to 90 percent there.
focused on the specific technical parts of the labs. I’m
But I’ve seen a lot of value emerge out of this project,
better at knowing what kind of chiller and what kind of
and I’m sure the IPD process fosters that.”
hot water heater we want.” Representing SRG Partnership was Laurie Canup,
THE CORE TEAM
now a principal at the firm with more than 20 years of
Successful IPD projects are built around a core
experience who has dedicated her career to serving
leadership group that includes representatives for the
public clients by providing leadership with a focus on
client, contractor and architect. Acting as equals, they
program delivery, building performance and teamwork.
make decisions together based on what is best for
Finally, representing the McCarthy/Andersen joint
the project. On the KCRB, the Core Team became just
venture was Brian Price, Andersen Construction’s
that: the core—an embodiment of the culture the team
operations manager for Oregon (who began the KCRB
hoped to achieve. Working collaboratively toward a
process as a McCarthy-Anderson project executive).
common goal, the Core Team’s primary responsibility
Price grew up working in the construction industry and
was to create an environment of transparency, trust
after studying construction management has worked
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
for both McCarthy and Andersen, in the latter case for
was also chosen, like other Core Team members, for
the past 23 years.
a mix of soft skills: an ease with organizational and an
In myriad ways, the quartet comprising the Core Team was different from the norm. Given how traditionally both the construction and architecture professions
ability to relate to others, plus a willingness to learn paired with a quiet self-assurance. Today the Core Team’s members talk of being not
have been disproportionately male, “it’s important to
just colleagues, but friends. “We’ve built trust and re-
note half the major leaders on this project are women,”
lationships. It’s been an incredible experience,” Canup
Tiffani Howard says. “I think things would have been
says. But it took time. “At the beginning we were all
very different if it were an all-male team. All four of
trying to figure it out. We were completely new to IPD,”
us were also new to the IPD process. Laurie, Ed and I
she says. “We were all coming from different vantage
were all new to our companies; Ed was hired by OHSU
points, with different ways of seeing the world and
specifically for this project and had never worked on
different goals. We coalesced around shared goals and
a lab building. Laurie was new to SRG. I was new to
getting behind the mission of the project. That took
the Knight and to construction. And none of us were
some rewiring of our brains, to put our companies on
in truly senior positions in our organizations—me in
the back burner and focus on the project first. And that
particular.”
was hard. Initially there was a little bit of tension on the
If the Core Team members were new to such roles, it was a reflection of the other reasons they were
Core Team: ‘How are we going to do this?’” Early in the project, Core Team members confess to
chosen. “We all brought something specific and differ-
difficulty getting along. “We had days we were nearly
ent,” Howard explains. “They brought the experience in
in tears,” recalls Trotter. He points to a moment back
construction I lacked, and I brought the science. I think
in 2015 later dubbed the “Pole of Consternation.” “We
the important thing to state is if you have the right
took a tour of some facilities in Utah, and afterward
strengths, you can learn the rest. You can’t turn some-
we were going back to the hotel on light rail,” Trotter
body into a different person, but you can teach them fit
continues. “Someone took our picture and you could
and make them successful. Choosing people for their
see us hanging on to this pole in the train car, looking
strengths is more important than their knowledge.”
like we’ve been beat up and thrown over a cliff. It was a
The Core Team membership also changed through the course of the process. Canup, who was hired onto the project as a senior associate, replaced a more
tough time but we looked at the picture afterward and laughed. The struggles made us stronger.” A key step for the Core Team was working with a
senior member of her firm who had initially been
coach, Saskia Dennis-van Dijl of Cameron MacAllister
assigned to the Core Team. Price, after a promotion
Group, which prior to the beginning of the project had
that saw his availability dwindle, entrusted a McCarthy/
helped OHSU solicit stakeholder feedback. “I’ve been
Anderson colleague, project director Rich Brecke, to
in design and construction for 35 years, and I’ve never
work in his stead. As much as his many years of project
seen a team work through their problems like this,”
management experience with the company, Brecke
says Dennis-van Dijl. “The Core Team had formed,
57
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Brian Price
Ed Trotter
58
Tiffani Howard
Rich Brecke
Laurie Canup
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
broken apart and been re-assigned. The fact that it was
institutions they worked for. It’s all in the interest of
IPD was secondary in this case. At the end of the day
curing cancer. We called it our North Star. If you have
it’s about trust and it's about trust and accountability.
that clear North Star, it makes everyone trust each
It’s a team overseeing an incredibly tight timeline and a
other and work together that much more.”
tight budget, and no one had been on an IPD project or
Ultimately it’s precisely because the Core Team was
in some cases had built anything before, yet they were
able to overcome their miscommunications and initial
being asked to own this process. You can imagine the
lack of trust that the bond among members became
trust issues.”
so strong after they learned to work together and trust
In his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick
each other. “The energy was a little bit like a family.
Lencioni describes a desirable behavior-based culture.
It feels so personal. I think that’s why at the end of
The corresponding graphic is a pyramid with the word
the job it’s very emotional,” Canup says. “But in the
trust at its base, with successive levels going upward:
beginning it was a little overwhelming for me. I’d come
constructive conflict, commitment, accountability, and
on board thinking I thought I was going to be a project
finally, results. It formed the mindset that Dennis-van
manager. Being placed on the Core Team was a huge
Dijl then tried to reinforce in her coaching. “We asked
shift, but it was such a growth opportunity once I got
everyone to get comfortable with the uncomfortable,”
my feet under me and I had so much fun. It really al-
she explains. “We had to create a culture where
lowed me to work on things like emotional intelligence
conflict is accepted within a context of respect and
and leadership skills instead of just minding the dollars
seen as constructive. But you could see the evolu-
and the schedule. It’s really about people.”
tion. What it takes is everybody letting go of his or her
Looking back on the early challenges and the Pole
turf. We needed the Core Team to make decisions in
of Consternation, Howard cites an observation by
the interest of the project first, not the companies or
author Daniel Coyle in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. Effective groups, Coyle writes, have used a make-or-break moment for inspira-
The Lencioni Pyramid
tion. “The difference with successful cultures seems to
RESULTS
be that they use their crisis to crystallize their purpose. When leaders of those groups reflect on those failures
ACCOUNTABILITY COMMITMENT
now, they express gratitude (and sometimes even nostalgic desire) for those moments, as painful as they were, because they were the crucible that helped the group discover what it could be. It’s all about the culture we have built here.”
CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
TRUST
59
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
60
GOING SLOW TO GO FAST
judge if we were going to make it. That was where the
Throughout much of history prior to a few recent cen-
time we put in building trust with each other paid off.”
turies, there was no distinction between architecture,
For this more circular design stage, the team ad-
engineering and construction. The project was carried
opted the phrase “Go slow to go fast,” which really had
by a single team, which remained involved from initial
two meanings. First, it had to do with team building:
napkin sketch to final ribbon cutting. All the great
spending time together building trust at the outset of
monuments of Western civilization, from the Parthenon
the project and outlining how to work together before
in Athens to the Colosseum in Rome, were designed
buckling down to the task at hand. But “Go slow to
and built by a master builder. This intuitively makes
go fast” also relates to the process of design iteration
sense because it means the design takes construction
that precedes a final building design. If the project
techniques and engineering challenges into account.
team works collaboratively and takes the time neces-
However, the master builder paradigm began to break
sary to collectively resolve as many of the design and
down during the late Renaissance as buildings became
technical issues as possible during the design phase,
more complicated. Trades were established to design
as well as the time to explore a variety of ideas, then
and build various elements of the project and laws
the construction process can ultimately go faster and
began to differentiate between the art of architecture,
risk can be minimized. When done well, the result is a
the science of engineering, and the craft of building.
project that meets or potentially shortens the overall
IPD is not about returning to the past, yet it is
schedule, lowers overall project costs (making changes
in some ways a re-conceptualization of the master
in the design phase is much cheaper than making
builder paradigm, or at least reaps some of the same
them during construction), and creates a better asset
benefits. Turning the architect, contractor and client
for the client.
into a single high-performance enterprise focused on
“Early on in the design process it’s iterative. We’re
project success, IPD brings people of complementary
solving similar problems multiple times for different
expertise together for a more holistic approach. Yet it’s
reasons,” explains Eric Wilson, a principal with SRG
not always so simple for architects and contractors to
Partnership. “The ability to sit down with, for instance,
work together.
someone whose job it is to install emergency genera-
“Architects are used to a more circular process,
tors, and understand the implications of different
trying out different ideas. Contractors think in a more
configurations, to a level of detail far beyond where the
linear way,” says McCarthy/Andersen’s Steve Libby,
design sits, and to use that discussion as a basis for
who oversaw planning and scheduling. “As contractors
making decisions—that was phenomenal.”
we wanted to respect that iteration, because it makes
At the same time, Wilson adds, the disparate ways
for a better design. We were looking at the schedule
of approaching the process had to be managed.
and seeing there was a finite amount of time. Permit-
“Contractors are such great problem-solvers,” he
ting deadlines were coming up, and it was difficult to
explains. “But once they start down that path, they have a strong drive for closure. In some cases the
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
architects and engineers were saying, ‘Let’s make sure
like tree branches, stimulate the brain as one subcon-
we understand the issue first.’” Yet Wilson also credits
sciously tries to discern their shapes and patterns. Yet
McCarthy/Andersen leaders like Core Team member
it took collaboration to pull off the effect.
Brian Price and integrated design director Stefanie
“Suspending the panels at different heights in a
Becker for understanding “it was worth it to give us the
subtle undulating pattern was challenging,” Wright
time to do that. That manifested into what I felt was an
recalls. “How do we do something that’s buildable and
extremely respectful regard by McCarthy/Anderson to
affordable? I happened to be sitting next to the framing
allow us to have the time to do what we do.”
trade partner from Fred Shearer and Sons at the CoLo.
At times estimators could feel overwhelmed
I think being able to talk to him made things like the
because they were being asked to continuously re-
hexagonal ceiling happen when it otherwise might
adjust their estimates, particularly early in the design
have been cut. It wasn’t just the architects designing
stage. The learning curve here involved the pace and
in isolation and then having it going out to bid and the
frequency with which design ideas were brought
subcontractor saying, ‘What the heck is this?’ I could
to the construction team for estimates. Eventually,
share with them our intent and say, ‘How do we build
rather than the design being considered a live docu-
this?’ And they helped us figure out how to achieve our
ment that was continuously updated with new pricing
design intent within the budget.”
information, it was decided there needed to be certain
In a traditional project there is a moment commonly
milestones or junctures at which pricing information
known as a handoff, when design is complete and
was provided.
construction commences. At the KCRB, with designers
Managing the friction between linear builders and
and builders collaborating from the beginning, there
iterative architects wasn’t simply a matter of making
was no passing of the baton like a relay team. Instead,
sure people got along or were staying on time and on
the process was more like basketball, soccer or football,
budget. It was about encouraging collaboration that
in which everyone on the team works together to move
would, little by little, make for a better building experi-
the ball to the goal. In those examples, such as in the
ence. Take the hexagonally shaped ceiling panels
NCAA’s annual “March Madness” basketball tournament
that are suspended from the ceilings in open-office
when a small school upsets a powerhouse, teamwork is
sections on several floors of the KCRB, which filter
shown to matter at least as much as talent.
the lights above and mask the mechanical equipment
A designer open to input from contractors and en-
in the ceiling. Interior designers from SRG, including
gineers in the early stages of creating the architecture,
Emily Wright and Tracey Bascue, wanted to hang the
or open to designing a second or third way to build
ceiling panels from varying heights in order to follow
something, will in the end design a better building,
the concept of biophilia: design that borrows from the
while a contractor or subcontractor looking to achieve
natural world in ways conducive to positive human
design intent throughout the construction process in
physiological responses. Unexpected patterns, shapes
effect becomes a kind of co-designer.
and surfaces, such as ceiling panels of varying heights,
61
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
FUNCTIONAL TEAMS AND TARGET VALUE DESIGN
problems. When you let them do their jobs you get
If the Core Team had to learn to get along, trust each
more buy-in. It’s likely you come around to the same
other and work effectively so they could champion the
conclusion, but everyone has already bought into it.
vision for the project, an equally important task was to
You don’t have to sell it to them.”
manage the Functional Teams, as part of what’s called Target Value Design, a core concept of IPD.
62
The overall KCRB project budget was broken down and allocated into nine buckets of funds, as they were
In Target Value Design, the project team works
known, each representing a major aspect of the build-
collaboratively to create as much value for the client
ing: Site/Civil, Structural, Envelope, Interiors, Mechani-
as possible within the set budget. Having a general
cal/Plumbing, Electrical, Low Voltage, Laboratory/
contractor that can provide cost information during the
Lab Equipment, and Soft Costs. Each of these buckets
early design process enables the design team to focus
represented a Functional Team, which was assigned
its exploration on those ideas that add value and are
a target value based on benchmark cost data and
feasible based on the budget. It also enables the team
project-specific variables. Each team had a designer,
to look for synergies that will address multiple cost
owner, contractor and trade partners, and each team
challenges with a single design move. This requires a
had to be assigned a leader.
cost estimator who understands the design process
These configurations also remained fluid. For
and can think conceptually along with the team about
example, some teams were too large, not in numbers
different design ideas and their cost implications. As
of people but in terms of the issues they covered, and
the design progresses, the contractor’s trade partners
were divided into smaller sub-groups, like the Low
can add additional detail to the cost estimates to more
Voltage team branching off from the Electrical team.
accurately reflect actual costs in the field. Engaging
Yet there’s no doubt the Target Value Design process
trade partners early also means they are more invested
was effective.
in the project and can think creatively about how to achieve the project’s goals within the budget. The heart of Target Value Design is budget trans-
“It just makes sense,” says Jeff Slinger, a senior project manager with McCarthy/Andersen who led the Mechanical/Plumbing Functional Team. “If you were
parency: letting a variety of decision-makers see the
going to go shopping and had $50 to spend, you’d buy
books. “You’ve got to be willing to show your cards and
items in your head adding up to $50: maybe $15 for
let people see the things you don’t normally let them
wine, $10 for crackers and cheese. So much of what
see,” explains Rich Brecke. “One, it’s the right thing to
we do in construction and design is the opposite. You
do with this contracting method, and two, it’s going to
get to the cash register, the bill is $100 and you have
come out anyway. You can’t have secrets. There’s just
to try to re-shop for everything in two minutes because
no way to keep them. Don’t be so obsessed with being
you don’t have enough money. We’re constantly in
right. Let the group work on it. The Core Team should
crisis mode. What was cool about the KCRB was we
not be trying to solve every problem. We’ve got a whole
could sketch the mechanical system, the mechanical
bunch of people who are experts here to solve those
contractors could price it, we’d realize it was too ex-
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
pensive and create detailed drawings that were closer
focus on meeting schedule and budget strictures), a
to the budget. It saved us some huge loops going in
look at recent and upcoming decisions, and a two-
the wrong direction by taking a little bit of time at the
week look ahead.
beginning. Before you step in the wrong direction, take
Just as the Core Team itself changed hands, so too
some time and make sure you’re going down the right
did Functional Team leadership evolve until there was
path before you walk very far. If you don’t, you can walk
the right fit. “I think we’ve done a good job of filling
in the wrong direction quickly and waste a lot of time.”
roles on this job with people who rose to the chal-
Instead of the typical process of going from design to a phase completion, where the architect hands over
lenge,” Tiffani Howard explains. “Fit is not about title.” The approach that the Core Team took with Func-
the design to the contractor and waits for decisions
tional Teams also evolved as circumstances and stages
about value engineering to get the project on budget,
of the project changed. “At first we were huge influenc-
The Core Team managed dollars in a highly fluid and
ers on the culture and the process,” Brian Price says.
proactive manner. There was an absolute belief that
“Another stage we were a decision-making body. Then
the process would bring the project in on-budget
we tried to push more of the decision-making to the
despite being over budget on paper much of the way.
Functional Teams and be there when they needed our
The fluidity of the process allowed decisions to be
help. Ultimately the success of the project was in the
made at the right time. “We tried to let our Functional
hands of the Functional Teams. We’ve tried to have our
Teams do their job,” Ed Trotter explains. “If we didn’t
eyes open about our mission at every given phase.”
think we were getting the information we needed we
Even so, sometimes when a consensus couldn’t be
told them, but we tried to let each team find their
reached, a judgment was needed: each side arguing its
groove. We realized that the Functional Team members
case and then a verdict reached. The team could have
were experts and we knew they were the ones to find
named this process after a heroic judge like Thurgood
the best solutions.”
Marshall, but they called it the “Judge Judy effect.” In
Yet the Core Team had to find the right balance
this setting, however, giving each side its day in court
between micromanaging and staying too hands-off.
was as important as the verdict. Even if one argument
“Periodically teams would go back to their old habits,
lost out to another, there was value simply in both
staying in silos and not trusting each other,” Laurie
cases being made. It gave both ideas a chance to be
Canup explains. “We had to remind everybody of our
heard, which in turn helped whoever lost out in the
North Star: creating the best environment for cancer
ruling to feel a sense of closure and thereby support
research. We did that a number of times. Particularly
for the winning selection. That was important for the
early on when the schedule was really tight, people
team to eliminate any residual negativity resulting from
would be ready to duke it out. We said, ‘We can solve
any decision.
this together.’” Everyone gathered for Functional Team
“On the KCRB, we did a great job establishing trust,
Report Out meetings with the Core Team every Thurs-
but people weren’t ready for conflict at first and tough
day, with fresh looks at overall project health (with a
decisions weren’t getting made,” says Tim Albiani. “I
63
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
64
Scenes from the CoLo. Representatives from OHSU, the Knight Cancer Institute, architects, engineers and the construction team worked side by side every day, exploring ideas and solving problems together.
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
had to start saying, ‘We’ve got to meet our deadlines.’
for a specialized research area. Tiffani Howard real-
Healthy conflict is a very important piece of building
ized that what the team was attempting to minimize
the overall relationship. You have to be able to disagree
was not actually noise going from room to room, but
and resolve it. But soon the trust we had built began
instead from corridor to room. Due to her practical
to allow a healthy version of conflict. It has to be
understanding of the conditions, the team refrained
about the project. I think people trip over the notion of
from adding more acoustic isolation between rooms,
problem solving. But a lot of people have become more
and thereby saved funds to apply elsewhere.
keen problem solvers through this process. You think differently.”
Another key to the project’s success: having trade partners on board as early as possible to establish
One example came from a choice between two
trust while allowing the design to be explored with
ceiling materials. Wood clearly had a greater aesthetic
enough practical knowledge of pricing to make the
appeal, but it was more expensive and, perhaps more
iterations worthwhile. The KCRB team brought trade
importantly, it would have made accessing mechanical
partners onto this project at various stages depend-
equipment behind the ceiling more difficult. “A metal
ing on the scope of work. Mechanical, electrical and
product that had the look of wood was more affordable
plumbing teams came on very early, for example, with
and, because it came with an access door, more practi-
teams related to foundations, concrete, drywall and
cal,” Slinger recalls. “But it was essentially fake wood,
façade work shortly thereafter. The consensus les-
and thus inauthentic. After Functional Teams could not
son learned was that it should have happened even
reach a decision in the great wood-metal debate, the
earlier in the process. When trade partners came on
Core Team was asked for a Judy-style ruling. A middle
board, the nine buckets of funds had already been
ground was chosen: half wood and, for access at one
established. In theory, these trade partners could have
portion of the ceiling, metal. Along the way, both sides
provided valuable feedback guiding the establishment
made their points.”
of those buckets.
Underscoring the success of the Target Value
Asking trade partners to come on board during the
Design process was that the team was always able to
design phase obviously involves a commitment of time
understand what was truly important to the owner and
and thus money. Yet it didn't need to be a cavalry of
the end user—because that voice was represented
people. In this early stage, having an estimator commit
and a constant presence within the team. Having that
to about 20 hours a week was sufficient. On the KCRB,
knowledge helped drive toward a design that stayed
when the trade partners did come on board early they
within budget while ensuring that the owner and end-
were paid for this time, which is not typically a con-
user got what they really needed.
struction cost; most owners expect them to offer that
Having complete immersion by the owner in the de-
time for free. But the KCRB team felt it would achieve a
sign process paid other dividends as well. One example
better product by wholly committing to this early plan-
is when the interior framing trade partner, Fred Shearer
ning. It was considered money spent up front to save
and Sons, challenged the acoustic isolation approach
money on the back end.
65
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
STAYING FLEXIBLE
owner contingency: an anticipation that the owner
Target Value Design is meant to reduce hasty decision-
might choose to change something once installed, like
making. Traditionally in this industry, whenever a
moving walls or adding scope. The last resource, if the
project goes over budget there is a reciprocal budget-
team maxed out contingency and buyout savings from
trimming move. With the KCRB, the team learned
something costing less, was to borrow from what was
to wait, allowing a new innovation to underwrite a
called the Value-Add (VA) log: items that were enhanc-
cost rise that came before it. Time and time again it
ing the project. “We could say, ‘We’re saving $50,000
allowed money to be put back into the project that no
on the floor coating by using a different material.’ We’d
one thought would be possible. For example, a more
use those savings to offset those unexpected extra
ergonomic furniture choice the client wanted at first
costs,” Rich Brecke explains.
seemed too expensive, but ultimately the purchase
66
All contingencies were gathered together for the
was made after the team found cost-saving moves
Core Team to manage in an effort to motivate the
with structure and concrete.
team to do what was right for the project—no matter
The team also had to continuously make sure
what the contract said. This removed tension about
Functional Team budget buckets were accurate and
responsibility for mistakes and allowed the team to
that pricing information was up to date. During the
move forward in such moments more easily. Decisions
design process, for example, the team was surprised
about contingency and how to do the right thing were
when a curtain wall was quoted at $125 a square
still made on a case-by-case basis. When pouring of
foot when for many years the market price had been
cylindrical columns on the first floor had to be redone
well under $100. It was determined that several glass
because of negligence, for instance, the subcontractor
producers had closed their doors, creating more
redid the work at their own expense. But there were
scarcity. At first, the team was resistant to accepting
other instances where the Core Team decided to pay
the costs they were being quoted and second-guessed
for rework to be done when honest mistakes were
the information. But the market by definition is one of
made.
continuous fluctuation. The team had to right-size the buckets of funds overseen by Functional Teams. The team also considered contingencies, the
To find a solution to the more-expensive-thanexpected curtain wall, the team “had to come up with strategies to mitigate the cost,” SRG’s Nick Hemmer
setting aside of a percentage of contracts’ values for
explains. “The owner did add a lot to the Exterior
the purpose of risk management. The general contrac-
TVD bucket, but it didn’t get us the whole way.” In
tor and each trade partner had a contingency broken
a workshop led by the KCRB's integrated design
down by design segments. When something cost
director Stefanie Becker, “We decided to select a
more than anticipated yet was competitively priced,
unitized window system on the south façade, which
the team would absorb that hit by either pulling from
was still expensive but could be installed much faster
a contingency or offsetting it with a situation where
than a traditional curtain wall system, so it brought
things cost less than anticipated. There was also an
the labor cost down. Ultimately what we got on the
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
south façade was a much better curtain wall system.
a diverse team takes extra preparation but delivers a
At an earlier point in the process, the cost estimator
better product.
expressed significant doubt about being able to move
The KCRB team also sought to be mindful of how it
to the unitized window system because of cost. But by
evaluated and chose subcontractors and trade part-
tapping the expertise of our subcontractors, Benson
ners. A system called Choosing by Advantage (CBA)
Industries and Wausau Window, we made it work. The
was used, the purpose of which is to help decision
multidisciplinary IPD team made this possible.”
makers differentiate alternatives and to understand the importance of those differences. By following the
TEAM MEMBERS AND BEHAVIORS
CBA method, instead of just taking the lowest bid, the
Having a successful team of owners, contractors, ar-
team looked at other factors such as the candidate’s
chitects and trade partners is first and foremost about
commitment to MWESB, quality control and safety.
people—not just individuals, but communities.
This system was used to choose a steel contractor for
For example, the team felt if it were not diverse,
the project, for example. The team decided the lowest
they would be missing out on talent. Hiring minority-
bidder wasn’t right because they did not offer the
owned, women-owned and emerging small businesses
best value. For the steel contractor selected, Raimore
(commonly abbreviated MWESB) to be part of the
Construction, this was a bigger project than the com-
team was not only mandated by city and state, but
pany had ever worked on, but it was clear their culture
was also part of the team’s value system. This has
upheld striving for excellence.
become a nationwide trend for municipal and major
A successful IPD project also depends on trust
corporate projects. And besides, the best teams are
and a healthy set of behaviors from the entire team.
diverse in myriad ways. Yet there may be an extra
A component of the three-party agreement was the
price to be paid: the team found that fulfilling MWESB
Behavioral Memorandum of Understanding, specify-
quotas sometimes meant bids were higher due to less
ing how team members would treat each other. For
competition, especially in a smaller city like Portland.
example, the Memorandum stated that “no” should not
MWESB companies also statistically tend to be smaller,
be anyone’s first answer to an idea (even if it becomes
which sometimes translated into less cash flow and
the final answer, after exploring the options). In some
thus potential difficulty with the 60-day timetable for
ways, this was the most impactful part of the agree-
the KCRB’s bill-payment system. And even when pa-
ment because it set the tone for the culture. It also
rameters are followed to utilize MWESB partners, they
prompted the team to try ideas that might otherwise
can be subject to narrow definitions. For example, one
have been rejected.
of the KCRB’s trade partners, Cherry City Electric, is a
For example, the initial design plan was to leave the
women-owned business in California, but the company
KCRB’s second and third floors empty, reserving them
did not qualify in the team’s quota system for MWESB
for future use. After the budget had been set, the client
because they lacked local ownership. Like opting for a
found a use for those floors and wanted to build them
home-cooked recipe over prepackaged food, choosing
out. The knee jerk answer would have been to ask for
67
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
HOW WE BEHAVE
TE IN
NT
TRUST
ME
E OV
GR IT
PR
Y
IM
We will approach interactions and decisions with a sense of humility and respect. Ethical behavior and fairness will be expected and rewarded.
We will "put the project first" and in doing so seek to continually improve ourselves and our institutions to support the process.
VULNERABILITY We will be completely open and honest with the team members and stakeholders allowing transparency that elicits trust.
68
INCENTIVE COMPENSATION PROGRAM (ICP)
Designer = 1/2 of project profit
Contractor = 1/2 of project profit
Subcontractors = 1/2 of project profit
EVALUATION CRITERIA • End User Satisfaction • Communication of Design / Construction Solutions • Innovation through creativity in design, construction, project delivery, and providing best value • Owner Satisfaction
% RETURN BASED ON Team Performance % of Contribution
Contractor
Subcontractors
Designer
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
more time and money to fulfill the request. Instead,
PULL PLANNING
the team resolved to explore how much this might cost
Once the right teams are on board and working well
and how it might impact the schedule. They ended up
together, the essence of lean construction in action is
committing to the two floors. The budget did have to
what’s known as pull planning.
be increased, but no extra time was provided and the team didn’t ask for it. OHSU, McCarthy/Andersen and SRG Partnership
In its simplest terms, pull planning is a technique for coordinating the sequence and timing of the design and construction process. Working backward from a
also sought participation of all major subcontractors in
target completion date with specific milestones, tasks
the Incentive Compensation Program, which provided
are defined and sequenced so that their completion
financial rewards for innovations that positively
is aligned and coordinated with the work of other
impacted the budget and schedule. The ICP required
team members. Just as air traffic controllers need to
trade partner participants to put forth a portion of their
organize what planes are landing when and on which
profit margin that would be given back in full once the
runways, so too must the team have a way to manage
terms of a quarterly scorecard returned with favor-
the construction process so there’s as little wasted
able marks; OHSU also provided additional funds as a
time, effort and money as possible.
reward for performance. Continuing from design into
Weekly pull plan meetings helped highlight key
construction, the hope was that trade partners would
issues each Functional Team was facing. The meetings
be suggesting value propositions to inject money back
were held on the same days as Functional Team meet-
into the project. Unfortunately, it took time for these
ings, so everyone was participating. It was an oppor-
incentives to be written into subcontractors’ contracts,
tunity for every Functional Team to get an overview of
thereby unintentionally minimizing their opportunities
the project and hear from other trades and Functional
to be incentivized. Team leaders also suspected that
Teams on what problems they were experiencing,
ICP only incentivizes management because they are
and what solutions they were coming up with. The
the team members concerned about finances.
meetings would often take less than 30 minutes, but
Writing contracts for trade partners is a challenging
afterward project team members often lingered to talk
aspect of IPD because the design has not yet been
over and solve problems informally since all the right
generated and trade partners do not yet fully under-
people were in the room.
stand the project’s scope. This led to lengthy negotia-
The team’s first attempt at pull planning was
tions that, in retrospect, could have been avoided
chaotic. There were too many people, too many details,
with a different kind of contract: a simple consultant
and no framework for presenting and representing the
contract for pre-construction and a more robust
information. Most of all, much of the follow-through
construction contract once the design was generated,
was happening over the phone and wasn’t visual
construction was ready to commence and their role
enough. The project was being organized primarily with
was better understood.
Primavera P6 Professional Project Manager software. “We’d bring the project onto our screens and have a
69
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
“People stepped up and said, ‘How can we help?’ I think that’s where individual accountability turned into team accountability. It really helped us carry on in this fast-paced environment and kept the quality of the decision making alive.”
70
daily phone call about the work that was supposed to
was on schedule, they would cross off their sticky note
be happening and whether it was on schedule. That
on the paper grid on the wall. If a team was not able
resulted in some frustration for the design team,”
to meet their deadline, they would let everyone on
remembers Stefanie Becker. “P6 could be cumber-
the team know with a circle around the sticky note so
some because it was hard to look at the project in its
that those affected could adjust and a new deadline
entirety in a way that allowed everyone to see the big
could then be set. The latter kind of moment was an
picture. We realized in the pull planning process there
example of where relationships mattered. Extra effort
was great face-to-face communication. We said, ‘Let’s
was made to state clearly that a reported difficulty was
try pull planning without the call.’ But there were still
not a time for shaming or blaming, but instead was an
people calling in too. Next we tried to make the meet-
opportunity for the team to work together and develop
ings shorter and have them every week.”
a strategy for getting back on track. In other words, it
The team found the simple Post-It or sticky note to be a regularly used supply, and in a variety of different colors. On a huge wall-sized paper grid, they used
was an opportunity for team members to show they had each other’s backs. “That’s when things really took a turn: when
the sticky notes to represent tasks that needed to
people began putting the project first above their own
be completed, building a sticky-note trail backwards
ambitions,” explains Mike Buckiewicz, a construction
from that listing milestone dates and tasks needed to
project manager for OHSU. “We’d come into the room
reach the goal. A different colored paper was used for
with the pull-plan board. We’d stand in front of it, with
each Functional Team, and each tag would indicate
the entire project team, and say, ‘We didn’t meet this.’
who was responsible, how long it would take and what
That was effective not because it was a shaming, but
constraints must be met to finish the task. Each week
because of the next thing that happened, which in
they would hold a pull planning meeting known as the
retrospect still amazes me. People stepped up and
Project Check-In, where key tasks were discussed and
said, ‘How can we help?’ I think that’s where individual
tracked. The pull planning wall was a living document
accountability turned into team accountability. It really
that provided transparency and accountability.
helped us carry on in this fast-paced environment and
Pull planning thus became a physical act, and a public record of promises kept. If a Functional Team
kept the quality of the decision making alive.”
CHAP TER 5: A BET TER WAY TO BUILD: IPD
MEETINGS AND MANAGEMENT EQUILIBRIUM
the conversation, might have an important idea with
Although pull planning grew to be effective, more
regard to interior design—or vice versa.
broadly the Core Team still struggled between micro-
This prompted the creation of the Tuesday morn-
managing and staying too hands-off. There seemed
ing all-hands project check-in for Functional Teams.
to be value in encouraging Functional Teams to make
Teams would start with the pull plan and talk about
decisions for themselves and for good ideas to flow
where they were, where they’d been the last week, and
from the bottom upward. After all, the trade partners
how the team could reach its upcoming milestones. It
and their laborers were the hands-on experts. Yet when
got everyone focused and spurred productive post-
inevitable problems and challenges arose, Functional
meeting conversations. Each team was asked their top
Teams sometimes found themselves at an impasse as
three issues that were “spinning,” or still unresolved,
an issue raised in a meeting waited to get resolved and
which were then helped to reach a decision. For
Core Team members began to feel out of the loop.
example, one team wondered if a generator should be
When Core Team members became just slightly
moved to L1 to avoid the effects of flooding. The Core
more hands-on, the process began to gel. They began
Team decided against it, instead creating a protective
sitting in on Functional Team meetings and a document
bathtub-like enclosure around the generator. Having
was created (and continually updated) allowing Core
everyone in one room together seemed to achieve in a
Team members to quickly understand at any given time
few moments what might have taken multiple days and
how the project was developing. A regular biweekly
multiple phone calls.
meeting schedule between the Functional Teams and the Core Team was established. It was also imperative to make sure that Functional
“With pull planning exercises, the first few times you weren’t sure how it was going to assist you. You were relying on how you previously approached projects. But
Teams were coordinating with each other and not
as time went on, it was a teacher in itself,” says Matt
siloed, and that all trade partners were involved. The
Johnson, an associate with KPFF, who provided civil
design team, for example, was split between the
engineering services for the project. “It really drew you
Exterior and Interior teams. Sometimes one Functional
in and you had to leave your ego at the door and say,
Team did not know enough about impactful deci-
‘Even though I’m not comfortable with it and I don’t
sions made by other Functional Teams. In the design
understand all of it, I’m going to do it.’ It pushes you out
stage, the architects from across Functional Teams
of your comfort zone, and I appreciate that.”
would meet regularly, but later in the process those regular meetings were canceled and the gap between designers on different Functional Teams only widened. Architecture is a holistic endeavor. Sometimes an architect assigned to exterior cladding, if included in
71
CHAP TER 6
FOCUS AND FLOW: EMBRACING LEAN CONSTRUCTION
If Integrated Project Delivery formed the foundation of how the owner, architect, general contractor and subcontractors would work together from an early juncture, equally important were lean construction philosophies and techniques—an extension of lean business thinking that first gained notoriety in Japan with companies like Toyota as a means of empowering and encouraging assembly-line workers to actively participate in improving the manufacturing process.
73
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
“Lean thinking has been applied with much success in
created, there is waste. Lean construction philosophy
many industries and service-provider organizations,”
identifies eight types of waste, corresponding with the
explains the Lean Construction Institute in Transform-
acronym DOWN TIME: defects (efforts caused by re-
ing Design and Construction: A Framework for Change.
work, scrap and incorrect information), overproduction
“Lean concepts can be applied to any recurring effort
(that which is produced in excess of what’s needed or
at work, home or play. The construction industry rec-
before it is needed), waiting (unused time gaps before
ognizes it needs to keep pace with the ever-growing
the next step in a process), non-utilized talent (under-
complexity of the built environment, and to make prog-
utilizing people’s skills and knowledge), transportation
ress toward the same efficiency gains other business
(unnecessary movement of products), inventory (stor-
sectors have achieved. Lean construction extends from
ing excess material not being used), motion (unneces-
the objectives of a lean production system—maximize
sary movement by people), and extra processing (more
value and minimize waste—to specific techniques and
work or even higher quality than is required by the
applies them in a new project delivery process.”
customer). More succinctly, a mantra important to the KCRB was PDCA: plan, do, check, adjust.
PEOPLE POWER 74
Perhaps the most important part of lean construc-
There are four primary tenets of lean construction:
tion is the transformational effect it can have on the
continuous improvement, removal of waste, generation
morale of employees and team members. In Lean
of value, and focus on process and flow. But at base,
Thinking, as evidence of this effect, Womack and
"going lean" is about respecting and empowering
Jones cite the research findings of Hungarian-Ameri-
people. “People transform ideas and materials into
can psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi with regard
final useful value,” explain the authors of A Framework
to the psychology of work. “Instead of asking what
for Change. “Respecting the contribution of each
makes people feel bad (and how to change it),” they
individual is necessary to tap this resource.”
explain, Csikszentmihalyi explored “the types of activi-
In the lean construction landscape, that respect for
ties which people all over the world consistently report
individuals comes not just from a desire to play nice or for
as the most rewarding.” The connecting thread was
workers to feel happy (although those are important too),
that these endeavors “involve a clear objective, a need
but also out of a desire to make each team member a kind
for concentration so intense that no attention is left
of sniper seeking out waste and improving the flow of the
over, a lack of interruptions and distractions, clear and
process. “In a lean system everyone—subcontractors,
immediate feedback on progress toward the objective,
first-tier suppliers, system integrators, distributors, cus-
and a sense of challenge—that perception that one’s
tomers, employees—can see everything,” write James P.
skills are adequate, but just adequate, to cope with the
Womack and Daniel T. Jones in the book Lean Thinking:
task at hand.”
Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, “and so it’s easy to discover better ways to create value.” Lean construction is rooted in the idea of creating value for the customer. If there is not value being
The collaborative culture prompted by Target Value Design and lean construction principles often showed itself in the construction of basic building components and mechanical systems alike. An incident involving
CHAP TER 6: FOCUS AND FLOW: EMBR ACING LE AN CONSTRUCTION
the installation of chilled beams provides one example.
that the project was about more than glass and steel
“We identified it would cost about $150,000 for an
or even budgets and schedules. The Core Team wanted
additional loop of water that is usually part of this type
them to know that they saw their jobs as extensions of
of HVAC system,” Ed Trotter recalls. “After discussions
what Knight Cancer Institute scientists would be doing
with the MEP team, we explored getting rid of the
inside the KCRB. After all, it is easy for an employee
beams and going back to a fan coil unit. It turns out
to develop a sense of buy-in on a project like KCRB
there was a minor energy use penalty, but so negligible
because of its broader mission. By nature we all want
it wasn’t worth incurring future maintenance costs. Our
to be a part of something bigger than us, like helping
engineers came back and said, ‘It doesn’t make sense.
to end cancer.
Let’s get rid of it.’”
This approach is supported by research into
Another example came early in the project, during
organizational psychology. As a 2013 New York Times
the pouring of the concrete slabs. Unable to pour the
article by Susan Dominus explained, “Traditionally the
entire slab at one time, which would increase the likeli-
thinking has been that employers should appeal to
hood of cracking, a plan was developed for breaking up
workers’ more obvious forms of self-interest: finan-
the pour into installments, waiting for each segment of
cial incentives, yes, but also work that is inherently
concrete to solidify before beginning on the adjacent
interesting or offers the possibility for career advance-
pour. “After the suggestion of the structural team led
ment.” But research by Adam Grant at the University of
by Catena Engineers, we wound up with a better plan
Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business has found
by alternating the pours across the building, thereby
that “the greatest untapped source of motivation…is a
reducing the time between pours,” Trotter explains.
sense of service to others; focusing on the contribution
“That takes time for the engineer to go back and evalu-
of our work to other people’s lives has the potential to
ate pieces and parts and redo the drawings. But it was
make us more productive than thinking about helping
a win-win.”
ourselves.” In one study, for example, Grant found workers at the call center for a scholarship fundraising
TRAINING LEAN
effort spent 142 percent more time on the phone and
This simple idea was particularly powerful and crucially
brought in 171 percent more revenue after meeting the
important in how it empowered and inspired trades-
recipients of those scholarships in person.
people on the KCRB. That process began with a series
Even so, the KCRB team had to do more than in-
of orientations and onboarding sessions. Whenever
spire. They had the practical task of helping hundreds
a new team member came onto the project, be it at
of workers understand and embrace lean construction
the outset or mid-stream, he or she went through an
practices. “What helped being a joint venture is we
onboarding that drove home a simple message: “It’s
weren’t locked into Andersen or McCarthy policy,”
different here.”
explains Darren Toy, McCarthy/Andersen’s field safety
As new members were brought into the fold, the
and training coordinator. “We had the creativity to
onboarding process started not with practical details
determine our own destiny. But it took a lot of plan-
so much as an impassioned reminder to employees
ning.” Several team members went through Lean
75
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Construction Institute training in San Diego and then,
system development charges to be sure they were
through their local Associated General Contractors
accurate.
chapter, convinced the LCI to begin holding training
emphasis was placed on rewarding successful idea
what we thought we were going to implement on this
generation and innovations. “We found things like pre-
job and figured out what that framework would look
ferred parking spots to give away,” Toy explains. “We
like on a day-to-day basis,” Toy explains. “Then we
created a trophy, the Little Phil, and a presentation.
set out to build the training based on that framework.
Usually they got a t-shirt or a hat, and some small re-
It’s changed over time.” At the end of each meeting,
ward. But they got that in front of the entire group. We
Toy’s team solicited from attendees what are known
documented whatever value they brought to the team.
as plus deltas, a summary analysis that determines
It could be an innovation that improved safety, one
what worked well (pluses) and what could have been
that improved quality, that improved efficiency, or that
improved (deltas). “We figured out what was working
saved money. Sometimes we rewarded the idea even
and what wasn’t until we got it right,” Toy explains.
if it didn’t do any of those things tangibly. We didn’t
Ideas were the currency driving the culture. A tone 76
As the project progressed into construction, added
sessions locally. “We distilled that training down to
of empowerment was reinforced through continuous lunch-and-learn sessions, or simple crew lunches for
weigh how much value the idea was going to have. We rewarded them for coming forward and sharing.” While staying on time and on budget were impor-
more unfiltered discussions. That was driven home by
tant, Functional Team leaders were encouraged not to
job foremen, who challenged workers to be respon-
put undue pressure on workers to do things fast. For
sible for improvement. It was done in regimented ways
the sake of safety or morale, the team encouraged em-
every day, such as a “Daily Huddle” session amongst
ployees to ask for help. They drove home the message
teams and what were known as Gemba Walks (a lean
that a mistake was more than forgivable: that reporting
construction term) in which Functional Team leaders
a mistake was not going to lead to blame and castiga-
and foremen walked the field, reinforcing expectations
tion. As Edmonson writes in Teaming to Innovate,
and also providing positive feedback.
“any failure resulting from honest effort or thoughtful
During the design phase, Functional Teams were rewarded for working well together to solve problems. One distinction created was the “Value Hall of Fame”
experimentation is grist for the innovation mill and thus should instead be considered praiseworthy.” One example of this idea put into practice came
award, which began almost jokingly but became cov-
with rebar. When creating rough estimates of how
eted by team members. Bringing value to the project
much rebar would be used in reinforced concrete
became competitive. One might get a Value Hall of
slabs, a trade partner included a note in the drawings
Fame award for modifying a small detail and saving
suggesting that the general contractor may determine
cost in a prescribed installation method, for example,
additional rebar would be necessary for shoring up
or for working with the City of Portland to scrutinize
post-tensioning cables. By the next phase, the note was accidentally lost, and no additional rebar was
CHAP TER 6: FOCUS AND FLOW: EMBR ACING LE AN CONSTRUCTION
requested. As a result, the cost estimates became
this crew later on another job, and they were wishing
inaccurate by not capturing the accompanying cost
they were back on the KCRB, because they had the
increases. The Core Team was able to foster a rec-
support of management. It’s amazing how much that
onciliation whereby root causes and lessons learned
means to a worker: that they didn’t have to be afraid to
could be identified, and solutions coordinated and
raise their hand and say, ‘Something’s not right here.’
implemented, all in a non-accusatory environment. The
I think we just kept doing that over and over with crew
parties involved in the error were willing to take re-
after crew. It created a pretty high level of trust that
sponsibility, but when assured that resolving the issue
we were all on the same page: office and field. They
was not about assigning fault, it freed up all parties
learned that if they said, ‘We can’t do it in two days; it’s
involved to have a freer conversation about solutions.
going to take three,’ we would look for ways to do it in
It also reinforced the importance of the long-term
three instead of forcing them to take shortcuts. I got
relationship.
a lot of feedback from people in the field saying that’s
Sometimes teams were surprised that they were
not often the case. Budgets shrink and schedules get
allowed to fail and given a second or third chance. Toy
compressed, but not often does the management work
recalls such a process with a subcontractor. “When
with the people in the field to figure those things out.
they had an issue we had to step in and stop them.
The field workers can’t do that by themselves. They
Instead of getting angry, we brought them down and
don’t have the leverage to do so. In construction we
had them work out the process with all of us in the
tend to work in silos: the electrician will have three
office, and together we decided on the best way to
days to get the work done, and the plumber will need
move forward in the field,” he explains. “A few weeks
four days. One’s work may be negatively impacting the
later they found themselves in another issue where
others, but they just worry about their slice. IPD and
we had to step in. They thought they were going to
lean construction turns that on its head. If one’s work
be let go. They weren’t. They came to the office again and we figured out what needed to be changed. They could make changes on their end, but we could also not paint them into that corner in terms of scheduling where they felt they had to do it that way. “This crew went through five incident reviews, but every time their process became a bit better,” Toy continues. “By the time they left, I was taking pictures of their operations and showing it to other crews around town and showing what it could look like when you had it dialed in. When they realized they had management support, they could raise their hand and ask for support and they would get it. I ran into
“Any failure resulting from honest effort or thoughtful experimentation is grist for the innovation mill and thus should instead be considered praiseworthy.”
77
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
is negatively impacting the other, we get together and
more accurately, the second electrical contractor—
figure out how to overcome that obstacle.”
Cherry City Electric.
If the leadership and many of the team members
78
“We weren’t the first choice. We got second place
were inexperienced with IPD and lean, the team
in the interview process,” recalls Ed Thompson,
overcame it by remaining vigilant and embracing
preconstruction manager for Cherry City. Two months
change. Lean philosophy encourages employees to
later, after the team’s first choice had turned out not to
strive, which often leads to younger team members
be a good fit, “the Core Team asked if we’d be inter-
being given new responsibilities. “When you empower
ested in joining the project,” Thompson recalls. “They
young staff, it gives them experience that they wouldn’t
told us the most important thing was that we’d be fully
otherwise get and you’re lifting them to a higher level,”
open to change and improvement. They said, ‘You have
he says. “Inevitably there will be instances of things
a voice in everybody’s scope of work and in how we’re
not getting done that you might have assumed would—
going to operate. You’re going to be heard and we just
a learning curve. If you have the right person who is
expect you to listen to everybody else. We’re going to
willing to go the extra mile, though, and willing to
push you to be vulnerable but also to challenge us, to
work a little bit late if they don’t have the right answer
be accountable.’”
and needs to chase something down or do a little bit
The effect was not just fulfilling a need on the KCRB
more research, it works beautifully. It just needs to be
project, but a ripple felt throughout the company. “Going
someone who’s striving.”
through that process totally changed not only my personal development and my team’s, but our company’s
TRANSFORMING THE INDUSTRY
culture. We learned how to engage, to challenge ideas
A tenet of lean thinking is not just to make one’s own
that maybe focused on costs rather than value. It wasn’t
company a smarter, nimbler and more waste-free orga-
about cost anymore. It was about bringing value.”
nization, but to seek that in other businesses partners.
“I just fell in love with it,” Thompson recalls. “I got
That better mousetrap any aspiring company seeks to
re-energized in my love of construction. I was 26 years
build is made up of wood strips and metal arms and
in the business at that point, and I was starting to
springs that, in today’s world, are produced by differ-
get tired of the battles and the mistrust on every job.
ent entities. The more well orchestrated these entities
I asked how I could learn more. They were really into
are, the more efficient they all become.
that. They gave us lots of training sessions, and they
One of the successes of the KCRB is that the
made it a factor in this job that we become better as
lean thinking professed amongst the team has been
people.” Before long, Thompson and other members of
contagious in numerous cases. There may be no better
Cherry City were attending Lean Construction Insti-
example than the team’s electrical contractor—or,
tute congresses. Next year, Thompson will even be a presenter.
CHAP TER 6: FOCUS AND FLOW: EMBR ACING LE AN CONSTRUCTION
PLAYING TO THEIR STRENGTHS
the truth is that no matter what one’s training may be
The team also saw substantial value in understand-
or what a résumé may list, everyone is better at their
ing that each person brought a blend of strengths to
jobs when they feel valued and listened to and are able
the effort. As such, every team member was asked
to work within their areas of strength. That can’t come
to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder test from Gallup,
without a continual dialogue. In the end, that’s what
which uses a half-hour-long, 177-question online
IPD and lean construction are both about: empowering
survey to identify different talents and strengths, which
people and getting buy-in. When the work is more than
are in turn divided into four categories: executing,
just a job, that’s when the best work is done.
influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. One employee might be more of what’s called an
CONTINUAL ENGAGEMENT
“Achiever,” for instance, while another might rate more
At the same time, the team also saw value in using
highly as an “Arranger.” One person may exemplify
in-house media to keep everyone abreast of how the
a “Relator” and another may show signs of being an
building project was progressing over time. A weekly
“Includer” or “Empathizer.” Some team members
bulletin written by Mike Buckiewicz and Tiffani Howard
showed particularly strong skills at adapting or being
offered progress reports while celebrating milestones
disciplined, and others at intellection or focus.
reached and chronicling challenges overcome. The
While people’s StrengthsFinder results were just
bulletin also gave users and stakeholders at OHSU and
one of many tools (both formal and informal) to help
the Knight Cancer Institute insight into the construc-
team members come to know each other and work
tion process, explained how their new building would
together, the awareness of strengths could at times
help redefine scientific research, and made connec-
be particularly useful. “I had ‘Connectedness’ and
tions between the lean construction process and the
‘Arranger’ listed as two of my strengths in the test,”
team-science approach.
Canup recalls. In addition to Canup’s experience, it so
Every few months, time was also taken to re-
happened that her strengths indicated by the testing
engage and thank workers with a barbecue to sustain
were lacking in the Core Team. “They felt initially they
morale. Scientists were occasionally asked to speak
didn’t have the right mix of necessary strengths and
at these events, and took the opportunity to remind
needed different people to round out the group, ” Can-
the team that their efforts were part of ending cancer.
up explains. “Tiffani [Howard] and Steve Stadum really
Howard, as client liaison, brought comments and reac-
tried to think about personal and group dynamics.”
tions from Knight Cancer Institute and OHSU leaders
In the past, concern for people’s emotions and
praising the team for their contribution. “All of these
relationships may have seemed insignificant compared
efforts worked to reinforce team health, and are efforts
to the cold hard business facts of debits and credits.
that can’t be ignored,” she explains.
Why worry about feelings and how people get along when there’s a fierce competition going on every day? But skepticism always meets progressive ideas, and
79
CHAP TER 7
COMING TOGETHER AT THE COLO
In 1951, I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz made a movie called The Long, Long Trailer, in which a newlywed couple purchases an extra-large travel trailer so they can be together when Arnaz’s character, a civil engineer, travels to building sites around the country. A comic series of disasters ensues that tests the couple’s marriage, all involving the massive trailer in transit: stuck in the mud on a country road, backing into and destroying a relative’s carport. But in spite of those trials, or perhaps because of them, their love is re-affirmed.
81
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
One might have nicknamed the KCRB colocation space
the group into separate teams oriented around major
The Wide, Wide Trailer rather than simply “the CoLo.”
parts of the building construction—electrical, exterior,
It’s made up of 11 standard 14’x60’ trailers stitched
mechanical—in a way that became the forerunner of
together. But unlike Lucy and Desi, the KCRB team
the KCRB’s Functional Teams. Team members were
didn’t try to move its trailer once in place. After all, it
challenged to hit a certain budget and work collectively
feels more like a home than most jobsite trailers, with
to achieve that. “Before long, it became clear that
elements of linoleum, imitation wood paneling and
emails being circulated between colleagues on this
fluorescent light.
project were substantially less than what they would
The establishment of an extra-large colocation trailer where contractors, owner’s representatives, architects
typically be,” Jeff Slinger recalls. “We could just talk to each other instead.”
and key subcontractors could interact was a vitally
82
important step in establishing a lean culture of commu-
AN OPEN OFFICE
nication and collaboration. There were costs associated
The CoLo was established within the context of a
with fitting out such a space with computers, furniture,
broader trend in the American workplace: the open-
software and other equipment. And it took time to learn
plan office. Disappearing are big, high-walled cubicles
to get along in new quarters. Taking this step into a
and closed-door offices. Individual workstations have
shared colocation asked all parties involved to think of
shrunk and the bosses have largely been asked to go
the greater good—the culture being created—and to
from first class to coach, so to speak. But with the
remember that the CoLo is an economic net-positive
space saved there is more room for gathering spaces,
for the KCRB because of how it enables and engenders
both small and large: places for meetings or even
innovation. The average cost associated with a Request
private phone conversations, and kitchens with enough
For Information is about $700, and a change order aver-
seating to become mini cafés. “In these open-office
ages about $2,000. It doesn’t take many avoided RFIs
configurations, it often takes some time to adjust,” Eric
and change orders for the trailer to pay for itself.
Wilson says. “Everyone has a little less privacy. But the
As important as the CoLo trailer adjacent to the
workspaces are conducive to teamwork and camara-
KCRB jobsite became, the process of colocation
derie and they’re decidedly less hierarchical, so that
actually began before the trailer was even erected.
made it right for us.”
The team, including the owner, McCarthy/Andersen
The first time McCarthy/Andersen and SRG Part-
and SRG Partnership, began on the second floor of
nership discussed the layout, they considered some
SRG’s former offices in the American Bank Building
private offices. But the owner was firm: they wanted
downtown: about three desks. As more people and
none. That’s when the team started working with a
companies joined the team and more spaces were
supplier that could custom-fabricate the trailer. Not
needed, a move to a larger space on the ninth floor of
only did it need to be big, but it needed to be condu-
the building was made.
cive to the task at hand. The architects valued having a
When the team moved into the CoLo itself, importance was placed on layout. The Core Team broke
lot of natural light, for example, as studies have shown that it positively impacts wakefulness and productiv-
CHAP TER 7: COMING TOGETHER AT THE COLO
ity. As a result, there is more natural light than you’d
ous team members, that meant speaking quietly while
find in most any jobsite trailer. Skylights pull sunlight
in the desk area, while for others with greater sensitiv-
from above, while the sliding doors of shared “huddle
ity, it meant wearing noise-canceling headphones. Like
rooms” lining the perimeter of the building are made
a family sharing a home, the team found ways to get
of glass so natural light can extend past the huddle
along and let collaboration flourish.
rooms to illuminate the interior. The designers were
One benefit of the large CoLo trailer was the most
also adamant that there be carpet, perhaps a counter-
elementary. Quite simply, there is value in face-to-face
intuitive choice given the dirt that people can track in
contact that can’t be completely replicated in phone
from a construction site, but worth the extra cleaning
calls, texts and emails. Working alongside someone,
because it reduces ambient noise. With some employ-
one knows more about how the job fits into the
ees initially experiencing difficulty in such an open and
context of coworkers’ lives. Getting frustrated over
sometimes potentially loud environment, the benefit in
an unreturned call is the result of not understanding
noise reduction was worth the carpet investment.
why the call wasn’t returned. Being there in person
It was also important to provide small creature
to learn firsthand that the person responsible for the
comforts that jobsite trailers don’t always have. Rest-
unreturned call is attending to a family emergency,
rooms were equipped with showers, for example, to
on the other hand, provides not just an answer but a
accommodate people cycling to work or going running
sense of perspective, as well as an opportunity to take
on their lunch hours. The team built a sizable kitchen
responsibility by finding another way to get something
conducive to sharing food, but they also favored a
done. Architects and contractors have different training
liberal policy with regard to buying people lunch who
and levels of education and different ways of looking
work through the noon hour.
at a project, if not the world. Especially consider-
Still, it took adjustment for both sides. “Architects
ing the animosity and finger pointing that can often
are all about the quality of space, and the environment
occur between the different stakeholders, that trust
of most architecture firms is beautiful and filled with
and relationship building became a foundation of the
natural light. This was more down and dirty,” says
project’s success.
Stefanie Becker. “It’s way better than a normal trailer,
As valuable as the CoLo has been for encouraging
but it’s not that same sense of place architects are
disparate disciplines to work together, the team also
used to.”
recognized that full-time location in the trailer wasn’t
The CoLo’s open-office environment still took some
necessary for everyone all the time. Some found that
getting used to for some team members, who found
there were better resources and access to expertise
it hard to concentrate in such a big open space. The
at their home offices and relocated back there part of
team developed individual color-coded signs that
the time. In many cases, the team found that in-person
team members could place at their desks to indicate
collaboration was necessary at only certain stages. In
availability or a “do not disturb” scenario when con-
the beginning, for example, civil engineering work is
centration was needed. And they asked everyone to be
particularly intensive, so it was important to have many
courteous and to adapt. For some of the more boister-
of those team members present at the CoLo. In time,
83
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
the work moved more toward structural engineering
an owner-champion, and it takes more than just a few
and the façade, which brought those experts to the
people who are bought into the process. That commit-
forefront. It was not a matter of commanding individual
ment was unique here. Everyone talks about this kind
team members or firms to be at the CoLo a certain
of process happening, but it’s much more difficult to
amount of time, or creating a one-size-fits-all scenario.
execute. And it takes a lot of buy-in from day one. You
The CoLo was also a place for learning. Some of
can’t cherry-pick collaborative principles or coloca-
that came through ongoing trainings, lunch-and-learn
tion or pull planning and automatically have the good
sessions and lean construction orientations. Some of
energy that happened on this project.”
that came more informally, be it the KCRB’s book club
84
or even the information posted on the walls. Perhaps
HACKING THE COLO
most of all, the learning came from each other, about
How the CoLo was configured also remained fluid. The
each other’s professions. Because of the KCRB experi-
team saw demonstrable value in tweaking the seating
ence, architects know more about how different trades
chart through the course of the project depending
function at different stages and scopes of the project.
on the stage of the project or how the teams were
General contractors know more about design iteration.
working. At the moment of transition from design into
The owner likely knows more about everything from
construction administration, for example, the team
concrete to curtain walls. And all have learned some-
held an event called “Hack the CoLo” that “questioned
thing about team science and the multi-disciplinary
everything,” Howard recalls. The particular focus
approach that is the best chance to end cancer.
was the process for decision-making and personnel
“What I’m learning as I talk to other people in the
amongst Functional Teams and a corresponding new
industry is successfully creating this kind of culture
seating arrangement. But it wasn’t an order handed
with colocation is very difficult,” Becker says. “It takes
down from the Core Team. It was a conversation. “That was a giant re-aligning, and it was pivotal,” says Core Team member Rich Brecke. “We as a group realized from going through that exercise that we were structured to focus on design, but we needed to be set up at that point to focus on the needs of the field. Asking the team how they wanted to structure themselves was the approach we took, and it ended up being successful.” Hack the CoLo also reinforced the value of getting buy-in, and in a three-year job like the KCRB, reinforcement and reaffirmation are always good ideas. “We realized we could say, ‘We’ll solve this problem for you.’ But that’s not really a lean method, and it’s not
CHAP TER 7: COMING TOGETHER AT THE COLO
effective change management,” Brecke continues.
line of their choice, be it a motto or a note about their
“You don’t want to have to go out and sell people on an
connection to the cancer cause. It’s a kind of Brady
idea that wasn’t necessarily theirs. We came up with a
Bunch grid that, like that old sitcom, emphasizes a group
list of categories and questions. Who makes decisions?
of disparate people coming together to form a family.
What should our reporting structure be? And where do
“The CliftonStrengths test and the People Wall were both
we sit? We split people up into eight different groups
fabulous,” says Stefanie Becker. “Doing this work builds
and tried to make them representative of designers,
team in a subtle way because it helps you know people
owners, engineers and architects as much as possible.
beyond just their names. And big teams struggle with
They came up with answers over a half-day, and each
that. It’s hard to even remember somebody’s name. If
group presented their solution. Then the group as a
you can’t get past that, it makes it even more difficult to
whole voted on each aspect.” And once again, the pro-
approach someone to get the work done.”
cess was visual, voting with circular stickers. “For each
A “How We Behave” graphic was also displayed in
question posed, we took the answers to questions that
several portions of the CoLo trailer: a triangle with the
the team felt would be the best, and we pinned them
word "Trust" in the middle, surrounded on three sides
to the wall. It’s all still pinned out there now,” Brecke
by the words Integrity, Vulnerability, and Improvement
says, pointing across the CoLo trailer.
(as shown on page 66). “It’s the behaviors we have
“And the re-engagement of the team psychologi-
established and demanded,” Howard says. “It’s a real
cally after that, it just skyrocketed,” Howard adds.
reason for the success of this project.”
ON THE WALL
the rewarding and awarding of team members for
Visuals pinned to the wall were an unmistakable part
innovations, or the leadership at landmark moments
of the CoLo’s ambiance. If a jobsite trailer of yesteryear
of budget savings. The largest conference room walls
could sometimes feel as uninviting as the day-old
were filled with descriptions of the Guiding Principles
Maxwell House coffee likely to be consumed there (as
and notes from past exercises. Collectively the walls
opposed to the CoLo’s gourmet brew—after all, it’s
told a story of the CoLo not simply as a place where
Portland), this trailer felt full of life in part because
disparate companies and building team members have
so many stories, pictures, diagrams and other visuals
congregated, but as a hive of activity where people
were festooned to nearly every inch of drywall.
passionately work toward building the best-possible
On another wall was a series of photos chronicling
Near the kitchen, for example, there was what was
KCRB and, by extension, toward ending cancer.
called the People Wall: a patchwork quilt of standard 8.5 x 11-inch paper, each representing one team member
PUTTING IN THE TIME
with two photos (a portrait and a shot of their choice,
One of the most important emphasis points in creating
denoting a favorite pastime or portraying something
a healthy and collaborative CoLo culture was simply
about them), a diagram of their StrengthsFinder results,
putting in the time—not just work time, however, but
a description of their role on the project, and finally a
time to socialize and get to know each other. That
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
started with how team members behaved and col-
self-generated endeavor, not suggested or instigated by
laborated inside the CoLo and in the field, but it was
leadership, speaks to the fact that once team building
enhanced with activities, be it through Big Room
begins, ideally it becomes contagious.
activities such as communal team lunches or more
Investments in team building and committing to
formalized lunch-and-learn educational sessions. It
colocation also help overcome moments of division.
also meant having barbecues and baseball games. If
On November 9, 2016, for example, the unity of the
the activities were extracurricular, they still positively
team faced one of its toughest moments. Half the
affected how people worked together.
team members in the CoLo were distraught over the
“When people start shooting the breeze, you start
86
previous night’s presidential election while nearly half
feeling like we’re a bigger team,” says SRG Partner-
were feeling happy and trying to stifle any sense of
ship senior associate Phil Lopez. “Construction and
smugness. The aftermath of the election could have
architecture, they can be different cultures. There can
driven teammates further apart in a way that might have
be conflict if you’re not open-minded. I think those
jeopardized the IPD and lean-oriented team they were
social activities, the barbecues and such, gave us
building. But sometimes in those difficult moments
opportunities to learn from each other. It helps you
people show what they’re made of, and that common
trust everyone. Not just say you trust, but truly trust: be
ground was still possible. And in this case, that common
vulnerable and go to everyone for their expertise.”
ground became chili. The day after the election, the
Often the time workers spent getting to know each
team held a chili cook-off and conducted a vote of its
other in the CoLo created its own momentum. Take
own to decide which was best. It was a moment to drop
the team’s involvement in the popular Hood to Coast
hard hats and switch off computers, to re-affirm that
relay, in which teams of eight to ten relay runners take
people were there for a cause greater than themselves:
turns running the cumulative 199-mile distance from
building a game-changing cancer research laboratory.
Mt. Hood’s Timberline Lodge to Seaside in five-mile
Teammates came from across the political spectrum,
increments. Running Hood to Coast as a KCRB team
but they worked hard to remain a family.
during an early phase of the project brought team
If there’s any regret about the CoLo, it’s only that
members from diverse companies together to compete
it wasn’t taken further. Putting 11 trailers together is
toward a common goal. Spending all this time together
already a lot, but the KCRB jobsite still had a number
in a van allowed teammates to get to know each other
of other trailers for other subcontractors. To some of
outside of work, building teamwork and camaraderie.
these partners, the CoLo was only a place for a meet-
Hood to Coast asks runner-teammates to push through
ing. “I think we should have included more subcontrac-
the fatigue and doubt toward a common goal, for the
tors and field- and foreman-level folks in the CoLo,”
good of the team and the fun of competing together.
says Rich Brecke. “That has to do with the function
It’s classic team building: getting to know each other
of us not being closer to the jobsite. In the future I’d
outside of an email or phone call or weekly meeting.
say make sure your colocation trailer is adjacent to
The fact that the Hood to Coast team was a completely
the building. It’s super important. What’s happened is
CHAP TER 7: COMING TOGETHER AT THE COLO
we have a lot of admin people who disconnect from
been learning from this team about how high function-
the field, just by virtue of not being right next to the
ing teams work. CEDAR has the opportunity to build
building. And the field foremen weren’t included in the
something new, so we’re interested in flat hierarchy,
CoLo itself except for an occasional trip in here for a
pull planning, and team building. A lot of the specifics
meeting. I would take it further and bring more people
of what they’ve done in those areas we want to repli-
into the fold.”
cate in our team science. It’s also kind of interesting
Even so, the CoLo became a clubhouse for the team as it was coming together and rising to this challenge.
because I looked at some of these groups in the CoLo, and they were so motivated to do this. They saw that direct line between improvements in their lives and in
BETTER TEAMS, BETTER SCIENCE, BETTER BUILDINGS
the product. It was a bit of a culture change for some,
Whether it’s Integrated Project Development, lean con-
ence, but what surprises me is that science is harder
struction, the CoLo itself or even the team science that will be enabled in the KCRB, they are all overlapping circles that do largely the same thing. Organizations where people work in silos and don’t communicate well and exhibit top-down leadership may offer the sanctity of a high cubicle wall or the ego-stroke of an order that can’t be questioned, but increasingly these behaviors and places aren’t part of the industry or the economy’s best practices, and they don’t lead to innovation. The KCRB building team was inspired by the mission and vision of Dr. Brian Druker and the Knight Cancer Institute, taking a cue from their team-centric approach. Teammates were also humbled to know that some of their lean, integrated teams became an inspiration to members of the Knight Cancer Institute. “When I first got to know this team and started hanging out here at the CoLo, I was immensely impressed by what they were doing with IPD and lean and their overall behavior was directly applicable to any kind of team tackling a big project. It didn’t seem customized to the building industry,” says Paul Howard, Ph.D., who supervises facilities and operations for the Knight Cancer Institute’s CEDAR Center. “The Knight has basically
but the plusses are obvious. The same is true in scito change than the building industry. They’re pretty siloed and resistant to change. The motivations for researchers are many. To get them to chase a common goal is difficult because they have to worry about a lot of obligations. But hopefully our bottom line is cancer early detection making a difference in people’s lives.” Howard believes that the flat hierarchy he saw in the KCRB process is literally woven into the architecture. “I’ve seen a lot of buildings go up,” he explains. “With labs there is often commonality: every lab row is a dead end that kills circulation. This building blows that out of the water. And this building has a hell of a lot more common space and circulation than any other building we have. Having worked in a lot of labs, I’m really excited. For scientists, those interactions in the hall are very important. Especially for our group, where we’re truly one team.” The KCRB’s design and construction process didn’t completely reinvent the wheel, but it was a powerful combination of culture building and process innovation that is leading to what by many accounts may be the premier cancer research laboratory facility in the world.
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CHAP TER 8
TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING
The completed Knight Cancer Research Building is at once an incredibly sophisticated work of 21st-century cancer laboratory architecture and, at least in theory, a relatively simple design idea: favoring openness, transparency and flexibility as a means of encouraging team science.
Photography by Brad Feinknopf
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
90
Breakout Room
Breakout Room Multi-Purpose Room
OUTDOOR COURTYARD
Multi-Purpose Room
Lounge
NUE
East Lobby
Women’s
Men’s
MOODY AVE
Deposition/ Etching
Lithography
Lockers/ Showers
Mee
ting
Research Forum
Room
Service Core
Lab Storage
Retail Loading Dock
MEADE STREET
Level 1
Level 1
Lab Head Offices
Lab Head Offices
Lab Head Offices
Lab Head Offices
Work Lounge
Experimentalist Write-Up
Lab Support
Lab
Meeting Room
Work Lounge
Experimentalist Write-Up
Lab Support
Lab
Meeting Room
Experimentalist Write-Up
Lab Support
Lab
Experimentalist Write-Up
Lab Support
Lab Support
Level 2 (similar Level 5)
Level 5 (Similar Level 2)
Lab Head Offices
Lab Head Offices
Conf Room
OPEN
Conf Room
Central Kitchen Work Lounge
Experimentalist Write-Up
Lab Support
Lab
Meeting Room
Lab Support
Computationalist Suite Experimentalist Write-Up
Lab
Shared Cores
Lab Support
Level 3 (similar Level 4)
Level 4 (Similar Level 3)
Intellectual Lounge
Knight Administration Meeting Room
Mechanical Terrace
Meeting Room
Level 6
Level 6 Knight Administration
Mechanical
Level 7
Level 7
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CHAP TER 8: TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESE ARCH BUILDING
It is replete with leading-edge technology and equip-
in glass. A portion of the ground floor will be occupied
ment representing best practices in a range of scien-
by ground-floor retail meant to help activate the
tific disciplines, and yet the real story may be all the
neighborhood and provide amenities for employees
other spaces just beyond the labs and workstations:
working in the building. The scale of the glass base in
the generously-sized open stairways between lab
tandem with the double-height concrete columns and
floors, with room to stop and talk without creating a
blue metal-clad portals creates a civic gesture that
logjam; the shared kitchen between the computation-
helps communicate a sense of arrival.
alist and experimentalist areas; the roof deck gathering space with its panoramic views; and the auditorium,
THE KNIGHT CONFERENCE CENTER
which will host formal lectures and accommodate
This lower portion of the building also includes the
all-staff gatherings. “It’s all about bringing people
Knight Conference Center, a 250-seat auditorium that
together,” says SRG Partnership principal Tim Evans.
can be expanded to approximately 300 seats by open-
The 320,000 square-foot Knight Cancer Research
ing the long sliding doors of adjacent meeting spaces.
Building is located on the southern half of a block
The outside of the conference center’s perimeter walls,
bound by SW Moody, SW Meade, a future promenade
facing the glass, is equipped with video screens that
and the future SW Arthur. Its front door faces Moody
can act as an ever-changing series of messages or
Avenue, the primary South Waterfront arterial, which
signage to the outside. The Knight Conference Center
includes both MAX light rail and Portland Streetcar
itself is a wide-open space equipped with massive
lines. With Tilikum Crossing and other bridges, the river
state-of-the-art video screens where scientists and
and the I-5 freeway all converging here as well, the site
other members of the Knight Cancer Institute can
feels like a crossroads.
present to each other, teach, or share their work with
As part of the master plan, a second Knight Cancer Institute building will ultimately be constructed on
the community. The open volume of the column-free conference
the northern half of the block, likely five to ten years
space was made possible by an innovative structural
after the completion of the KCRB. Since it will be built
engineering solution known as a hanging column. “The
against the north wall of this building, the KCRB was
common solution is to add a transfer girder in the floor
laid out in plan to allow for a future atrium space or
above and post up from that,” explains Jason Thomp-
exterior courtyard at the center of the two buildings.
son, a principal at Catena Engineers, who provided
To the east of the building, there will be an entire block
structural engineering. But the girder would have been
designated as campus open space as well as the
too large, some 60 feet long. “The ceilings are high
continuation of the South Waterfront Greenway along
so there’s not a lot of real estate. It would have poked
the river.
below the ceiling. I remember sitting with SRG and
Atop two levels of underground parking, the build-
engineers from PAE [in a peer-review role] thinking,
ing’s ground floor (which becomes double-height on
‘What other options do we have here?’ But at the same
the west side due to a sloping site) is clad completely
time, we were thinking about our lateral system and
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
From the large theater space for conferences to the building’s skin, labs and the video wall that tells the story of the Knight Cancer Institute, every detail of the project was carefully considered to support that project vision.
94
CHAP TER 8: TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESE ARCH BUILDING
being resilient in the event of a large earthquake. There
isolated. It’s possible from an ordinary office worksta-
was a need for a shear wall or brace frame along the
tion or lab bench to look in three different directions to
same column line as the transfer girder up at level
the outside, and a fourth by taking a few steps into the
6. As we explored that, we said, ‘Why don’t we make
primary corridor. “Even though the natural light itself is
that a shear wall that will double as a transfer girder?’
important, so too is the psychological reaction to see-
Then we could suspend a column from that. In lieu of
ing out,” Evans says. “Pretty much all the workspaces
a transfer girder at level 2, we have it from level 6 to 7
at the KCRB, be it labs or offices, you always have a
and we suspend from there.”
view out: a connection to the outside.” The laboratory spaces are each paired with small
IN THE LAB
administrative areas in what the architects refer to as
Above the lobby and conference center, the next four
neighborhoods, with a glass wall separating the two
floors are really the essence of the building: a series
halves. “This is an organizational lab space concept
of both wet labs and computational laboratory spaces.
we’ve worked with before. We call it the ‘Transparency
The labs occupy the southern half of each floor, with
Scheme,’ an organizational model that positions bands
offices in the middle and a primary corridor, a common
of open and closed space penetrating the building
walkway along the northern edge. As such, the north
and creating connectivity,” Evans explains. “Being
and south facades look different from each other.
separated only by a glass wall, the office knows who’s
Much of the horizontal and vertical circulation occurs on the north side of the building. These circulation paths interconnect and culminate at a shared kitchen,
in the lab and vice versa. They’re not squirreled away in some back corridor.” On the south side of the building facing Meade
which itself is fronted by a double-height glass wall,
Street is one of the KCRB’s most distinctive architec-
bathing the space in light and encouraging researchers
tural features: a series of angled sawtooth-shaped
to linger, thereby fostering a sense of community and
forms extending outward from the façade. These
allowing for chance encounters and the free exchange
triangular shapes minimize glare and unwanted heat
of ideas. This network of circulation successfully
gain in the lab bays by blocking the side of the saw-
achieves one of the six Design Principles, Primary Cor-
tooth shape facing south (views from which would
ridor. In addition to the auditorium on the first floor and
have been blocked by the adjacent RLSB anyway), yet
the social space on the sixth floor, the central kitchen
frame picturesque views of Mt. Hood through the east-
on the fourth floor contributes to a network of social
facing sawtooth portion with floor-to-ceiling glass.
hubs that satisfies another of the Design Principles,
It’s a functional design move that nevertheless gives
Social Amenities. In making the building shorter and
the building’s southern façade a compelling sense of
wider, the team knew that one of the primary chal-
texture and kinetics.
lenges, especially on the lab floors, was going to be
The sawtooth-shaped south façade was also part
daylight and views. But the extensive use of glass
of a concerted effort to introduce more light into a
makes sure that being in the lab never means being
secondary back corridor between the laboratories. The
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
96
A variety of spaces were designed to support the different activities and interactions desired by the Knight.
CHAP TER 8: TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESE ARCH BUILDING
triangular ripples of the façade slightly extend over the
important. To see outside and look in various direc-
sidewalk. “The code said we could extend a certain
tions, somehow the space feels both more intimate
amount of the upper façade beyond the property line,”
and more fluid.”
Evans explains. “The design cuts through so part of the
Throughout the space, there are also patterns and
sawtooth is behind the property line and part of it is
materials that catch the eye, like the succession of
projecting out. We wanted to maximize the amount we
hexagon-shaped acoustic ceiling panels over the office
could project out to take advantage of the chance to
workstations in varying heights, a line of chevron-
frame views out to the east instead of looking straight
shaped sound baffles hanging over the hallways
south at the RLSB across the street.” Even so, the
almost like a minimalist art installation, and a series of
designers had to achieve the right balance: letting in
entry areas at the corners with doors and walls clad in
enough natural daylight to illuminate the space while
floor-to-ceiling ash wood.
also minimizing glare to ensure that direct sunlight never lands on a work surface in the lab spaces.
The top two levels of the building are set back from the four floors of labs beneath. Knight Cancer Institute
Studies have shown that natural light and views
administrative offices take both floors to the west, with
measurably improve human performance. With that in
offices looking over traffic-clogged Interstate 5 toward
mind, the KCRB’s transparency allows its wide floors to
the leafy Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill neighborhood and
feel smaller. “It’s a big floor plate, but it doesn’t really
up to OHSU on Marquam Hill, the hanging Portland
feel that big,” Evans says. “Other buildings this size
Aerial Tram cables almost like an umbilical cord. The
feel bigger because you’re not connected to the out-
river-facing east portion of this penthouse-like space
side. This building feels more modestly scaled because
is devoted to a common area called the Terrace Room,
you don’t have these enormous labs or this feeling of
where colleagues can gather to share ideas or unwind,
being shuttered in.”
with an extended roof terrace offering panoramic views of the Willamette River, Tilikum Crossing and Mt. Hood
CATCHING THE EYE As much as the KCRB’s emphasis on transparency and
in the distance. It’s as if a scientist could proceed through the
openness was about connecting the occupants to each
course of the day moving vertically: begin on the
other, thereby encouraging team science, the archi-
ground floor with a large team meeting or keynote
tects also saw value in transparency between the work
lecture in the Knight Conference Center, move upstairs
going on inside the building and the world just beyond.
into the lab for research, and then finish the day at
“Watching the building going up, what was most excit-
a social event with colleagues. All the while, there is
ing to me was its proximity to the outside world,” SRG
interaction both planned and unplanned, and sharing
co-founder Jon Schleuning explains. “It’s a dynamic
of ideas with teammates and colleagues. It fulfills
site between the river, the freeway, the downtown and
another Operating Principle—Intellectual & Social
Marquam Hill. You’re moving from an urban edge over
Hub—while celebrating Knight staff coming together in
to the river edge, to something natural. The whole idea
one facility for the first time.
is you’re in the middle of something exciting. Place is
97
98
CHAP TER 8: TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESE ARCH BUILDING
A PERFECT FIT
exercises and facilitations. They understand why the
With construction newly complete, the KCRB design and
building is designed the way it is and how it can meet
construction team has been pleased to learn that the
their needs. The scientists are looking forward to mov-
building’s tenants—veteran scientists with very sophisti-
ing into the building that they helped to design.”
cated and specific needs—are happy with the result. “We have been asked to change so little in the build-
The Knight Cancer Research Building opened September 7, 2018. This state-of-the-art research
ing at the end of the project,” says Tiffani Howard. “We
facility was completed on time and on budget, but the
are finding that there is a place in the building for all of
real measure of its success is still to come. Research-
our equipment, which has very special needs designed
ers, computationalists and staff are now collaborating,
into it. There is so much flexibility and functionality
challenging each other and innovating together in the
designed into the facility; that was one of our Guiding
name of ending cancer. Will conversations in the cor-
Principles. On other jobs, it would be common to tear
ridors spark an idea that proves transformational? Will
out a wall or at least to add another electrical plug or a
a chance encounter in the café between researchers
water line. On this job that has not happened. We have
with different backgrounds or from different disciplines
basically had two or three requests for changes. One
enable them to see their quest in a new light? Will this
has been just to add more carbon dioxide and vacuum
new environment for research catalyze breakthroughs
capabilities in rooms that already had a pipe running
that will provide cancer patients with the hope for
through them for those purposes. The other was to add
longer lives or even elimination of the disease alto-
water in a fume hood in a room that had water nearby.
gether? The energy, the talent and the desire are all
On most jobs you’d be talking exponentially more
there, gathered together with a mission. The world is
changes. On this project there were two.”
watching, including the design and construction team
“It’s incredible,” Howard continues. “Even our con-
that delivered the project. There is much to be learned
tractors and architects tell us, ‘This is unheard of.’” Not
from observing how the building shapes the behaviors
only is that a validation of the building team’s process,
of its inhabitants and enhances the research that’s tak-
but it also makes the end users feel validated. “We’re
ing place inside.
hearing things now like, ‘Wow, you guys really listened,’” she adds. “When we started the process with our scientists and other end users, the conversations were about how they believed we weren’t listening. And they were skeptical of our outreach at first. They said, ‘It isn’t worth our time to talk about this with you because you’re going to do what you do and not listen and we’ll just change it later. It was based on past experience. But now they’re really seeing the benefit of their time working with us in all those mockup
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
100
Fostering Collaboration The building offers an open, daylit work environment and ample gathering spaces. Building Camaraderie A central kitchen on the fourth floor allows researchers and scientists to spontaneously engage with one another.
CHAP TER 8: TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESE ARCH BUILDING
101
Thoughtful Connections Design elements like communicating stairs, an active north corridor and creative nooks break from the typical siloed laboratory building.
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
Maximizing the Site Every side of the building offers sweeping views and a connection to the surrounding city.
102
CHAP TER 8: TOURING THE COMPLETED KNIGHT CANCER RESE ARCH BUILDING
A light-filled conference room at the southwest corner looks out at Marquam Hill.
103
A Diversity of Work Areas Spaces for spontaneous interactions and work are reinforced with inspiring views and warm ash wood details.
CHAP TER 9
VOICES OF THE KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING
We’ve talked throughout this book about the value of teams: team science and teamwork between the disparate design and building professions working together to build the Knight Cancer Research Building. We’ve talked about how empowering employees—by trusting them, by sincerely and regularly seeking out their feedback and ideas—not only makes them happier, but pays for itself through the innovations and gained efficiencies they contribute. We’ve described the wall of employee photos and their corresponding facts that greets visitors as they enter the CoLo. In that same spirit, here we seek to give voice to a cross-section of team members and tell the story of the KCRB process from their perspectives.
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
PAUL AMORT Assistant MEP Manager McCarthy/Andersen Most projects that I have been on there are powers that be and they more or less control any changes related to the process or the design. This approach feels more like collective decision-making: empowering individuals who typically wouldn’t have the authority to make design- and construction-related decisions. I’d tell myself, “Don’t be afraid to run with an idea, and trust your training, trust your instincts and understand that if it doesn’t work out, you won’t be punished for it.”
108
Prefabrication of our server racks is one example. It’s not revolutionary that we would fabricate these units off-site in a controlled environment, but it was uncommon to get all of our subs to build all the components in an integrated system. Normally people will prefabricate only their specific component. In this case, Cherry City Electric, JH Kelly, and Siemens all worked together off-site. If there’s an ongoing challenge, I think it’s getting the field trained and incorporated into the design intent. That would empower them to make decisions on the fly for the benefit of the project. That’s not an argument against IPD, but rather that we should take it further.
JULIET ANDERSON Project Accountant McCarthy/Andersen I’ve never worked so closely with an owner before. That’s been a lot
different: the closeness you have not only with the owners but the subcontractors. Sometimes it can feel very compartmentalized on a project and people don’t want to share things. They’re not as open. On this project there’s nothing hidden and no “let’s not mention this.” It’s just very upfront and honest. Especially numbers-wise, I think it works better when people know where we stand. The owner and the joint venture are really open. I also feel like it helps the subs to be more comfortable. It’s been a really positive experience.
BRIAN ANTHONY Superintendent McCarthy/Andersen I learned early in my career to work with the trades and try to be humble because everyone survives together, just like when I was in the Marine Corps. Lean and IPD teach you that it’s about people and relationships. I was involved in the interviews of all three steel subcontractors and their fabricators. For some reason, they were really close, and the team was having a hard time deciding. The guys with the lowest bid just didn’t feel right. If you looked at value, they were the furthest from it. We ended up choosing a less experienced partner, and they’ve had their challenges, but they’ve been great to work with. And I think they’ve learned a lot. This was a big job for them, but they said, "We’re here to work together." And they have. Like I said, everyone survives together.
BRAD BARCROFT Interiors Senior Project Manager McCarthy/Andersen Everything we do is really about supporting the team, and making the people on the team feel valued. And when they feel valued, you get buy-in and establish trust. Once people are committed to the goal, they will work twice as hard to get there. In so many other jobs, the subcontractors and the general contractors are about themselves and making money. On this job we were all focused on the good of the team, and the good of each individual company was secondary. That was the difference that allowed us to win. When a challenge comes up, the question becomes, “How do we get there the most efficiently? Is it easier for me to do it, or for the electrician to do it?" It’s not whether it’s part of my scope or your scope. Whoever can do it the quickest, the easiest, the best: that’s who does it. We have done a lot of things on this job to promote the good of the team. You’ve got to genuinely care about the people you’re working with. Someone might say about coworkers, “I don’t have to like them.” But you do. And that comes with face-to-face contact. It gives you that sense of context. Life is happening to people. You’ve got to care about their well-being. When you trust each other, that’s when the innovations start to happen. There’s a level of vulnerability when somebody puts his or her idea out there. But because of the relationship and the environment,
CHAP TER 9: VOICES OF THE KCRB
you create a place where it’s safe to suggest ideas and to complete someone else’s. A lot of times the best idea comes from the interaction between a designer and a contractor. That’s why we’ve got 104 innovations on this project.
KYLE BECKER McCarthy/Andersen Project Manager/ Core Team Member I think starting early was key: the excitement of learning something new and implementing it. As we got from the design into construction, it was challenging to maintain the focus on our culture. The tendency is to come back to what we know, what’s been proven to work in the past. One challenge we faced was to take something we do in the CoLo—just kind of stopping and evaluating ourselves collectively—into the field. You want to be able to say, “Things are going sideways. What can we do? Let’s just stop and talk about it.” But you have hundreds of people in the field. That’s a lot of dollars in labor to put on hold. It always seemed to be worth it, but it takes added emphasis to implement that culture in the field.
BILL BOWEN Oregon Health & Science University Manager, Major Capital Projects We wanted to be very forwardlooking in basing the KCRB’s delivery method around modeling
better behaviors: getting people to do very simple things, and building trust by changing behaviors. This was something that had been in my DNA my entire professional life. I always felt like there was a better way to do things: building highly collaborative teams, putting all the experts in the room early on, consultants and subconsultants, and leveraging that expertise early in the design phase. It just seemed to make sense. We’ve certainly had issues. But the typical sorts of hurdles have not become these significant events of distraction, because there was a cohesive team that solved the problem and kept moving on. The advice I would give is the same we got when we started this and reached out to a number of owners. They said, “As an owner you have to be in all the way.” You’ve got to do your due diligence with eyes wide open and be willing to fully commit and to sell something that’s not all about the bottom line.
LAURIE CANUP SRG Partnership Senior Associate/ Core Team Member I came from a lot of construction administration where you’re in the trenches protecting the owner from the contractor, because the contractor makes mistakes and tries to rip the owner off. But I have learned so much on this project about how hard it is for the contractors to build a building and build it well, and how hard it is for them to pull it all together by the end of a job. It’s
really opened my eyes to the whole picture and how important it is to try to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes when we’re at the table and talking. It’s the whole reason I like IPD: because it forces me to try to grow myself. If we stay static and don’t grow, what’s the point? Communication is where it’s at: trying to understand each other. If we can do that and demonstrate empathy, it’s where bridges start to get built. Some of our best successes have been when we’ve brought people to the table to find the middle ground and get each to see the other’s side. People really start to innovate. IPD could almost be called LSP, for “Let’s Solve Problems.”
EVAN CORY McCarthy/Andersen Vice President of Preconstruction Services Working on the KCRB was an opportunity to get involved in an IPD job. I’d heard a lot of negativity in terms of it never working. Hindsight being 2020, a lot of the negativity had to do with people not understanding what was being delivered. The impression that a lot of our team members and partners had, and even in the industry, was that a tri-party agreement between an architect, owner and contractor never works. The focus was more on contract than behavior. You start getting attorneys involved in a lot of this stuff, where there’s a problem and there’s not a good way to determine who caused the problem or who is responsible. It can cause big fights.
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There’s been a ton of growth from the day I started. Maybe the design team wanted to work on design on its own and the estimating team wanted to work on estimating. We tried to break down those silos and get everybody to collaborate in a big room. There was a lot of resistance. Not everybody saw value. Nine months later when we got onsite in the CoLo, there was a lot of resistance there too. But if you look at how the Core Team and its structure developed, they grew as a team and were able to lead by example. It wasn’t all wine and roses. It was very difficult throughout the process. But they built something high performing. Taking that into construction and having the operations teams, whether they’re subcontractors or the McCarthy/Andersen team building the project, operating in a similar way—that’s hugely powerful.
DAN DAVIS SRG Partnership Designer In theory it seems simple: get everyone working together in the CoLo for better communication. But there’s a ton of efficiency in the way that we operate in the home office because things are laid out for us: a bag of tricks for different tasks. When you take the architects out of their element, you isolate them from a lot of their resources. In my case that was magnified because I was just starting out with the firm and am also relatively new to the profession. That was challenging to only use the resources we had on hand. But there was
benefit that came from it too. We had to be self-sufficient and find ways to solve problems differently than we were used to, and learned to work together with the contractors and trade partners. In time we were able to establish a better balance, where we would spend a couple of days a week back at the home office. But I’m also glad I was sort of thrown into the fire in the CoLo. It got me talking with contractors and trade partners in ways that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Not only has IPD produced a quality building, but it has also allowed me to really expand my own knowledge and experience in the industry. It just makes sense.
MIKE GIBSON McCarthy/Andersen Superintendent On a typical job I would be in the field probably 70 percent of the time and maybe 30 percent in the trailer. It almost feels like the opposite here. I think it has to do with having as many meetings as we do. That was a challenge for me, especially at first. I had to learn to trust that the subs working for us would be installing and doing their jobs correctly. Usually you’re checking everything they’re installing, because there’s always something that comes up where we have to find a work-around. But it’s actually happened less on this project than others I’ve worked on, even though I’m in the office more, which has been great.
BRAD HANSON Fred Shearer & Sons Superintendent A lot of my team members had never been in the roles that they played on the KCRB. Hector Solis is a 50-year-old Hispanic sheetrocker who has worked for me for 15 years. A year and a half ago, as this building was coming out of the ground, I told him it was time for him to be a foreman. He didn’t want to do it. He said no one would listen to him and his English wasn’t good enough. I convinced him that I had his back and I really wanted him to make that step. He said no, but a week later he came back and said he’d do it. He is the foreman in charge of all the sheetrockers. And he’s doing a great job. That gives me a lot of pride and satisfaction. And it comes back to the culture that we built on this job. We need to be on time and on budget, but it’s also about people. We’re building our next leaders on this job. I’m extremely proud of that.
MATT JOHNSON KPFF Consulting Engineers Associate Working in an IPD setting, it’s kind of like the yin and the yang. At first the construction team is there for asking questions, but they have a lesser role and designers are taking the energy in the room. Then as it gets into construction, the contractors are busy and designers are behind them feeding that effort. We’re all pulling the cart, but some start out strong early and others have to wait until it’s their turn
CHAP TER 9: VOICES OF THE KCRB
and they pull. Ideally you get the best effort out of each skillset. I’ve often said just because I draw it on paper doesn’t make it so. Someone has to construct this thing, and someone with 10 or 20 years of construction experience has expertise that I don’t have. Designers design and builders build. But it’s always worth asking: can we do this a better way?
CHRIS KLINE SRG Partnership Designer Given that I worked in construction for a while before architecture, I have a strong appreciation for what contractors do. At the KCRB CoLo trailer, a huge success was being able to work directly with trade partners. I think we saw the value in what each other was doing. The difficulty is it’s still new to a lot of people. The first time I don’t think you’re going to get everything right, so you have to be willing to change and evolve.
MIKE LOGAN McDonald Excavating Project Manager Not everyone in construction takes to IPD right away because it’s a big culture shift. But recently I was told that they hired our company because of the way we were willing to play as part of a team. In the traditional construction model, there’s a lot of division, and even if people appear to be working together, it can still be about
"me." I think there’s less of it here because everyone’s pushing it. I feel like this project was made for my personality: I love to help get people together to succeed. I found out the hard way I wasn’t the one with all the good ideas. When I really learned other people’s ideas had value, but that I could help them tweak that idea to make it a little better, it’s very humbling, and it takes you to a place of being willing to sacrifice your own pride.
JAY LONG Benson Industries General Foreman You come into the CoLo and it’s like having an encyclopedia. You have a vault of information from the people here. And you can go to anybody and get the info that you need. Everybody’s here. They’re not back at the office. It shows you’re more in tune with the project. You can say, "I need you to come look at this. Let’s walk." It’s better that way. And it also inspired us to work together. For example, the KCRB is using not one of our Benson curtain walls but a unitized Wausau Window system. In this case it made sense. It’s a very cut-up, challenging building. The corners aren’t 90 degrees. They’re 92, 93 degrees. Because of that, to unitize the wall and stack it on the first floor was a brilliant idea. It would technically be a stick wall where we have to put every vertical and horizontal on at a time. With the Wausau system, we could manufacture this in our shop, glaze it and ship it out as a unitized system. It works out
great. You stack it in, come back and anchor it and walk away. It cut the time down significantly.
JACQUELYN MARTIN McCarthy/Andersen Project Coordinator I feel like we’ve created our own little company with the joint venture. In the beginning we established that culture by establishing healthy relationships. If I had a problem, I learned quickly I was not going to be reprimanded. Someone would sit with me and help me figure it out. Even senior people I could approach as one of the most junior people, and they would sit down and help me. They’d give me their undivided attention. That leadership, having those right leaders in place, and then knowing how to build those relationships, inspired me to take that same approach with the people I interacted with and to take initiative. For instance, I volunteered to help facilitate the South Waterfront Projected Apprenticeship Agreement, which says that 20 percent of the workforce per trade has to be made up of apprentices. You have to show that you made a good effort toward hiring 15 percent female and 30 percent minority workers. That was rewarding. I’ve heard from the women on this job especially that they felt there was opportunity. And I was able to spearhead the use of an app called TeamUp to select meeting spaces in the CoLo, and it wound up being a game-changer in the field for scheduling of deliveries for materi-
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als. Even with all that pull planning, two subs would be expecting to use the crane to get their stuff into the building, and communication would break down. It was so rewarding to be able to have an impact like that. But it started with that leadership at the top and the kind of culture they built that empowers us.
CRAIG MOELHMAN Cherry City Electric Superintendent I’ve worked with engineers a lot over the years but this is the first time I’ve been involved from the ground up and got to participate in the design. And they listened to our ideas.
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For example, initially we were going to go underground with our power cables going from medium voltage transformers to the main switchboards. I had concerns about the footprint of the transformers and the switchboards staying consistent since we didn’t have approved submittals already. I was also concerned about disturbing the contaminated soils beneath our site. Together we started looking for a better solution and came to the idea of using a bus duct, going overhead instead, meaning we wouldn’t have to go underground. There was an added cost to going to bus duct, but it wound up being fortunate because the footprints changed and the underground wouldn’t have been possible and we’d have still had to go overhead. But we stayed ahead of the problem and saved ourselves time and money.
KATRINA MYRON Knight Cancer Institute Project Coordinator I’m assisting with placing people in the building. I’ve seen them walk in there and get excited. We started taking them on tours a couple months ago. The feedback has been really good. Some of the people who have been the most challenging to please have had their voices heard and have felt like they’ve been cared about. You feel that wave of doing good work.
PAUL NIELSON TCM Senior Project Manager The KCRB has changed the way our company builds projects. We’ve had all our executives come to the jobsite, and we’ve had shop and construction managers from our affiliates all across the United States come and tour the project. Everybody is hoping to learn from it. On the East Coast, IPD and design-build have taken off more. In Portland there have been just a few opportunities in the last five years. Even so, the success of this process has turned heads. But if you don’t have trust from the owner, it’s just not going to work. A great thing this project has given us besides the experience is the opportunity to try new ideas and work with the engineers from the beginning, especially with prefab. This would have been a five-year project 25 years ago. We had to be able to build a lot of things off-site and bring it in. But you learn from
that. The prefabricated shafts on this job were our first. Now we’re doing it on other projects and taking it further: hanging the piping and ducting at the same time. Without the opportunity to try it here, it may not have worked.
JOHN NOVAK Oregon Health & Science University Senior Project Manager I’ve been an owner’s rep for the past 25 years with research universities, and there’s no doubt this is the way to do it: the collaboration, the trust, the treating people fairly, doing what’s right even if it’s not necessarily what the contract says. I think everyone understands we get a better product out of it.
BRIAN PRICE McCarthy/Andersen Project Executive Early on with the Core Team we recognized it’s not the tools and it’s not the method. It’s the people. We had to get the right people in the seat. There was a big shuffle with the Core Team that was about trying to find the right mix of people. That had nothing to do with competence or skill level. It was all about culture. Once you had the right fit of collaborative people, there was a lot of learning to do with lean tools. I always felt I was way out of my comfort zone. This is different from the way I used to do things. I struggled early on with that pit in my stomach. But then I realized everyone was going through that.
CHAP TER 9: VOICES OF THE KCRB
I’ve seen situations where there’s a group of great people and it doesn’t come together because people are afraid to fail. We have had our fair share of obstacles on this project: budget constraints, schedule issues. And we’ve always risen to the occasion to work through those. If you don’t have the trust and communication early on, and everyone goes to their corners, that’s when the attorneys get involved. This project was different. Once I realized we really had strong support from our clients, it was huge, and something that we as a Core Team wanted to pass on. No finger pointing. We’re all in this together.
BILLY RUSSO McCarthy/Andersen Senior Project Engineer I think the culture started with IPD and everyone being brought in early, but colocation has been the biggest advantage. That’s something I’d never experienced previously. I also think one of the most important things with this job was a really committed owner team. I’ve been on jobs in the past where the project manager for the owner is either not there when you need them, or is checked out. I think that’s been critical for this team: the overwhelming commitment and input from owner representatives. It sets an example: if it’s that important to the client, it had better be important for the rest of us.
KEN SCRIVNER JH Kelly Senior Project Manager I’ve been in the industry 30+ years and worked all over the United States, China and Canada. I’ve moved 17 times and I’m not moving anywhere again. This is basically my fourth IPD project and I guess you could say I don’t want to move away from this either. You get a guaranteed maximum price, you do the work on time and materials, and the owner gets the savings: that’s the way every project should be done. First you have to get contractors that share all the correct cost information. You’ve got to show everything. This is the new culture. If I were an owner, I’d do all of my buildings this way.
JERAMIE SHANE Mayer/Reed Principal This was our first formalized IPD project and it’s the most successful one I’ve been on to date. I think it’s because this team was so committed to it from the get-go. They were just earnestly interested in seeing how this would work with full commitment. I think this project wants strivers. It took us a while to catch up to the concept. But I still remember people’s stories from the beginning. Once the CoLo trailer got built, it was another scale of energy. You felt like you were going to a firm in and of itself, which allowed me to build relationships I wouldn’t normally have. And you learn about yourself. With the CliftonStrengths personality tests, I learned that my
number one trait is empathy. You start to connect that not everybody sees the same things the same way. It’s so vital to what we do in terms of sharing information and coordinating something this complex. This is a place where cancer is going to be cured. It’s not about you or me or the now. It’s about the future. That idealism really trickled down to the spirit we had on the project.
JEFF SLINGER McCarthy/Andersen Mechanical Engineer I feel like IPD is a journey. We’re trying to change every aspect of the way we do business, and it’s hard. But it’s been satisfying for me, the growth I’ve seen. I think of Wayne Bergquist, our lead plumber with JH Kelly. I’m so proud of him. He’d be in a meeting with architects and engineers and it would be intimidating. He’d be silent. I kept nagging him behind the scenes: “You have to get engaged with what we’re doing here.” He finally started opening his mouth. We realized quickly he’s one of the smartest guys in the room. In IPD the degrees and titles don’t matter. Smart wins. He started realizing he could impact this project from a positive standpoint. And I feel like next time he’ll already be out of his shell when we begin.
LARRY SNOW McCarthy/Andersen Superintendent At first this job took some getting used to. Usually you’re in a job trailer by yourself where you have
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peace and quiet. I don’t do well with distractions, so I get here at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning to do all my focused work on the computer. But I respect the fact that on this job you’re placing more trust in people. There are a lot of examples of people like me who came full circle to embrace and become advocates for this process. The challenge with IPD relies on you having the integrity and courage to make commitments. To be successful I think it’s about getting the right people. But I would hope I don’t ever have to go back to the traditional delivery method.
NICK STEPHENS McCarthy/Andersen Project Manager 114
I was a huge naysayer at first. But we’ve had unique challenges and everyone has been flexible. That’s been eye-opening. If that can happen here on a short schedule, it could pretty much happen anywhere. That transparency and communication is what’s different in this project. Having people on site across from you in the trailer, I can’t tell you how big of a difference that makes. There’s still some jockeying in the field where it’s more about the end result. From a higher level we may not see that as much. I think the key with our trades is you bring them on as early in the design phase as possible. You have dedicated designers for each of the contractors. You use BIM [Building Integrated Management software] for everything. Each contractor has his or her own
designer in the CoLo, which for us was a big help. And budget strategies: make sure everyone has one, like whether they include overtime or not, and is transparent on how many people they feel they’ll have at any time, so the schedule can be manpower-loaded, if needed.
JENNIFER TAYLOR Oregon Health & Science University Director of Design and Construction The KCRB got started before I was here, but when I went down and saw the CoLo it was one of the things that made me want to take the job. I was inspired by how it was designed, having worked on IPD projects and seeing they got it right. There was clearly pull planning and lots of lean activity. People were actually sitting together and talking. They weren’t in silos. My first impression was wow, these guys got it right. Like any projects, there are stumbling blocks. I saw a team that wasn’t perfect and didn’t have all the answers, but because of how they were committed to working together, they were able to have the difficult conversations and figure out the right answers to things. That’s the ultimate promise of working this way. When you do run into problems, when personalities do clash, you’ve developed the tools and abilities to solve those problems. That’s what doesn’t happen in other traditional delivery methods that aren’t transparent and trustworthy. This group works through those tough things and comes up with a good solution.
I thought “Hack the CoLo” was a particularly smart move: to recognize we were moving deeply into construction and just leaving things as-is wasn’t necessarily the best solution. They said, “Let’s keep it fresh. Let’s push ourselves. We need to reorganize who speaks to whom and where people sit.” But they approached it in a collaborative way. They had that vision to say, “What do we want the magazine cover to look like in a year?” I thought that was a really great and creative way to get that group energized throughout all of the trades. Flexibility is really crucial, whether you’re talking about the team or the building. There’s a diagram I draw all the time that I got from a Lean Construction Institute conference: there’s a small square and there’s a larger square, and then a really big square with the others in the corner. The first two are design and construction. The big square is the longevity of the building and the money spent on operations and human capital. If we don’t get it right in those first couple of little squares, we’re just making the rest of that a lot more expensive, not optimal. It’s so important that we get it right when we’re building it. But you don’t get that if you don’t have the trust. And it happens on our side, too: we as the owner showed all our cards: “This is the money I have and this is how it’s bucketed.” That’s been a game changer for our general contractors. We involve them from the beginning, and they’re not used to owners showing all their cards. They really appreciate that and they have a much better understanding of what our limitations are.
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JENNIFER TEEPLES Oregon Health & Science University Program Director, Knight Operations
TRAVIS WALDIE General Sheet Metal Superintendent
I started on this project in 2014 when it was just an idea. I went on East Coast tours with our senior leadership staff. A lot of our ideas around collaborative, open spaces were based on the ideas and what we saw on those tours. I was there for the writing of the tri-party agreement where they outlined the approach, and I facilitated some of the success criteria around enduring relationships and client expectations.
This project has been unique right out of the gate. To have all the trades and the architect a few steps away in the CoLo is really paramount to getting questions answered in a timely fashion and to keeping on schedule. Traditionally the hang-up is waiting for RFIs or design intent to get answered. This project, we got answers the same day. That’s unheard of. And the relationship between the subs has been pretty incredible. I could walk up now to an electrician from Cherry City I’ve never met before and it’s “How can I help you?” It’s like each of us is an internal customer of each other. And that’s true for any trade I’m working with.
I have to admit: I did have the initial learning curve with the lean and IPD jargon. But from the beginning of talking about what the CoLo should be, there was intention and purpose to make sure these spaces were conducive to building trust and creating an environment where people could speak up and have radical candor with each other. And it shows: people want to be here. If you look at office environments and work culture in the United States, at the macro level it’s very individualistic. You see people with their own agendas. They don’t have the trust between team members. You start breaking those walls down and things start to happen. People are more focused on the team than on their individual selves. I’m hoping this will continue to be a trend because it just works better. It’s more fun, it makes you feel more engaged versus scared about how other people will respond, and it’s a much more selfless environment.
room for improvement. When we held a “Ladies Craft Lunch” for the trade partners, for example, they said they felt like they were being asked to come in as women only, but they hadn’t as workers in the field felt included enough in the past compared to people in the CoLo. That inclusion focus is something we can continue to keep working on with IPD and lean by extending it to the field. If we made inclusion a topic of conversation as frequently as safety, we might be getting more results.
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BROOK WYNTERGREEN McCarthy/Andersen Project Engineer When I first heard about lean construction and IPD, I thought it was just hype. But I see here, especially being collocated, that every person has a different way of being strong at work. We get information faster. We communicate more. We trust our teams. It’s not just a phone call or a oncea-week visit. I really know more people, including the owner, which is fabulous. Knowing their needs and the necessities, you’re thinking about things from their perspective. As a woman I really appreciate the inclusive culture that’s been created here. But there’s always
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CHAP TER 00: TITLE TITLE
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KCRB BUILDING TIMELINE
2014
2015
NOV
Team Colocates offsite: 30 architects, contractors, engineers, subcontractors and client representatives in the same space begin building the team
OHSU Selects the McCarthy/Andersen SRG Team
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JAN
CREATING A DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT THAT FUELS TRANSFORMATIVE CANCER RESEARCH DRIVING INNOVATION MAY AND DISCOVERY
DESIGN MODIFICATION: ACCESS TO LIGHT design modification: access to light current zoning
proposed building
27°
ROOF 7 MECH 6 TERRACE / ADMIN 5 RESEARCH 4 RESEARCH 3 RESEARCH 2 RESEARCH 1 LOBBY P1 LOBBY / PARKING P2 PARKING
ARTHUR
CLSB ARTHUR
MEADE
PROPOSED BUILDING
Trade partner selection begins VIEW CORRIDOR MODIFICATION
WEST ELEVATION - PROPOSED VIEW CORRIDORS OPTION 1
First Design Review consultation with City of Portland VIEW CORRIDOR MODIFICATION
Act
JUL Building orientation determined: labs to be located on the south (provide best daylight to areas used the most)
Check Team begins the pull planning process to develop the schedule
PORTER
CURRENT ZONING
WEST ELEVATION - CURRENT VIEW CORRIDORS
Team Mission Statement established
33°
Plan Do Check Act approach adopted by the team
Plan Do
MEADE
CLSB
FEB
APR
Project kick-off
OHSU South Waterfront Open House: sharing the vision for KCRB with the neighborhood and broader community
Concept Phase— Programming and Guiding Principles Validation
Core Team established Design kick-off
Leadership + Decision Making structure finalized: Steering Committee, Associate Directors, Core Team
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JUN Tri-party MOU signed by SRG, McCarthy/ Andersen and OHSU
Eco-charrette: a stretch goal of LEED Platinum is identified Target Value Design begins OHSU meets the $500 million fundraising target and matching kicks in
AUG Criteria Design begins
Functional Teams are formed and populated with interdisciplinary representatives
massing & architecture: south elevation
active street & neighborhood: view down moody ave
SEPT Building Information Modeling Workshop, including modelers from all disciplines
Submission of Design Advice Review package to the City of Portland
Kick-off meeting (allocation and size) for "public" spaces and attractors
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2016
JAN City of Portland permit received for jobsite Colocation
Big Room Team Building Session 1: the team met regularly together with the sole purpose of developing positive working relationships and a better understanding of each other's goals and expectations to feed the design process.
Core Team studies communcation and high-functioning teams
First Cost Reconciliation Envelope Team Target Value Design Workshop saves $2.3M
APR Permit Package 1 submission to City of Portland for review: foundations and shoring up to level 1
OCT
DEC
VIEW ON PR
Cardboard lab, sawtooth window and storage mockup
Detail Documents Begin
KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING
Neighborhood Open House
OHSU SRG McCARTHY/
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FEB First computationalist workshop
MAR Jobsite Colocation Move-In and Celebration: trailers installed, furnished and a team of approximately 80 people move in; we celebrate with the first of many team barbeques
Implementation Documents begin for structure, foundations and MEP distribution and service cores
Lab bench mockup and test-fit, workstation mockup
MAY WEST VIEW
Envelope Functional Team visits Wausau, Wisconsin, to collaborate on envelope design with manufacturer
First Experimentalists Workshop
BUILDING DESIGN EXHIBIT C.34 OHSU SRG McCARTHY/ANDERSEN
Design approved by City of Portand Design Commission
Interior materials/ finishes direction
JUN Groundbreaking
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AUG Artist commissioned for sculpture in north atrium
SEP Tower crane delivery
Final foundation column placed
DEC P1 concrete pour completion Backup generator installed
Big Room Team Building Session 2: KCRB stories and lessons learned collected from the whole team, and the idea of a book is established
JUL Scope increased to include fit-out for 2 shelled floors. Total Project Budget adjusted from $160 to $190 million (schedule does not change)
Knight Town Hall event
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OCT
NOV
Installation of underground plumbing and electrical begins
Knight Open House at OHSU
2017
Permit Package 3 submitted (Interiors fit out)
All-team bowling social event
User groups kickoff meeting
Team receives a personal note of appreciation from Dr. Druker recognizing the projects collaborative spirit
JAN "Snowmageddon" Storm: work stops for a total of 10 days, consuming the majority of 'float' in the construction schedule
Move-In Planning Begins
FEB
MAR
Level 1 concrete pour (largest of project): 3.2 million pounds of concrete
The Knight's Operations Project Team begins development of roadmap for a successful and sustainable operations plan for the building
Outdoor BBQ/Picnic lunch (entire team, including construction)
Lab Bench and Furniture mock-ups evaluated by users for for aesthetics and functionallity
Buy-out is complete, project meets Target Budget
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MAY Additional, temporary Colocation space is added inside KCRB for trade pull planning and coordination
JUL KCRB Occupant Orientation is held to discuss move in process and tour the building
Prefab shaft installation begins Air Handling Units delivered to site
AUG The Knight holds a summer celebration and beam signing party for everyone who has worked on the project
Final concrete slab pour at level 6
Air handlers, chillers and pumps are lifted to the 6th floor
APR Innovation challenge accepted by MEP Teams: planning effort to prefabricate overhead racks with multiple trades begins, saving money and time but most importantly increasing safety
Final design presentation to users
Final Permit Approved by the City of Portland
Big Room Team Building Session 3: “Hack the CoLo”—the whole team gets together to talk about how the CoLo will function with more trade partners
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JUN KCRB Town Hall is held to orient Knight employees to the new building
McCarthy/Andersen Joint Venture teambuilding workshop
Transfer Girder is stressed and shoring post in auditorium is removed
Steel Top Out
Final concrete column is poured; exterior envelope installation begins
Temporary freight elevator installed
SEP Transition Team holds first 'Wet Lab Test Fit ' with users to talk about how space will be utilized
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OCT Red tower crane is removed, leaving a single crane
Transformers delivered to job site
KNIGHT EARLY DETECTION SCIENTISTS AND ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM DECIDE TO USE OFFICE DEC SPACES AS 'HUDDLE ROOMS' AND UTILIZE Punched windows pass OPEN SEATING water pressure testing Supporting the 'Guiding Principles' for KCRB; most private offices are repurposed
Sheetrock, painting and ceiling installation is well under way and moving up the building
FEB Final dry-in complete at roof
KCRB 'the book' functional team begins work
Second tower crane is removed
First laboratory equipment installed
NOV Dry-lab test fits are concluded as team collaboratively navigates growth and future recruitment
Power connection to the building is completed
2018
Trade appreciation picnic
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JAN Conference Room Operations Plan complete Lab furniture begins installation on level 2 while drywall is beginning on level 7
MAR BBQ held to thank the project crew members
Big Room Team Building Session 4: Unconscious Bias + Close Out session on continuing to improve the process and communication
Tenant Orientation
Removal of exterior scaffolding begins
APR
MAY
Shared Equipment and Surplus list shared by all researchers
Interior finish work continues; first sidewalk concrete is poured
JUN
JUL
Interior casework and FF+E installation continues
Future occupant 'neighborhoods' meet with Logistics and Transition Team to ensure a smooth move-in
Exterior freight elevator removed
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Punchlist begins
SEP Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
A 4k screen and video wall is installed in the large conference room which was the heart of an international conference in Fall 2018
KCRB 'Block Party' held to begin prep for move in day and continue tenant orientations
Exterior sheet metal passes inspection and installation is commended
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AUG OHSU Employees are invited to a 'Housewarming' for the project
Open House: the entire Portland community is invited to tour the building; over 1000 people attend
Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO) is issued August 17
Move in begins August 20
NOV
DEC
Move in is 90% complete; 27 labs and 90 early detection researchers are working in the building
Final Certificate of Occupancy issued December 5, 2018
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
KNIGHT CANCER RESEARCH BUILDING OPENING CEREMONY SPEECH September 7, 2018 130
Brian Druker, Ph.D. Director, Knight Cancer Institute
OPENING CEREMONY SPEECH
I want each and every one of you who worked on this
do with the patients’ lives we save. But I might have to
building to know how grateful I am, that our dreams
alter that just a little bit. This building is pretty remark-
have become a reality as we start on this new journey.
able. But everything we do in this inspiring space will
I especially want to thank the OR legislature and all the
be dedicated to finding better treatments and detect-
ten thousand donors who were inspired to take up Phil
ing cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages.
and Penny Knight’s challenge. I’m incredibly grateful
The men and women who built this building under-
for OHSU leadership, to the architecture firm SRG and
stood our mission. They kept a large board where they
construction firm McCarthy/Andersen, and all of the
wrote the names of the family members and friends
men and women who came together to design and
they lost to cancer. And while that board is gone, this
build this remarkable building.
building stands as a monument to those who we’ve
Today we celebrate the opening of a building where some of the greatest minds in science will battle a dis-
lost and a testament to the urgency of our work. When we went to the legislature and asked them
ease that affects all of us. But it’s more than that. The
to authorize $200 million in bonding authority, we
building is the embodiment of what we can accomplish
promised that even though we had not yet met the
when we come together for a cause that’s bigger than
challenge, that if they authorized that request, we
any one of us. I often say—actually, my wife who writes
would start planning this building, even before we met
for me says—we don’t measure our success by awards
the challenge, so we could jump-start this program.
or headlines or buildings. We measure everything we
We said that we would complete this building by July of 2018, and we’ve delivered on time and on budget. From the first stages of conception of this project we brought together architects, our construction firm, and our team of researchers and staff to create a building that would foster collaboration, teamwork, and
“We do not simply dream of better outcomes for patients. We seize them. And because of you, an end of cancer begins here.”
Dr. Brian Druker, at the opening of the Knight Cancer Research Building at OHSU.(OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff)
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
innovation. And when you walk through this building,
recognized that higher calling: to build a building
you will understand: we accomplished that goal. We’ve
where we would end cancer as we know it.
already recruited some of the nation’s top cancer
I’ve gotten to meet so many incredible people. One
that by changing the way we do research, we’ll have
of the highlights has been spending more time with
a greater impact and a better outcome. Though we
Gert Boyle, our “One Tough Mother” and our largest
bring different expertise to our mission, as scientists,
individual donor. Gert is quick to point out that her gift
computationalists and clinical researchers, our core is
is no greater in spirit or worth more than the student
always focused on patients and their families.
who held bake sales. Everybody gave what they could,
When we started this journey to end cancer as we know it, it seemed daunting. But perhaps the only
132
One of the best parts of the past few years is
researchers, who came here because they believed
and so did she. Our setting has changed, and we’ve gained new
good thing you can say about cancer is that it creates
friends and an impressive, determined team. But
unlikely allies. We saw businesses and union lead-
our focus remains the same: our patients and their
ers come together, joining forces to raise money. As
families. But now, we do not simply dream of better
you’ve heard from Governor Brown, Republicans and
outcomes for patients. We seize them. And because of
Democrats working together in the Oregon legislature
you, an end of cancer begins here.
came together for this cause. Kids held bake sales and lemonade stands. People donated from every state around this country and 14 countries around the world. In all, ten thousand people heed the call and gave to this challenge, and we’re forever grateful for their support. When we walk in the door each day, we’re greeted by Phil Knight’s quote: “Is there a higher calling than curing cancer?” And we have a tribute wall with ten thousand dots representing the ten thousand donors that made this building possible. Everyone who donated, and everyone who worked on this building,
Thank you very much.
AF TERWORD
AFTERWORD
Tiffani Howard, Ph.D. Program Director, Knight Cancer Institute KCRB Project Liaison
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COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
“It’s about people. It’s all about the people.”
myself, “What can be learned from our adventure into IPD that is valuable for all teams, in all fields?” Virtually everyone on the Knight Cancer Research Building project team was new to the integrated process when we began. With a team possessing hundreds of collective years of experience in their fields
Why would we write a book about a construction project? If you aren’t in the building business, why would you read it? The answer is simple. This book isn’t about design or construction, it’s about people. It’s all about the people. Four years ago, I was ready to transition from stayat-home mom and part-time research scientist to a new phase in my career. I explored the things I wanted when looking for a job. I was looking for a challenge, 134
creativity, and variety. I wanted to bring people from many disciplines together on a high-performing team in order to make a contribution of worth in a field I was passionate about. This opportunity as Project Liaison has more than exceeded my hopes. Growing with this amazing team is a gift. While the project team is going on to the next building, I’m remaining at the Knight Cancer Institute to identify and remove roadblocks to team science, the collaboration of experts in many fields innovating together to answer the most difficult and critical questions. Integrated Project Delivery is a strikingly similar concept to team science, but with extraordinary buildings as the result. As liaison representing the scientists and administration of the Knight, I have been immersed on the design and construction team and together we have delivered a built environment uniquely suited for the future of cancer research. Now as we move into the building, I am constantly asking
to fall back on, maintaining open minds towards trying new things and listening to new voices is sometimes a struggle. Early in the project, while looking at how other institutions achieved team science, we visited Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, where Senior Fellow, Tim Harris, spoke of his formative years at iconic Bell Labs. His words have stuck with me: “I decided I’d rather look ignorant and ask the question than be ignorant.” As a scientist venturing into the design and construction field, I received a free pass to challenge, “Why are we doing that?” out of pure ignorance and curiosity. The unacceptable answer, “Because it’s the way we’ve always done it,” became a joke that discouraged looking backwards. It turns out I wasn’t the only one with questions; asking why eventually became normal and was no longer taken as an offense. We constantly tested ourselves: “Is this working? What could we do to make it better?” With this team, making changes to process or to team composition was not considered failure but progress; it was a project-wide mindset that led to constant improvement. We learned from each other. But listening to younger, less experienced voices requires humility. It requires vulnerability to admit that there might be a better way or a better person for the job. Many teams are formed without much planning, choosing those with titles or political clout or years of experience. But why wouldn’t we look for the best people for the job? Why wouldn’t we examine individual strengths and reward and exploit them for the good of
AF TERWORD
the team? A great team is a diverse team, diverse in talents, views, age and experience as well as gender and ethnicity. Lean philosophy, with its goal of providing ideal customer value through a process that has zero waste, points to talent in the form of skills and intellect as one of the eight assets too valuable to waste. The collective intellectual pool on any team must be fully tapped. Doing so requires recognizing that every voice has something valuable to contribute, and that diverse thinking leads to well-vetted solutions. But it can be intimidating to speak up, or ask a risky question. Regardless of position, one can be a leader on any team by being
Tiffani Howard and project team win People's Choice Award for 2018 Transformational Project of the Year.
one’s true self, transparent and honest about what one can and can’t do, what one does and doesn’t know. This will open the door for others on the team to do the same. Trust develops, and performance improves. The result is radiating circles of influence from empowered team members back to their own institution or their next team. Authenticity is contagious. Culture change does happen. It’s possible, it’s grueling, and it’s worth it. There isn’t any reason to sugarcoat the fact that it is difficult to balance changing team dynamics, focusing on people when there’s work to be done, and disregarding hierarchy for the good of the project. But the compassionate words of Benjy Howe, Director of Learning and Organizational Development at OHSU, “This is hard stuff,” have kept me going. Our team was intentional about stopping to acknowledge how hard it was, celebrating what we had accomplished, and reminding each other of the goal. We were curing cancer. The level of commitment and trust we enjoyed on this team was extraordinary. When the going gets tough, trust wins. At the time of this writing we were just weeks away from the completion, on schedule and on budget, of this
groundbreaking building where we will end cancer as we know it. It is typically a time, I was told, fraught with contention, evidenced by finger-pointing, harsh words, threats and even litigation. I trusted my team so I believed them, but what I actually saw was a group of friends working collaboratively — yes, sweating it and having hard conversations, but remaining focused on the goal to reach the finish line together. In the home stretch of the project Mark Hermans, Project Manager for General Sheet Metal, spontaneously piped up, “Everyone on this job site seems happy to be here and honestly, no other job I’ve been on has been like this.” It’s all about the people—real, valued and recognized—and as a result, the project excels and the individuals grow. I speak for myself and many others on this team, that going back to the old way of doing things just isn’t an option. Believing the old adage “A rising tide lifts all boats,” we have become self-proclaimed ambassadors of transparency and honesty that elicits a culture of trust because we don’t ever want to settle for any other team environment. Why would you?
135
COLL ABOR ATION FOR A CURE
CAST & CREDITS
136
To all those who gave of their time, energy, skills, talents and innovation to contribute to the pursuit of ending cancer as we know it through the rise of this remarkable building, thank you.
CAST & CREDITS
Advance Welding
Ha's Painting
Performance Contracting Inc.
Allegion - Joe Cross
Haldeman-Homme, Inc.
Poss Construction
Architextures
Insulation Contractors Inc.
Pro-Bel Enterprises Limited
ASI Structures
Interior Exterior Specialist
Proclean
B+H Advance Strategy
Iris Window Coverings
Quality Door Service, Inc.
Benson
Jacobs Consultancy
R&J Metal Fab, Inc.
BioCold Environmental, Inc.
JH Kelly LLC
Raimore Construction LLC
Boyter Brothers LLC
Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP
Ricca Design Studios
Bratton Masonry
KPFF Consulting Engineers
Roedel Tile Contracting Co., Inc.
Brightworks Sustainability
LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Safway Services LLC
Brudnage Bone
Listen Acoustics
Sedia Systems Inc.
Building Material Specialists
Luma Lighting Design
The Shalleck Collaborative
Catena Consulting Engineers
M. Thrailkill Architect, LLC.
Siemens Industry Inc.
Cherry City Electric
Mayer / Reed, Inc.
Smith & Greene Company
Cochran Inc.
McDonald Excavating Inc.
Snyder Roofing of Oregon LLC
Convergint Technologies, LLC
McNulty Flooring, LLC
Standard TV & Appliance
Culver Glass
Neudorfer Engineers, Inc.
Stonhard, Inc.
DeaMor Associates Inc.
Northwest Geotech, Inc.
Studio SC
Delta Systems Integration, Inc.
NorthWest Handling Systems Inc.
Superior Gunite
Drake's Striping and Painting Inc.
Northwest Masonry Restoration Co.
Temp Control Mechanical, Inc.
Elevator Solutions
Northwest Precast LLC
Todd A. Welch, Inc.
Extreme Excavating Inc.
Oregon Commercial Painters
Tube Art Displays, Inc.
The Faรงade Group
Otis Elevator Company
Turtle Mt. Construction
Faustrollean Fixture Company Inc.
Overhead Door Co. of Portland
Vaughn Environmental, Inc.
Floor Solutions LLC
Pacific Decorative Concrete Inc.
WFJ Janitorial Services, Inc.
Fred Shearer and Sons Inc.
Pacific Foundation
Western Rebar
General Sheet Metal
PAE Engineers
Western States Fire Protection Co.
GeoDesign
PBS Supply Co.
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The creation of this book would not have been possible without the generous financial assistance and inkind donations from the following companies:
SRG Partnership McCarthy/Andersen Joint Venture PAE Catena Mayer Reed KPFF JH Kelly Cherry City Electric TCM Mechanical Fred Shearer & Sons
A special thanks to the team of people who donated countless hours of their time and talents to put this book together: Leslie Boll, SRG’s graphic designer, who put her heart and soul into making this book visually compelling and beautiful. Kip Richardson, SRG, who was instrumental in driving the overall process, continually editing the book and empowering the team. Jacquie Martin, Andersen Construction, who managed the process, kept track of everything, and did it with a smile! Tiffani Howard, Research Scientist and client liaison for the Knight Cancer Institute whose wisdom and ideas permeate the entire book. Stef Becker, McCarthy Construction, who took on the daunting task of keeping the book alive and the team motivated, even when everyone was overwhelmed. Author Brian Libby, who sifted through a complex process and dozens of different voices and turned them into a coherent and memorable narrative.
We are grateful to many people for the images and photography in this book. We have provided credits where possible, but want to acknowledge these sources as well: McCarthy Building Companies, Brad Feinknopf, and those team members who took time to snap cell phone shots throughout the process.
Editor: Kip Richardson Copy-editor: CJ Chang Book Design: Leslie Boll and Alyssa Gritzmacher
First printing March 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission of the publisher.