APPROACH
Hurd & Obenchain, Inc. feels that project success primarily is established in the early stages. The issues of budget and schedule must be addressed immediately to ensure confidence that the Owner's expectations are fully understood prior to committing to a detailed "Plan of Attack."
The first step is to accurately identify the full scope of work to be encompassed in the project - including a clear statement of what is not included in the contract. The Owner's preferences and priorities must be defined to establish design standards that may affect project costs. Preliminary budget cost numbers are calculated, based on the agreed upon scope of work, and must include adjustments for inflation with regard to the construction schedule. This early phase construction budget must be submitted and reviewed with the Owner so that any required scope revisions can occur without affecting this design schedule.
The primary issue with the project schedule is to allow adequate time to guarantee complete, high-quality construction documents. Investing the necessary time in the design process to insure accurate documents can save time during the construction phase. It also is imperative to allow adequate time during the design phase for Owner review. Making an effort to coordinate the various submissions with the Owner's team, prior to formal submissions, can help identify and address design issues that may arise during the review process. Our engineers are encouraged to have personal dialogue with the reviewers to discuss comments, reducing the paper trail and time required to explain design intent. Hurd & Obenchain, Inc. believes that open communication between the Owner and the Engineering Professional is essential to fast-track design performance.
At H&O, our standard design practices incorporate many components and features that are sustainable. This practice of sustainability has proliferated in recent years and we now take claim to completed and soon-to-be completed LEED Certified buildings in the Mid-Atlantic region. This is the result of years of applying professional, high quality, engineering solutions that benefit our clients. Hurd & Obenchain, Inc. is also a proud Energy Star Partner and members of the United States Green Building Council. We feel green building is just the right thing to do so we make efforts to make it affordable and available to our clients. Please refer to our High Performance Engineering section for more information on our approach to sustainable design.