Projects Creating Change with Longevity

the industry towards a holistic strategy to manage facilities.

TCO will drive the industry to ensure that the changes we make today are beneficial over the long term and will move the industry away from a first-cost mentality. TCO is a holistic view of all costs associated with planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, renewal, and the end of life of the facility. But most importantly, TCO includes the impact on the people and process that the project affects—these include the societal benefit of the project. For example, TCO identifies the societal benefits of a new hospital. There are certainly a lot of expenses that do not seem of value until an issue is looked at holistically. Some costs must be incurred to affect positive change.

The big question for AECOO is who the catalyst for change will be? While it may seem the designer likely has the most significant role, as the items they select can have a profound impact on the long-term value generated for the client; the owner is the one who holds the most influence on changes, as they have the most to gain because they pay for the initial project and, in most cases, have to live with the results. Our focus for TCO implementation is on any owner who has an extensive portfolio that uses those facilities in their life, such as universities or hospitals.

Once a decision has been made to build any project, the owner sees the construction process as delayed gratification of realizing the benefit from their decision. Even if a facility could be ready in a week, they would still know that week as a loss of use. So how does the construction industry work to eliminate the delivery delays while improving the quality and lowering the total cost? In the infrastructure world, approaches such as Rapid Bridge Replacement or Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) has been applied to minimize the impact on traffic flow. China’s Broad Construction Company has demonstrated modular construction to build high rises in days versus months for vertical structures. The benefits obtained in one hotel project were significant by having guests occupy rooms almost immediately. Yet these examples have been around for years, and we see little change in the industry. So, I ask again, what or who will be the catalyst for change?

Dana K. Smith, FAIA Emeritus, FbSI, is a facility and IT architect with experience across the entire spectrum of assets, from homeowner’s associations to one of its most extensive facility portfolios. He is a lecturer and author of articles and books on CAD, Specifications, Cost Engineering, BIM, Education, and many other facility-related topics. He was co-chair of developing the APPA TCO standards Part 1 & 2.