DPR August 2020

DPR: collaboration and sustainability in construction DPR

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

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DPR: collaboration and sustainability in construction

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DPR

Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe at DPR Construction, on the company’s technological and collaborative approach to data centre construction

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PR Construction is a global specialist in technical construction, working in five core markets – advanced technology,

commercial, healthcare, higher education and life sciences. Damian Farr is Europe Managing Director at the company. “We’re proud builders,” he says. “Fundamentally, I think we understand that construction is a service industry. We’re striving to 04

be an extension of our customers’ organisations by putting their projects and end goals first, and always thinking about how they need to use the building.”

DPR is playing a big part in fulfilling the ever growing need for data centres, as Farr explains, “In the last four to five years we’ve built close to $3.5bn of mission critical facilities across 200 separate projects, but our data centre heritage stretches right back to our founding.” DPR has grown rapidly since its foundation in Silicon Valley in 1990 and is now one of the 10 largest general builders in the US. “In those 30 years, something very special has happened, which is the idea that everybody’s working together to achieve the same thing: we exist to build great things – not just great buildings, but people and relationships as well. It’s an idea that’s very sincerely held throughout the business.”

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“ We are working for customers who are delivering buildings that have become absolutely critical to our infrastructure” Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction 06

The company has far from a conventional structure, operating with a shared leadership model. “We very much have a model of distributed leadership throughout the company, and that resonated with me profoundly,” Farr explains. “We’re title-less internally, which empowers employees at every level to be independent, do their best and make change for our customers and our business. Put simply, it’s really about eliminating barriers between two people having a conversation.”

Effective collaboration has, from the start, been DPR’s desire. “We pioneered integrated project delivery.

We bring stakeholders together – architects, customers, trade partners, our own team – right from the outset,” explains Farr. “We work in five core markets and we seek to know them very well. We want to work on buildings that matter and also that challenge our teams. That’s what we enjoy doing. The collaboration that we bring to our projects is therefore key. We really do like working with customers that we enjoy – a true partner who wants to help us change the world as well.”

DPR: great teams building great things CLICK TO WATCH

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CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

or prefabrication, or integrating project

Virtual design and construction, in broad

teams and improving collaboration.”

strokes, refers to the practice of using

Digital technology is a hallmark of the

digital tools to drive real value in the

firm’s approach, but it is always used

construction process. It’s a trend that’s

purposefully. “It’s all really about collabo-

long been transforming the industry,

ration and providing that single source of

and one which DPR embraces whole-

truth that the whole team can go to and

heartedly. “First and foremost, our role

talk through. Things like building infor-

is really to try and innovate in the areas

mation modeling and consulting, and

that we can control such as construc-

then execution. We use model-based

tion technology and best construction

quantity takeoffs for our estimating. We

practices. And that’s where we’ve had

then use the model to generate prefab-

the greatest success, whether it’s in the

rication processes and go straight from

field of virtual design and construction,

the model into manufacturing.” w w w.d p r. com

DPR

Alongside a host of other applications, DPR is also investigating the

Sustainability as a whole is highly

use of emerging technologies to

important to DPR, with the company

further refine their approach. “We’re

following a model of global social

now looking at artificial intelligence

responsibility. “We want to be integral

applications, of which we were an

and indispensable to our communi-

early supporter. There is the potential

ties, and that’s been a long held view

to create AI constructability analysis.

of the business.” DPR has three pillars

The hope is that, if we’re missing some-

guiding its approach, namely: people,

thing, the software and the technology

planet and philanthropy.

can generate some different thinking

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PEOPLE, PLANET AND PHILANTHROPY

In thinking about data centers and

around how we might optimise the

the first pillar – planet – efficiency is

construction sequence.”

key. “The energy efficiency of the

buildings we’re constructing is important. And as governments start to worry a little more about data centers and their energy use, we have a role to play in helping our customers figure out the best solutions.” Avenues being explored include the use of thermal aquifer storage. “That’s an important step that we can make in the here and now. We take it very seriously and we are trying to play our part in solving the problems that our customers are facing.”

1990

Year founded

$5.8bn+ Revenue in US dollars

6,500 Number of employees

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DPR

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“

We exist to build great things – not just great buildings, but people and relationships as well” 11

Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction

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DPR

When it comes to taking care of the planet, DPR takes a more active role, leading by example with six net-zero and three WELL Certified offices throughout the business to date. “DPR walks the talk. We have net-zero energy offices that we’ve built ourselves and we’ve led the way in that. We take our responsibility to reduce our impact on the natural environment very seriously and embody that through pretty much everything we do.”

With the people pillar, Farr is clear 12

that DPR puts diversity, equity and inclusivity first.

“We truly want to look the way that our communities look. I know it’s an easy thing to say, but it’s not enough to level the playing field – some people in some communities are going to need extra help.”

The latter pillar includes community initiatives by local office teams as well as a separate DPR Foundation that issues direct cash grants to causes. “There’s a strong volunteering ethos within the business,” says Farr. “We have year round initiatives such as volunteering directly to renovate a building or volunteering on a pro bono basis to provide organisations construction advice.”

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“Famously, DPR doesn’t have titles” Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction w w w.d p r. com

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“ We want to be integral and indispensable to our communities”

WHAT’S NEXT Like all companies, DPR has had to face up to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Farr emphasises the company’s readiness, being preexisting heavy users of collaboration software. Of course, as a construction company most work cannot be carried out remotely, but DPR has found a way through. “In Europe, we haven’t had a

Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction

single project closed down to date. We have adapted, and I’m very proud of the ingenuity our teams have shown to keep job sites safely moving, because

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we are working for customers who are

we can make sure that any physical

delivering buildings that have become

distance requirements are upheld.”

absolutely critical to our infrastructure and our new ways of working.”

Farr believes that construction after

With things like 5G and cloud coming down the pipeline, well-built data centres are set to become ever more

the pandemic will move to a ‘next nor-

necessary. Farr believes DPR is well

mal’, which has been some time coming,

suited to thrive going forwards. “We’re

the pandemic hastening its arrival. “In

a company that’s incredibly agile

the future there may be fewer people

– that’s always been our way. Our found-

on site, but we’ll create space for pre-

ing principles are as relevant today as

fabrication and offsite construction to

they ever have been. We respect the

really come into its own. We can build

individual and we change the world.”

parts of our buildings away from the job site in controlled environments where w w w.d p r. com

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