HKS, along with its joint venture design partner SmithGroup, is helping the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) improve project delivery by following design-build best practices on a $600 million health facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

Design-build, sometimes called alternative project delivery, is a project delivery methodology that involves the designers and builders working together as a single-source, turnkey entity from the beginning of a project, rather than contracting separately with the building owner. Design-build is meant to help control costs, increase speed-to-market and improve client satisfaction by encouraging teamwork.

Due to the integrated nature of a design-build team, construction can begin before a project’s final design is completed. This critically important early start further speeds project delivery.

In December 2023, USACE, the VA’s procurement agent, awarded Clark Construction Group a design-build construction contract for a new VA Health Care Center designed by a SmithGroup+HKS joint venture. The 493,000-square-foot facility on its 36-acre site is scheduled to be completed in February 2028.

The health care center will provide outpatient services such as primary care, mental and behavioral health care, specialty care and ambulatory surgery.

“The successful construction award of the El Paso Health Care Center is the result of VA’s efforts to improve planning and implementation of a design-build project,” Michael D. Brennan, PhD, AIA, NCARB, SES, Executive Director of the VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management, said in a statement about the project.

“Most importantly, upon completion, the Health Care Center will service and improve access to world-class health care for more than 54,000 veterans in the El Paso area,” Brennan said.

Teamwork

To ensure the VA Health Care Center is delivered on schedule, on budget and with the highest quality design and construction, the design-build team is following best practices established by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). DBIA’s best practices for procuring and contracting for design-build services and executing a design-build project are outlined in a series of publications titled Design-Build Done Right®.

Jim Whitaker, FAIA, FDBIA, Global Practice Director of Government & Alternative Project Delivery and a Partner at HKS, served on the DBIA working group that authored the 2023 update to Design-Build Done Right® for the Federal Sector.

“Design-Built Done Right shows how to organize, nurture and train high-performance teams,” said Whitaker.

By creating an integrated team that includes the prime contractor, designers, subconsultants, skilled trade contractors and subspecialists, design-build project delivery strives to foster collaborative problem-solving and innovation. Design-build best practices seek to avoid cost overruns or schedule delays that can occur when design and construction professionals conflict with one another in dealing with adverse issues that can arise during a project. According to Whitaker, aligning expectations, fostering effective communications and setting common goals are essential for success on a design-build project.

Brent Willson, AIA, FHFI, DBIA, Studio Practice Leader, Federal Health, and a Partner at HKS, said that uniting designers and builders on one team from the outset of a project creates “the best of both worlds.”

He added, “As designers, we do know a lot about construction, but we don’t know all the things that a builder brings to the table, right? And vice versa.”

Bringing together design and construction expertise results in a stronger, more fully considered design that the project team can be confident in executing, Willson said.

As an example, he described a discussion about the VA Health Care Center design that included the prime contractor, architects, an exterior envelope glazier and a precast concrete subcontractor working together to resolve an issue concerning a curtainwall system. “We’re all talking the same language at the same time,” said Willson. “It’s real-time problem-solving.”

Singular Vision

In addition to cost containment and speed-to-market advantages, design-build can promote design excellence, according to Anthony Montalto, AIA, Chief Design Officer and a Partner at HKS.

“This scenario can result in better projects because you have the ability to align goals and processes and drive towards a single vision from the beginning,” said Montalto.

The Clark Construction Group/SmithGroup+HKS design-build team began working together in 2022 to develop a vision and design concept for the VA Health Care Center in response to the federal government’s request for qualifications (RFQ), and once shortlisted, request-for-proposal (RFP) solicitation for the project. SmithGroup focused on the interior medical planning while HKS focused on the exterior building design. The firms collaborated on the master planning and conceptual site plan.

Montalto said the design team was inspired by the VA’s longtime mission, which promises to “care for those who have served in our nation’s military,” as well as their families.

The monumental scale of the health center’s main façade is meant to provoke a sense of awe and honor. The face of the building features a vast expanse of glass and immense concrete panels that express “strength and boldness of mass, to pay homage to the great service and sacrifice of the veteran,” Montalto said.

Throughout the design, the team strove to understand and respond to those veterans’ different health care journeys and stages of life, including younger veterans, people who are recently retired and senior citizens.

The team also endeavored to create a design that is “authentically El Paso,” Montalto said. This includes a material tonality and striations that take advantage of the surrounding views and context, as well as climate and comfort considerations that respond to El Paso’s desert setting.

‘Delivering Care Quicker and Better’

The VA Health Care Center design-build contract resulted from a rigorous procurement process. USACE’s adoption of qualifications-based selection (a DBIA best practice) ensures firms that are pre-qualified to submit final proposals to work on federal projects represent “the most qualified construction contractors, the most sophisticated design professionals, the most capable trade partners and the best engineers,” said Whitaker.

The highly detailed RFP for the VA Health Care Center specified a targeted cost ceiling. Qualifications-based selection allowed USACE to select what they considered the best proposal that met the RFP’s technical requirements and price considerations.

Transparency about cost during the procurement phase of a project allows design-build teams to put forward their most creative ideas for a beautiful, high-performing building that meets the stated requirements – rather than be concerned with a race to the bottom on price, which can compromise technical merit and design excellence.

After USACE awarded the project to the Clark Construction Group/SmithGroup+HKS design-build team in December, they finalized the contract in approximately two months. USACE issued a Notice to Proceed on the project in mid-February. Excavation is expected to begin this summer.

“Design-build is favorable to getting a design and construction contract – and a higher quality project to satisfy project requirements – in a shorter timeframe,” said Ross Davidson, DBIA, FHFI, Associate Executive Director of the VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management.

According to Davidson, design-build best practices helped the VA establish requirements for the health center and adhere to those requirements during planning. “The less deviation, the sooner you can deliver” the building, Davidson said.

Willson, who has nearly 40 years’ experience designing health facilities for the Federal sector, said, “In health care, we deliver buildings that change people’s lives. Doing this for our soldiers and veterans takes it to the next level. To be part of the VA delivering care quicker and better, with better facilities? Man, I’m really proud of that.”