Maryland Green School Causes Delay, Extra Costs
Last week, I gave a presentation on green building law to legal counsel for D.C metropolitan jurisdictions. One of the things that I said, and have repeated to other groups, is that green schools will be a hotbed for initial LEEDigation (see slide 25).
Want to see an example of what I am talking about?
The one-year delay in the opening of a new elementary school in Upper Marlboro was largely caused by school system planners' struggles to meet state-imposed environmental standards that were established last year, a school development officer said.The Prince George's County Public Schools' Capital Improvement Program office submitted a final building permit for approval later than expected because designers had to incorporate changes in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, said CIP officer Rupert McCave."It changes over the year because everyone is still growing and learning the new requirements," McCave said. "You can talk to any school district in Maryland and they'll tell you it's a learning curve."
Why does a one year delay to construction matter? A one year delay results in increased design and construction costs. Design and construction firms want to be compensated for the delay. Owners, in this case a school district, blame the designer and/or contractor for the delay.
"Economically, [the delay] concerns me," said Board of Education member Donna Hathaway Beck (At-large), who said she asked the school system's chief operating officer, Lawrence Fryer, about the delay at a CIP meeting early in April. "We're paying money now, but we're not going to be using the building until next year."
The key to managing your green building risk is to understand the owner's expectations of the green building. You don't want the owner making comments like this:
"It's just disappointing, and you remind them that this doesn't happen again," she added.
Disappointed owners of green buildings result in LEEDigation. How are you managing green building expectations?
Photo: Dean Terry
What can they do to avoid these delays?
Are there lessons to be learned here?
Just curious
Robert
I read the news article linked and it isn't very clear what actually caused the delay. I seems like the people commenting in the story don't really know about LEED. It seems that LEED was pursued later rather than sooner and possibly by an inexperienced design team, that did not properly manage the owner's expectations.
Either way I think a tide of green litigation is coming and architects, engineers, contractors and attorneys need to get ready.
Construction delays are prevalent throughout the construction industry. It seems awfully convenient to blame energy code restrictions on the delays. I worked on a project recently where at the last minute the local Fire Marshall called for added sprinklers in areas the project managers believed didn't require it, the revision caused delays for everyone.
I suppose my question is-Is this really a Green Issue or a poor design/planning issue?
Robert - I think the lesson here is that everyone needs to account for the steep learning curve associated with initial green building projects. If the design team, cosntruction team and/or owner are all new to green building, then extra time to get certification needs to be incorporated in the schedule.
Mr. Bad Green - interesting name! I agree with your points, although I think a wave, and not just a tide, of green building litigation is on the horizon. ;)
James - Good question. Green building certification is new and caused the design/planning delay. So the two go together. Right?
There is another nice article along this same vein in this month's issue of JLC:
http://tinyurl.com/p95b3r