Page 34 - College Planning & Management, July/August 2018

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TODAY’S PREFAB CONSTRUCTION
construction in the U.S., where macro labor trends are widely known. This includes stricter immigration laws, devastating storms, retiring baby boomers, the 2008 recession, and the reality that for every five people retiring from the trades, only one is there to replace them.
Combine those trends with the fact that colleges and universities are reporting shorter construction windows. With more and more academic and community pro- gramming being offered year-round, there is less time to execute these renovation and renewal projects.
Many campuses are deciding to breathe new life into outdated buildings, rather than razing them and building new. It’s often
too disruptive to complete any sort of work when students are around: cordoning off spaces with sheets of plastic and yellow tape, making sure dust is contained and construc- tion activity is minimized. At the same time, these improvement projects are critical to maintaining institutional relevance and at- tracting the latest generation of students. And their expectations are wildly different from the incoming students just a decade ago.
For these reasons, and many more, proj- ect teams increasingly turn to prefabrication for different components of a build. From preassembled roof trusses to prefabricated exterior brick walls, and even to bathroom pods that are hoisted into the open shell
of a residence hall, the recognized benefits are speed, quality control, safety, and cost certainty.
The Impact on Costs
Cost is also impacted several ways.
First, with a shorter project duration from start to finish, there is a reduction on general conditions and fees, such as labor costs, less time a construction trailer is needed onsite, and more. That means the tables are also turned on material versus laborcosts.
Project pricing is based on the amount and quality of materials used. In a conven- tional buildout, approximately 30 percent of the project budget is spent on materials
while 70 percent is spent on labor to as- semble those materials on site. Using pre- fab interior assemblies, you’re spending 70 percent on high-performing materials, but only about 30 percent on labor. The interior build-out is an asset the owner keeps, ver- sus a conventional build where 70 percent of their budget walks off the jobsite when the project is finished. This 70/30 compari- son is an average and fluctuates based on labor costs in various markets.
In conclusion, 2018 is playing witness to a convergence of factors that will finally push technology-driven prefab over the adoption curve and into mainstream institutional construction. It’s a higher- quality and cost-effective approach to construction for educational spaces that are built to meet the exact needs of the client. Will the education construction industryrespond? CPM
Betsy Maddox is director of Education for DIRTT Environmental Solutions. She can be reached at bmaddox@DIRTT.net.
PREFAB ON CAMPUS: WHERE ITS WORKING
The University of Iowa needed a high-tech learning commons. The only space available on campus was an old administration space in the library. It had structural steel support column every 9 feet in one direction and 13 feet in another direction. The architect on the project, Kent Lutz, doubted that that manufactured modules could be mass- customized to fit the old building.
“If you would have asked me before this process started, if I thought we could use a modular wall design to make these study rooms, I would have said it isn’t possible.” Lutz explains his reticence, “Because they are very standardized and rigid and very specific to maybe a corporate office environ- ment with regular sized spaces. But now that I’ve done this, obviously everything was custom. I think that’s the magic of this system. Nothing is standard.”
34 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JULY/AUGUST 2018
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