Case Studies
The Elkins’ team that worked Osprey Village Retirement Community would have you believe this was a run-of-the-mill job because it went smoothly. “We were just doing our job,” said Andrew Hardaker, Elkins Project Manager who completed Osprey Village in July 2008. “Our jobs are supposed to run smoothly.”
The team’s specific performance included:
• Delivering the project one month ahead of schedule
• Affording the owner $250,000 in project upgrades without increasing his budget
• Coordinating a significantly restricted site
• Saving a thick canopy of oak trees; some only five feet away from the building
• Keeping elderly neighbors living 20 feet away happy during construction
• Using several innovative systems and construction concepts
• Ensuring Elkins reached one million hours with no time lost in accidents
This magnanimous performance from the team so impressed the owners that they simply handed Elkins two other projects valued at $55 million. We, at Elkins, believe in providing value to our clients. We aim to build trust and confidence in all of our relationships. In this case, the Elkins team not only completed a job, they also realized the mission of our company.
“There was never any doubt that we will continue to use Elkins. To reinforce this, our REIT, which finances our projects, had no issues with Elkins at all. When the REIT is happy everyone is happy. After all, they are paying the bills,” said Rob Burgess, Senior Vice President of Development for Senior Living Communities. “Elkins has helped us manage our risk on our projects and make our jobs a lot easier for us. What is the key for us is Elkins’ can-do attitude. They will do whatever it takes to make us look good.”
About the Facility
Osprey Village is a 36-unit independent living community and a 24-bed Alzheimer’s unit with a total of 100,000 SF. The building is constructed of block and stucco with shingle roof. Interior finishes include tile floors and granite countertops. A 4,000 SF dining amenity space and commercial kitchen are located on the second floor. The first floor features a 68-space parking garage. This project included an extensive site package.
Addressing the Challenges of the Project
One of the most difficult challenges for the construction at Osprey Village was working amongst a canopy of trees that are hundreds of years old on Amelia Island. Resting just off the coast of northeast Florida, Amelia Island is one of the few remaining unspoiled barrier islands in Florida. Its moss covered oaks attract an abundant native wildlife. The city and county have put permitting in place to protect those trees. Significant fines would be enforced if the team killed trees. In addition, Senior Living Communities, the owners of Osprey Village, wanted to keep the natural surroundings as pristine as possible to enhance the quality of life for the elderly residents.
Maintaining the old growth tree canopy through the construction of the building took diligence. In some cases, the trees were less than five feet away from the construction. Standard tree protection was used. The team also modified scaffolding to avoid damaging the trees.
“We certainly moved a lot slower and more meticulously. You can’t be like everyone else out there who saws down the trees in their way,” said Hardaker. “It paid off in the end. We were actually able to save trees that were up for removal.”
In many cases, the Elkins team used cranes and lifts to set steel and conduct other construction activities that would have otherwise been done without the need for heavy equipment.
“The trees were right up against the building and all around it. We took down only the trees that were located right on the building pad. All the other trees remained on the site,” said Superintendent Steve Sandiford, LEED AP. “We used cranes to avoid the trees and get in where we needed to be.”
Thinking Outside of the Box
The crews could only access the site from one entrance point on the south side of the site. The other sides were blocked by trees, an existing building and an assisted living facility. The team came up with an unusual way to provide access into the site for large equipment and materials. The team lowered the footers in the garage so they could dig down below grade about five feet and go underneath the building. This provided enough space for cranes, lifts, trucks and construction materials.
The residents of Osprey Village are allowed to select upgraded finishes for their units including flooring, trim, paint, cabinets, and appliances. Elkins managed the requests of each buyer including selection, pricing and installation. Each of the 60 units had a different requirements based on the residents’ needs.
According to Hardaker, Elkins had a simple but effective system in place for the upgrades process. They created the software to track the upgrades. Printed out everything and communicated to subcontractors the upgrades. The same paperwork was posted in every unit. Each item was checked off on the paperwork as it was completed and rechecked at the end when the team was completing the punchlist.
“Elkins performs well on all of our projects. It is especially critical with our elderly residents. The interaction our residents had with Elkins while picking out their finishes for their apartments was great. They were patient and customer friendly. They bent over backwards to help out our residents,” said Burgess. “This is the key for us. We are nothing without our residents. I know it isn’t a part of the construction process, but Elkins adopted our residents as their customers and worked in their best interests.”
Senior Living Communities received the building one month sooner than they expected. The team did an extensive analysis of the schedule during the preconstruction phase of the project. The team phased the construction to turn over the building in a timely manner. For example, they phased the completion of the second floor (the garage roof, which was cast-in-place concrete). This allowed them to immediately follow with the structural studs and block, and the installation of a flooring system. They were able to move to the next phase as quickly as possible so the next scope could follow.
The team also phased the interior finishes. The team started at the north end of the building, worked their way to the middle and finished at the west end of the building. This allowed the team to maximize the efficiency of the crew sizes and turn over spaces for the next scope of work as quickly as possible. It also allowed for time in the schedule to systematically complete punchlists and turn the units over to the owner. The systematic approach paid off. The team achieved a zero punch list and the owners complimented Elkins regarding what they received in the final product.
“Elkins was on time and on budget. They watched out for problems and proactively resolved them. They consistently kept me updated on the progress of my project. I wish everyone I dealt with was this good,” said Donald Thompson, President of Senior Living Communities.
State-of-the-Art Technology
Senior Living’s architect, Jim White at Triad Design Group, selected a Hambro joist system, a bar joist and a form hybrid system for putting the floors in. The floors are built by embedding a composite steel floor joist in poured concrete. Concrete and steel T-beams run in one direction with the integrated, continuous slab in the opposite direction. The floor joist bottom chord acts as a tension member when the concrete is being poured, and continues to serve that purpose during the service life of the floor. The web, tying top and bottom chords together, is made of bent rods.
The web resists vertical shear in a conventional manner. The 13-gauge top chord of the floor joist acts as a compression member during the non-composite stage.
In the composite stage, the top chord of the floor joist is embedded in the concrete and acts as a continuous shear connector. The concrete slab is reinforced with welded wire mesh. The top chord functions as a "high chair", developing negative moment capacity in the concrete slab causing it to behave as a continuous, one-way reinforced slab.
The system has a variety of benefits. First, it is economical because you use less concrete and reinforcing steel. It is easy and fast to install; rigid due to the composite design; ductable so it saves on mechanical trades; has highly rated fire protection and acoustical properties and the forms can be reused.
The Natural Environment
While protecting the trees was a significant accomplishment for the team and greatly enhanced the beauty of the surroundings and the finished project, the team had greater concern for the elderly residents of the Osprey Village Community. The crew was working in a residential area; one existing house was 20-feet away. The assisted living facility was across the street.
“You have to respect the fact that the neighbors are home more often during the day because they are retired and elderly. We didn’t want to disturb them at all,” said Hardaker.
Sandiford coordinated with Matt Younger, Executive Director of Osprey Village, for early morning concrete pours. Weekend work was kept to a minimum because family member visitations peak during that time.
Client Satisfaction
“Our goal was to keep the client happy,” said Hardaker. “Communication was important. A clean job site was important. Staying on schedule and cost impact were important. We listened to Senior Living and made sure we adopted their goals as our own.”
Closer to the end of the project, Senior Living Communities had to make changes to the units based on their residents’ desires. The Elkins team wanted to carry out these requests without impact to cost and schedule. For example, they removed man-made countertops and installed real granite. From day one, the team carefully monitored the buyout and managed the contingency so Senior Living Communities had extra money, $250,000, available to spend on issues that would arise throughout the job. Consequentially, Senior Living Communities didn’t have to come out of pocket to make any last minute changes.
Hardaker and his team took extra care to make sure the construction site was exceptionally clean – not only to make a good impression on potential buyers and existing residents of the community, but because Donald Thompson, President of Senior Living Communities, is also fastidious and would show up unannounced.
“You never knew when Donald would show up, and he wasn’t always there that long, maybe 10 minutes. We had ten minutes to shine and we were going to put our best foot forward. We always got compliments. But besides that, it was nicer for the neighbors and made safety on this small site easier to manage,” said Hardaker.
Safety Initiatives
In July, when Osprey Village was completed, Elkins reached a milestone. The company had worked one million man hours, close to four years, without a safety-related incident on a job site. Part of the company’s overall success is the strong finish at Osprey which preserved our safety record and helped the company to reach this milestone.
Safety could have been a problem on the project, according to Hardaker. The trees made a tight space even tighter. The site was only 1 ½ acres in size. With an average of 68 people on the site and some days more than 100 workers were on site, the space was extremely cramped. “This was a large building with a lot of people in a small amount of space for a long time. To have zero injuries is significant. We were all on top of each other,” said Hardaker.
Safety is the number one priority and we performed this entire project without a recordable accident. One of the keys to jobsite safety is a clean jobsite; our independent safety consultant called this the cleanest jobsite in Jacksonville. In addition to our standard safety procedures and keeping the jobsite clean, we held weekly safety meetings for everyone onsite. We also held bi-monthly Safety Committee Meetings led by our superintendent which a representative from each subcontractor attended.
“We follow the rules. We don’t have accidents. We always do everything we ought to do to make a site safe. We go all out on every job we do. That is what we do and how we do it,” said Sandiford.
Despite all the challenges the team faced, everyone pulled together to deliver the product we promised in time for the start of school. The result was a project in which the owner, Elkins and the architect all could take great pride.