Case Study NK

Question 1

If the client’s main priority was time. Why would a traditional approach be a viable option?

Answer 1

Because the client also wanted control over quality of design and competitive price. So had to make the client aware of all their options available to them to make an informed decision.

Question 2

What RIBA stages typically overlap with construction and manufacturing?

Answer 2

Typically Stages 4 (Technical Stage)
However in this instance it was 3 to 5

Question 3

Within a negotiated procurement route, how can you ensure value for money has been achieved for your client?

Answer 3

Ask to have 3 quotes for certain elements or works that is in question.

Question 4

Define Value?

Answer 4

Different for everyone.
A client’s perception of the worth of the products or services.

Price
Quality
What the product or service can do for them
Monetary, time, energy, and emotional costs

Question 5

What VE options did the client go with in the end and did they gain an additional budget?

Answer 5

Reeded manifestation to the glazed partitions.
This was actually something that was earlier instructed.

Question 6

Is swapping hardwood floors for vinyl a scope reduction or value engineering?

Answer 6

Value Engineering
Achieving value for money without compromising the look and feel as they looked the same
Still maintains the products functionality

Question 7

What you would allow for a CAT A & CAT B fit out in your cost estimate for both?

Answer 7

£70/sqft
Depending on landlord contribution

CAT B- depends on quality, landlord contribution

Question 8

What is CAT A?

Answer 8

Basic finish of a space provided by a landlord. (Blank canvas)
- Raised Floor
-Suspended Ceilings
-Basic M&E Services
-HVAC
-Basic Finishes

Question 9

What is CAT B

Answer 9

Workspace ready to move into
-Fully fitted kitchens
-Partitions
-Design and brand detailing
-Installation of IT and workstation
-Furniture

Question 10

What is Shell and Core?

Answer 10

Basic Internal Framework of the building
- Concrete Floors
-Exposed Services
-Maybe communal areas. e.g lift. toilet

Question 11

Is there a conflict of Interest when EA/QS Role are in the same Firm?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

Ways to ensure no Conflict of Interest when in the same firm?

Answer 12

Informed Consent
Separate folder
Separate end of office
NDA

Question 13

What are the different RIBA Stages?

Answer 13

Stage 0 - Strategic Definition
Stage 1- Preparation and Briefing
Stage 2- Concept Design
Stage 3 - Spatial Coordination
Stage 4 - Technical Design
Stage 5 - Manufacturing and Construction
Stage 6 - Handover
Stage 7 - In Use

Question 14

What is a typical fit out cost in London?

Question 15

What is a Grade 2 listed building?

Answer 15

Special regional interest and is considered to be nationally important.

It is protected by law from unauthorized alterations, extensions, or demolition

Question 16

What are the main classification for listed buildings?

Answer 16

Grade 1 - Exceptional interest
Garde 2* Particularly important buildings of more than special interest
Garde 2 buildings are of special interest

Question 17

What is a listed building?

Answer 17

Buildings that are of special architectural or historic interest, which gives them legal protection.

Question 18

What restrictions did you encounter when working on the project in terms of the building being listed

Answer 18

Nothing - this is due to the project not altering the building structure. We were not changing or touching any original features such as windows, external wall etc

Question 19

What is a tenant-fit out guide?

Answer 19

Guide aims to ensure tenant fit- outs align with the building document that explains the processes and approval steps required to fit out a space for a new tenant.

Question 20

What is licence to alter?

Answer 20

a legal document that gives a leaseholder permission to make changes to a leasehold property:

It’s a formal agreement between the landlord and tenant

It details the changes the tenant wants to make and the landlord’s consent

Question 21

What is Landlord’s refurbishment guide

Answer 21

Helps landlords/tenants manage the process of refurbishing their offices.

The document was intended to make the management of health and safety risks an integral part of the project planning process

Question 22

When were you employed to take on the job?

Answer 22

Stage 1 in Q4 2023 - Stage 6 Q3 2024

Question 23

How does Partial Handover differ to Sectional Completion and what is it?

Answer 23

-Typically not pre-planned like sectional completion.
-Contractor’s consent must be obtained
- Employer is liable for insurance the relevant part.
- The defects liability period begins for that part
- Liquidated damages reduce proportionally

Question 24

32,000 sqft into m2?

Answer 24

3000m2

Question 25

When was the SOS for 80 Strand?

Answer 25

8th January 2024

Question 26

How long was the programme?

Answer 26

27 Weeks?

Question 27

What were the original sectional completion?

Answer 27

Section 1: Comms Room
Section 2: Part of L5
Section 3 Part of L5 and L6

Question 28

What was in the SOA that was unique to your project

Question 29

What is Benchmark?
How did you benchmark for this project?

Answer 29

Process of collecting and comparing data to identify the best cost or products to use.

• Similar companies, who the client were familiar with
• examined different ways of working
  -showcase low, medium, high looking office
  -levels of intervention with the building
  -cellular space requirements
• 50 DESK BY Early June 2024.

Question 30

How long will stage 4 design Development take?

Answer 30

Depends on the scope of work but in this instance based on previous projects and conversation with project manager.

10-12 weeks
6-8 weeks - tendering
35-40 weeks - Design, fit out, client directs works

Question 31

What is CDP

Answer 31

Contractor Design Portion

An agreement where a contractor is responsible for designing specific parts of a construction project

Question 32

Why did you not use a GMP?

Answer 32

Guarantee Maximum Price?

The contractor were not willing to take on the risk considering the clients ER’s were not fully designed so they were more likely to make a loss which would not be ethically fair on them

Question 33

Why did you not advise on two stage tender instead of negotiated

Answer 33

• longer timeline than single stage.
• not as competitive if introduced in traditional.

Question 34

What is Value for Money?

Answer 34

The most advantageous combination of cost, quality and sustainability to meet customer requirements.

Question 35

What are Employer’s Requirement?

Answer 35

Contractual document setting out what the employer wants the works to entail and how it wants them to be carried out

Question 36

What take precedence ERs or CP?

Answer 36

In Design & Build the CP takes precedence because the employer would have revied and accepted the CP before
going into contract.

Question 37

If you had a PM, why did you complete the EA’S role? Are you best placed to complete this role?

Question 38

How did you get the benchmarking cost data? How did you rationalise it?

Question 39

What was the driver for competitive pricing for the client?

Answer 39

They were self funding the project so they were looking to get value for money were possible.

Question 40

If quality is the key driver? Why from stage 2/3

Answer 40

Programme was key driver not quality. However, they did want their office to reflect their brand ethos of of a high end travel agency company.

Question 41

How did you come up with the suggested programme dates?

Answer 41

After coordinating with Project Manager, we benchmark similar previous project to give an indication.

Question 42

Competitive pricing- did you complete a cost analysis of the different options? Especially with D&B as an option?

Answer 42

No i did not however, typically traditional contract tends to be the lowest cost. Because no risk is priced into the contract (as overhead isn’t priced on top of design teams).
- Competitive D&B single stage, because its under competition
- Negotiated most expensive - contractor is pricing based on their experience and merit.

However, if traditional was chosen, the client would have had to factor in cost to extend the existing lease which would have been been a more expensive option overall

Question 43

Why does a D&B mitigate against risk for client? How does this sit against traditional?

Question 44

In a D&B contract, will the contractor share cost savings for lower cost solutions with a client?

Answer 44

Although its a fixed lump sum contract

Under the supplemental provisions of the contract - there is a requirement for the contractor to offer cost savings against the ER’s.

Question 45

Would a contractor’s professional fee costs be more expensive than client side? What about OH&P on top?

Answer 45

The contractor’s cost would be more expensive because the overheads margin on top. However, it would be leaner for the contractors to do the design if they are a specialist fit out company. Which in this instance the contractor was.

Question 46

You mentioned you seeked proposal from three contractors

Answer 46

Slight error, it should read that it was a PQQ. This is not competitive tender process, just early engagement with contractor to ensure they are financially stable, have a team available.

Question 47

Why did you not advise on two-stage tender? Would this not have been more suitable than negotiated?

Answer 47

It wasn’t a complicated project.
client wanted a quick SOS
Didn’t want to deal with

Question 48

Why didn’t you advise on Management contracting or Construction Management?

Answer 48

They were not relevant.
Client didn’t have the time to deal with multiple payments or contractors. They wanted the engagement and risk to be minimal.

Answer 49

Competitive pricing wasn’t their key driver. It was programme and meeting the clients aesthetic of previous fit outs.

Quality aspirations to align with business branding and image but wanted minimal client engagement - which makes it harder to have a design team in process in place.

Not worth flooding the project with more design team/labour because it would cost more overall.

Question 50

What did you do to make sure that the ER’s were robust?

Answer 50

So we sat down with the client just to understand what.

Their what their quality aspirations were and we’ve produced.

A we’ve produced like a low, medium and high benchmark for the client and just like showcase some pictures and like office layout type just don’t. So they can understand just so we can understand what they were after

Using that kind of help set up. Oh, and then we also asked them what their office requirements are in terms of like, the number of deaths that they need, whether they wanted it to be more of like a cellular office or more work, open workspace for not open workspace, what they called. Yeah, open workspace. Open plan. Sorry

Question 51

What was in the ER’s

Answer 51

The License to Alter
Tenant Fit Out Guide
Landlord refurbishment guide

Question 52

What was within the License to Alter

Question 53

What was within the tenant fit out guide

Answer 53

Its a Fit out and Alteration Procedure for

Question 54

What was within the Landlord’s refurbishment guide?

Question 55

Why was there not a fully coordinated ER’s

Answer 55

I saw the gaps and advised the client, that they should have a design team/ However, they identified that they didn’t have enough time to manage a team to put together the ER’s.

They wanted early engagement and they instructed me to crack on with the negotiation.

Question 56

How did the contractor understand the ER’s if they were not fully coordinated?

Answer 56

They were taken to site, showing them previous offices, showing them what the spec could be and should be better than.
Client also guided the contractor to their Italian office.

Question 57

What were some of Schedule of Amendments within the Contract?

Answer 57

• 28 days final date for payment instead of 14
• Retention percentage to state 5% instead of 3%
  -Contractor has no interest on the retention.
  -Interest rate from 5% to 3% above bank of England for payment overdue, calculated annually.
  -Contractors Design Submission Procedure
  -Third Party Provisions

Question 58

Did you inherit a project with no budget? What was the difficulties in this? How did you overcome it?

Answer 58

Initially yes that client was unsure how much they were willing to spend. However, gave a ballpark figure of £3m for construction only.
Overcame this by understanding what the client requirements were. Showcased a range of low/med/high spec of office of similar size, so they can understand how much they could get for their money

Question 59

Transitional is typically considered a timely procurement route. Given programme was a key driver, how did your proposed 40 weeks fit in with their June 2024 targeted sectional PC date?

Answer 59

The 40 weeks timeline was just about tight with no leeway. However, i advise this option to the client so they could understand what all their options are as they still wanted to retain quality. So they could make an informed decision

Question 60

You mention about advising the client to appoint a design team - had they factored these fees into their budget?

Which designer would you appoint?

Answer 60

I was employed to only control the construction cost. The client were in control of professional fees cost and client direct so not 100% sure if this was factored into their total budget costs. However, i believe that this may have been the case.

Question 61

You mention about the change pushing it above budget, what was the clients budget?

Did the other variations not exceed the budget?

Answer 61

At that time in the project it was understood that they had about 10% of the CSA as contingency allowance for construction. Which RLB were not managing. Therefore equating to nearly £300k.

Then were granted £150k additional funding.

Question 62

Where did you get the benchmark rates from?

Answer 62

Reeded Glass Doors - benchmark rate on from projects

Frames - Liquid Anodised bronzed finish - went out to market and obtained 3 quotes.

Question 62

If the doors are let, who’s, fault would this be?

Answer 62

Contractor’s. As they are taking the design and construction risk. Therefore they need to ensure that they claim for EOT within the appropriate time