Case Study Overview

The skyscraper is a 300m-tall and 62 floors commercial building in a metropolis centre that is built on the plot of a previous building. The new owner acquired the site in February 2015 and the construction of the project finished in March 2020, at the cost of £600 million. The skyscraper includes 120,000 m2 of office space and other amenities, such as shops, innovation hub, gym, wellbeing retreat and spa, coffee bars and restaurants, a ground floor gallery and a public viewing gallery on the 60th floor. The building has three floors of basement and a raft slab supported on piled foundations. From ground level upwards it is a steel frame structure connected to two concrete cores, North Core and South Core, with minimal internal columns ensuring long spans of up to 17m.

The main organisations involved in the project are: the client and their consultants, ie the cost consultant, the architects and the engineers; the design and build (D&B) contractor; and the specialist trade contractors (STCs), eg demolition, reinforced concrete cores, steel frame, façade, staircases and various mechanical and electrical (M&E) packages.

Procurement Approach

The project was procured under a two-stage design and build procurement approach. The pre-contract stage started in May 2015, and the second stage in October 2016, when the design and build contract between the client and the D&B contractor was singed.

First stage: Pre-Contract Service Agreement (PCSA)

The contractual arrangements during the PCSA stage are shown in Figure 1. The client appointed the consultants to develop the design as well as the D&B contractor. The PCSA defined the services required of the D&B contractor during the pre-contract stage, in a manner similar to the consultancy agreement with the client’s consultants. The D&B contractor appointed the STCs to defined services also. The D&B contractor, with their STCs, contributed to the detailed design and carried out demolition work, as well as building the basements and the cores. The client paid the D&B contractor an agreed fee in addition to the reimbursement of cost incurred. At the end of each month, each STC raised application for payment for the work they completed that month, and the D&B contractor QS checked and verified their claims. The D&B contractor QS raised invoices to the client of what they

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completed and what they should be paid. The client’s cost consultant verified the invoices after being checked and verified on site work progress as well.

The advantage of the PCSA was that the D&B contractor and their STCs were involved early in the design, buildability and the planning of construction.

The Cost Consultant

The Architects The Engineers

Figure 1: PCSA contractual arrangement

Second stage: Design and Build contract

The Client

The STCs

The D&B Contractor

The contractual arrangements of the D&B contract are shown in Figure 2. The design and build contract was signed once the design was developed enough for the D&B contractor to accept the risk of entering a fixed price agreement with the client, ie the D&B contractor would be paid a fixed lump-sum to complete the design and build the building. The client novated the consultants’ contracts to the D&B contractor to complete the design. The D&B contractor placed contracts with the STCs, also based on a fixed price for each package. At the end of each month, each STC raised application for payment for the work they completed that month, and the D&B contractor QS checked and verified their claims.

The Client

The Architects The Engineers

Figure 2: Design and Build contractual arrangement

Regarding the contractual accountability of the design, this depends on the situation as follows:

Case I:
• Engineers make an error, for example, they don’t size a steel beam correctly

The Cost Consultant

The D&B Contractor

The STCs

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• Steel STC designs the detail design of that piece of steel and issues the drawing
• Engineers stamp it to Status A (Approved)
• D&B contractor stamps it to Status A
• Beam proved to be incorrect – the engineers are accountable because they did not design that element correctly.Case II:
• Engineers design a beam correctly
• Steel STC details the beam incorrectly
• Engineer stamps it to Status A
• D&B contractor stamps it to Status A
• Onus sits with the steel STC to follow the engineers’ design intent. (Status A stamp means the STC can proceed with work, but it does not do away with the STC obligation to produce the right design.)Case III:

  Suppose the D&B contractor suggests a design solution and asks the designers to check and adopt it. In that case, the designers are still accountable, whether it is the engineer’s designers or the STC’s designers.

  Design and Build Contractor Project Organisation

  The project organisation of the D&B contractor developed as the project developed, throughout its various stages. At the beginning of the project, the work was mainly demolition, substructure and superstructure, ie concrete cores construction, steel frame and façade installations. At later stages of the project, the organisation was divided to sub- projects to have a better focus on the key issues relevant to each section, ie sub-project. These were the superstructure including the façade; the middle of the building fit-out, from Level 3 to Level 56; the bottom of the building, from Basement 3 to Level 3; the top of the building, from Level 56 to the roof; and the M&E installations. Each of these sub-projects had its own team, ie a project manager, construction manager, package managers of the relevant packages, and site managers. Figure 3 shows the main sections of the project organisation.

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Adminstration team

Sr Planner

M&E Planner

Executive Director

Project Managers

Package Managers

Site Managers

Sr Design Manager

Design Managers

BIM Manager

Commercial team

SHEQ Managers 1- H&S
2- Quality
3- Sustainability

Sr Project Manager

Principal Design Manager

Commercial Director

Cranes & Hoists Site Manager

Assistant Managers

Out of Hours Site Managers

Construction Managers

Assistant Site Managers

Sr Document Controller

Figure 3: D&B contractor project organisation main sections

Case Study Usage and Parts

Supervisors

The skyscraper project case study is divided into parts to be exploited in weeks 2 to 5. Each week you will be set tasks for discussion in the forum. You will also be set challenge activities relevant to the week’s topics for you to apply to the case study, raise issues that you think are important and show your understanding of the case study situation, as well as your critical thinking. The tasks you perform during the weeks from 2 to 5 on the skyscraper project case study will ultimately feed into your final assignment.

The skyscraper case study provides insights into the issues the construction project manager deals with, they enable you to:

• Deepen your understanding of theories through viewing them in relation to practical situations in real-life projects.
• Challenge existing assumptions and construct new perspectives.
• Develop a greater appreciation of the complexity of managing modern constructionprojects.
• Use your skills of analysis and evaluation.
• Summarise ideas concisely and with clarity.
• Consider directions for further research.

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Project Director

Document Controller

We suggest you read the case study several times, paying attention to the details. The case study captures the overview of the project, as well as the views of the parties involved, but you need to read between the lines and develop your own interpretation of the underlying issues.

Analyse

• Relate examples from the case to relevant concepts from the lecture
• Carry out your own research to gain additional informationEvaluate

• Explain why a particular action has been successful / unsuccessful
• Suggest alternative appropriate courses of action, including analysis and evaluation of the expected results your suggested approach might haveFinally: Reflect and Summarise

• Reflect on what you learned from the case study – i
• Summarise the key ideas concisely (in no more than three sentences) and with clarityThe Skyscraper case study has the following parts:

• Week2o Façade installation

  o Steel frame installation

• Week3o Staircases, design and installation

  o Fit-out lean room

• Week4o Design management
• Week 5:o Steel frame organisation o Project organisation

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f you were to take one thing

away from this case study for your own work, what might it be?