Candidate builders undergo similar scrutiny as prospective construction managers at-risk, a departure from more conventional procurement methods many public schools execute. "We welcome the preconstruction expertise construction managers bring to complex projects and believe at-risk creates a greater sense of co-ownership among those firms," says Marsh. Firms join projects upon selection of design firms in order to promote "a clear understanding of project goals by all team members at the earliest stage possible," says Schlagel.

The same holds true for Campus Crossroads, though Notre Dame is executing it under a design-build arrangement that pairs S/L/A/M and Indianapolis-based Ratio Architects with Southfield, Mich.-based contractor Barton Malow Co.

"With so many projects in play, the arrangement frees me to manage only a single source," says Marsh. "It's not my job to ensure designers are at the table alongside the builder. That's the builder's job." Although he and colleagues considered engaging an owner's representative or program manager for Crossroads, they concluded an additional party would distance facilities and design from key members of the design-build team.

Both architect and contractor are proven commodities, with Barton Malow having constructed Notre Dame's $50-million, 212,000-sq-ft Compton Family Ice Arena, a project completed in 2011, and S/L/A/M, the school's Jordan Hall of Science, a $70-million, 202,000-sq-ft facility completed in 2006.

Crossroads' origins were rooted in what Notre Dame regarded as an iconic but underutilized destination and a desire to integrate academics, student life and athletics in locations that enhanced the school's pedestrian-friendly scale. Flanking the west, east and south sides of the stadium, plans call for a 406,000-sq-ft structure devoted to student services, a 284,000-sq-ft anthropology and psychology structure and a 107,000-sq-ft music building. East and west buildings also will incorporate 3,000 to 4,000 stadium seats.

A feasibility study for the project involved 84 university faculty and staff who collectively devoted no fewer than 3,125 hours to serving on an oversight committee and on eight working groups, assisted by experts in student life and the project's design-build team. "It became a question of how to activate the stadium in ways unique to our mission, such as community," Marsh says. "The answer was to create a new campus core."

To flesh out plans, "we filled conference rooms the entire summer of 2013 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with S/L/A/M and Ratio serving as facilitators," Marsh recalls. "What were the most desirable or logical programs to locate at Crossroads? Which programs could be stacked? Which couldn't?"

Discussions and decisions were based in part on tours of other campuses, where design team members identified what end-users liked and disliked about similar facilities, says S/L/A/M project executive Jim McManus.

Once the school's board of directors approved the study in fall of 2013, the project team was off and running, returning with preliminary design concepts the following January. It has been running ever since, fast-tracking work in order to avoid delaying the project by a year. Crews broke ground in November, following Notre Dame's football season, the goal being to erect and top out the two larger structures by late August, when the season resumes.

In late February, "we'd finished pouring concrete, with steel due to arrive the following week," says Marsh. "Meanwhile, we're continuing design work on the exterior and will bid interiors in the spring."