After having spent more than a year as agency construction manager for Ohio State University's (OSU) planned $126-million Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building (CBEC), Gilbane Building Co., Columbus, learned that OSU was terminating its contract. Soon after, in the summer of 2011, Gov. John Kasich signed the most sweeping reform for procurement of public construction projects in Ohio in 134 years, freeing the Columbus-based university to pursue alternative delivery methods. Shortly thereafter, OSU invited Gilbane to compete for the 235,000-sq-ft project as CM-at-risk. In March 2012, it awarded Gilbane the contract.
"Labs are among the most complex facilities we have on campus," says Bernard Constantino, university architect, who also serves as senior director of facilities design and construction with OSU. "The greater the complexity, the greater the advantage of alternative delivery methods such as at-risk. Here, the university holds only a single contract rather than more than 25."