I t remains a mystery what role the design team played and how much, if any, blame the Dept. of Veterans Affairs will shoulder regarding the problems that have beset the VA hospital project in Aurora, Colo. Since a federal contracts dispute-review board last month granted project prime contractor Kiewit-Turner the right to leave the job, K-T and the VA have been negotiating terms for finishing the over-budget project.
The project was the VA's first try at building with construction-manager input into the design. The effort may have been complicated by the fact that the design team, a joint venture of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, S.A. Miro, Cator Ruma and H+L Architects, had been working on the project since the end of 2007—several years before the contractor was on board.