The University of Washington’s Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, a $230-million research and teaching building, cuts into a hillside on the school’s Seattle campus. With a vision to promote collaboration between school disciplines to solve growing health issues, it is fitting, then, that the eight-story center’s use of collaborative construction delivery sets new UW project management standards.
Funded largely by a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant and on track for a July 31 delivery, the 300,000-sq-ft project is the school’s first integrated design-build contract, a two-party agreement between design-builder Lease Crutcher Lewis and UW that defines the project management team as the university, Lewis and architect Miller Hull Partnership. Though not a three-party agreement, prohibited by Washington state, the contract reflects lean construction principles and an integrated project delivery model.