Student comfort and performance guided the design of these 72,500 square foot schools. Through design work sessions with the staff and community, the Neenan design team developed a variety of teaching spaces, display areas, kid niches and community areas.  The buildings are broken down into components reducing the scale for young students. Inside the school, textures and vivid colors of the surrounding environment inspire and invigorate the students and staff. Nearly every space has daylighting and outdoor views, which is proven to increase student achievement.

Did these innovative designs actually impact educational outcomes in Alamosa?

We asked the elementary school leadership, this question and were excited to learn their answers. They noted several academic celebrations since their move into the new facilities:

•  Outscored the state in reading and math in 3rd grade assessments

•  Growth increase in 6out of 10 academic areas

•  Closed the gaps for the English Language Learners faster than the state average

•  Student attendance rates are above 95%

•  Influx of parents who participated or were  involved in parent engagement activities that included concerts, academic nights (reading/math), and physical education activities

•  Staff attendance was at an 95% yearly average

•  Gave 100% of our students “proud moments” and an academic award for individualized citizenship and academic achievements

A building cannot teach, but the environment will influence the learning that happens.  By focusing on the children as the client, we created a space where students want to learn and do learn.

As a result of the superior education outcomes, the Alamosa School Campus was awarded the 2012 Merit Peak Award from the Rocky Mountain Region of the Council for Education Facility Planners (CEFPI). This award recognizes K-12 projects with an outstanding planning process, learning and physical environment, and community involvement.

Alamosa Design Team: Ann Marie & David

In 2012, with commitment, hard work and much needed help and input from my Neenan peers, we completed the first phase of our quality program and tools.  The highlight of this process came from our stellar IT guys: the creation of a Web Based Deficient Work List (DWL).  The DWL consists of a recording and tracking system as well as a customized iPad App to support the project site staff – and these tools ROCK!  Starting at ground break, both tools enable our on-site teams to quickly and consistently send the message of our quality expectations to our subcontractors.

At the end of every project a list of items is created by the project team and the owner. The list identifies items needing attention to satisfy the owner’s expectations for quality workmanship and appearance. This list is called an “Owner Punch List”.  Recently, we compared initial Owner Punch Lists from ten similar projects completed during 2010-2012.  Our “sniff test” revealed that the projects where we introduced the DWL process early vs. waiting until the typical timing of the Owner Punch List, produced nearly 50% LESS items!  Are we on to something?

Our #1 focus for 2013 is the BIG challenge of implementation!  We are off to a good start training five new project teams on our documentation expectations and tool use.   It is still early, but looking at our newly developed measurement tools we are already seeing better than expected participation!

And there is more!  We are experimenting using our iPads and iPhones with Face Time, Skype, videos and pictures to participate in remote first in place reviews for those times when our schedules don’t allow us to be on-site in person.

In a recent Executive Summary from Zurich’s risk management group they commented, “From the initial quality assessment completed in February of 2012, The Neenan Company has addressed the essential features of and have made significant strides in upgrading to a ‘Best in Class’ quality system.”  Not bad, considering Zurich insures 90% of the top 100 construction firms in the United States!  We could not have made this progress without their support.

Stay tuned, we are just getting started!  A big Thank You to our I.T. guys.

Mike Stajduhar
Director of Quality Assurance

Coquille Valley Hospital serves the 12,000 residents that make up the Oregon communities of Coquille, Myrtle Point, Powers, Bridge, Fairview and a number of neighboring communities within the Coquille River Valley. Anticipating healthcare market changes, Coquille Valley worked with Neenan to strategically upgrade their facility and prevent further patient loss to neighboring hospitals in April of 2012.  The Neenan team (with partners Stroudwater Associates and Dougherty Mortgage) conducted a market needs assessment for Coquille and developed strategies to attract local patients who were leaving the area to neighboring hospitals to receive their care. The result? A new, three-story facility that includes 9,000 square feet of covered parking, private, single occupancy, patient rooms; an OB department; an emergency department; imaging services including X-ray, mammography, dexa scan, ultrasound, CT, and MRI; a three OR surgery suite; lab; pharmacy; physical, cardiac and respiratory therapy; administration; and space for patient, family, staff and community education.

As a result of these upgrades, Coquille Valley Hospital staff expanded from 7 to 13 primary care providers and recruited the top internal medicine physician in the region, who was enamored with the facility and the staff’s commitment to excellence in quality. The hospital itself experienced a surge of 25% in outpatient day stays, and nearly an 18% increase in RT [respiratory therapy] outpatient services.  The upgrade was centered on patient care, and included single patient rooms with a soothing view west over the river valley toward the ocean.  In response, inpatient admits increased as well as a perceived higher quality of care for the residents of the Coquille river valley of the quality of care.  Patient feedback after the upgrade included:

“Everyone on the hospital staff treated me like I was the most important person there.”

“Coquille Valley Hospital is the best cleaned and sanitized of any hospital in Oregon.”

“Coquille Valley Hospital has the best food of any Oregon Hospital.”

Have you heard such feedback on your hospital recently? How can Neenan help your organization ride the shifting sands of healthcare?

~Sarah

It’s time to think differently about and question how we do things in the health care industry.  Leaders in this industry have long understood that the most humane, sustainable way to manage medical costs is to help people avoid the need for expensive services altogether, intercepting problems before they escalate.  But the way health care is both delivered and financed has to change dramatically first to even make that idea work.

Indeed, the industry must switch gears from thinking of health care as a series of isolated, reactive, crisis-type encounters, to a big-picture approach that anticipates needs and improves outcomes, especially amongst the highest-risk patients.  The future is in primary care medical homes and population healthcare management, and with the help of Neenan, healthcare systems like Middle Park are leading the way.

Middle Park Medical Center, formerly known as Kremmling Memorial Hospital, serves patients in rural areas of Grand and Northern Summit County, Colorado. Middle Park is a critical access hospital in a remote resort destination community delivering necessary emergency, urgent, and primary care to residents, second home owners, seasonal skiers, snowmobiles, river rafters, sportsmen, hunters and various other weekend warriors.  Because of the rural and recreational nature of the area, Middle Park has had to learn to accommodate busy weekends and early week day surgical rushes as well as necessary stand by care during slow shoulder seasons.

So to develop more consistent business and focus on the trend of population healthcare management, Middle Park Medical Center built a new facility in Granby, CO. The Center houses an emergency room, inpatient observation beds, and surgery that is managed from one nurse’s station for efficient and flexible staffing and to accommodate the changing schedule needs of the area. The hospital is also a Level IV Trauma Center and was the first Level IV Trauma Center in the State of Colorado.

Middle Park also constructed the Healthy Heart & Lung Center, a large physical and cardiovascular rehabilitation suite.  The rehabilitation program focuses on people who have heart conditions resulting from heart disease or chronic lung conditions, helping these patients obtain wellness and higher levels of activity for a better quality of life.  This facility is multi-purposed for community fitness and wellness classes. As a result of their transformation, Middle Park has experienced a 100% growth in outpatient services visits and a 20% increase in clinical physician visits.

Embedding wellness into such a center is not a crazy idea. Increases in individual and high-deductible health plans will force consumers to be more active in their own health care, which will lead to more consumer decision making.  Consumers will increasingly exercise greater control over both their health and their health care dollars. Better care and customer service will lead to better health, which will lead to lower costs. Middle Park, like several other clinics across the nation, believes quality through coordination, population healthcare management and evidence-based medicine are the answers to the current healthcare crisis.

How can Neenan help you see your future?

~Sarah

At the AHA’s Rural Healthcare Leadership Conference in February, Michael Curtis, VP of Healthcare Business Development at The Neenan Company presented ideas and data on how to “Creatively lead the transformation of healthcare delivery from volume to value”.  Curtis highlighted key results and lessons learned by three clients who in order to remain relevant, strategically upgraded their facilities to respond to population health management, capturing market share and enhancing their net worth. One of the successful case studies he presented was Neenan client Tri-Valley Health System in Cambridge, Nebraska.

The Cambridge Memorial Hospital was an outdated, vintage 1950s era structure that had reached the end of it’s usefulness. The hospital had two options – close or grow. Tri-Valley chose to transform and invest in themselves.

Tri-Valley projected focus on three differentiators:

1. Quality of Care
2. Customer Service
3. Market Capture

First, Tri-Valley relocated its clinic to the hospital campus, which helped drive lab, imaging, and physicians to be more efficient and effective, as well as responsive to the Emergency Room.  Tri-Valley then built a state of the art two operating room surgery suite with sufficient pre and post-operative bays for enhanced patient volume. They also attracted a well-known regional surgical nurse, who in turn, has recruited numerous new surgeons and brought them confidence to conduct more complicated and complex procedures.  Currently, surgeries are up 90% and outpatient visits are up 10%.

Beyond these changes, Tri-Valley embraced health and wellness by gutting and renovating former hospital bed wings and transforming that space into a health and wellness fitness center, spa, massage, nutrition and health education center that already has over 300 members (not bad for a town with a population of 1,100).  Patients often say that ‘they feel like they are in an upscale hotel instead of a healthcare facility.’

As you can see, Tri-Valley’s remarkable story lies in their ability to enhance patient experiences, satisfaction and quality of care; improve population health; and finally, enhance their net worth and community perception while reducing per capita costs.  The overall project came in considerably under budget, and Tri-Valley was able to save enough from the new 53,000 sq. ft. construction to fund approximately ⅔ of the cost of the renovation of the old facility.

Roger Steinkruger, CEO of Tri-Valley health system had this to say about his experience of working with Neenan on this project:

“ I have been involved in several significant new/renovation projects during my career.  I can honestly say with conviction, that these projects (new and renovation, as one) with Neenan has been the best experience by far, resulting in the highest degree of satisfaction, I have ever experienced in my healthcare career.  From the beginning, we mutually placed a great deal of emphasis on “all of us being on one large team”; and as a result, successfully building very collaborative relationships, which served all of us well.  From the beginning, I have found Neenan to be represented by individuals of integrity, honesty, and exemplifying a very sincere approach in “doing the right thing right the first time”—and if corrections need to be implemented, “doing whatever is necessary to make it right”.

Of course, Nebraska’s weather was very challenging during much of the construction project.  But even with these additional challenges, the project was completed on time and considerably under budget.  In conclusion, I have nothing other than the highest regard for Neenan.”

So when can we change your healthcare world?

~Sarah

“Learn from the people, plan with the people, begin with what they have, build on what they know
Of the best leaders, when the task is accomplished, the people will remark, we have done it ourselves.”
Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching

This post is the second in a series (click here for the first post) highlighting the upcoming 2013 AIA conference in Denver, which not only explores new innovations in the industry but also examines the role of architects as civic leaders.

Within the theme “Leadership for Architecture, Leadership Beyond Architecture,” the conference will address the important question of who is best suited to lay the strategic groundwork for a knowledge network that positions architects as prominent business and community leaders.

One of the conference’s keynote speakers is Cameron Sinclair, Co-Founder of Architecture for Humanity and an emerging leader in the world of sustainable architecture.  Sinclair is a TED prize recipient and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.  In 2006, Sinclair and Architecture for Humanity co-founder Kate Stohr, compiled a bestselling book, Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises, following up in 2012 with Volume [2]: Building Change From the Ground Up. He is heavily involved in bringing socially relevant building into academia and private sector, and has launched the Open Architecture Network, an open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through sustainable and innovative design. Sinclair will discuss how public interest design is the profession’s secret weapon, and will offer three steps on how architects can find greater public relevance for their work as well as give back to their communities.

Sinclair, alongside his fellow plenary speakers, Blake Mycoskie of TOMS and Retired General Colin Powell are exemplars of leadership in our contemporary times. Dedicating their lives to working for others as a means of actualizing the self, they make manifest many of the ideas David Neenan also discusses in his book, No Excuses: Be the Hero of Your Own Life.  “No Excuses” details leadership in the face of adversity, and like the conference, asks us all as professionals as well as individuals, to seek the ways in which we can become our own heroes and lead our communities towards wellbeing.

As part of developing a philosophy of success, Neenan and Sinclair offer essential wisdom to architects, not only in building their profession, but also in personal development.  These leaders are part of a critical knowledge network that increases the prominence of architecture in the business community.  But they are also driven by high ideals and a strong determination to provide opportunities to others through their work. By increasing awareness of how architecture can make people’s lives better, the AIA conference promises not only to provide world-class continuing education, but also empower the collective voices of architects, hone leadership skills and share vision of how design creates value.  We hope to see you there!

~Sarah

I had the privilege to assist the insightful and inspiring individuals of this community in imagining and creating a new healthcare facility.  This building would replace the existing healthcare facility that served the community for close to 50 years.   Under the guidance of the progressive hospital Board of Directors and with the leadership of an inspirational and dedicated CEO, this new facility would become a beacon in the community.  This beacon would draw in community members to a network of healthcare services.  These services would enact change in the community.  Focus would be placed on preventative care.   High end medical imaging would help keep focus on women’s health.  Primary care would be expanded to create a network for families to share in preventative care.   Lab technology and availability would be expanded so that tests could run immediately and be analyzed by your physician at your facility.  When you do have to spend time at the hospital, rooms were designed to be a home away from home.  Family is encouraged and welcomed to help the healing process.

Why not include a modern fitness facility in the former patient wing for the community members to come and become healthy along side their healthcare providers.   Picture this: a local farmer using the elliptical exercise machine right next to the primary care physician using the free weights.   That physician sees that farmer rubbing his back and demonstrates some small exercises that would help alleviate that pain.   That farmer then is at the local grocery store and bumps into the local builder who complains about a backache.  He is encouraged to try the same exercises to strengthen his core to help his backache.  The farmer knows the exercises work because his backaches have disappeared since he started exercising at the new hospital three times a week.  This network continues to grow with each connection.

The community members don’t realize it, but they are enacting a behavior change in their community.  If you work in a place of overweight people, odds are you will be overweight.  But, if you work in a place where the majority of people value their health, then your behavior will change.  The Tri Valley Health System understood that if they had the conviction and foresight to build a facility that would foster community health that it would be the spark that ignites the fuel of behavior change.  Is the hospital the change agent or is the community?   Whichever it is, the behavior of this health system, in this little town in southwestern Nebraska has clearly impacted the behaviors of its community with the design of the new hospital.  Membership at the fitness facility has grown from 12 to approximately 180.  More proof that you can design for behavior change.

Joe Ashcraft

 Professor Brian Dunbar (Image courtesy of CSU)

The Institute for the Built Environment was created in 1994 as an inter-disciplinary, research based, group of faculty, students, and off-campus professionals with a mission to foster stewardship and sustainability of the built and natural environments through inter-disciplinary research and education. The Institute often consults on sustainability and green building and has trained over 1000 professionals on green building and LEED through its outreach programs. Here is what Brian Dunbar shared with us on the topic of embodied energy.

Q: How would you describe the relevance of embodied energy to design and construction today versus 10 years ago?

“Some in the engineering and design profession caught on to the concept over 30 to 40 years ago during the energy crisis. I think it became a relevant topic then but it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that the conversation ramped up with increased interest in energy modeling and material selections in projects.”

Q: Who are leading thinkers and doers with regards to modeling and quantifying embodied energy in the built environment and construction industry as a whole?

“A government agency, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) created BEEs, which have been around for 20 years to try to quantify embodied energy in materials in production and manufacturing. Then there is a private group called the Athena Sustainable Materials institute based in Canada, looking at building systems for embodied energy. NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) in Golden, CO has also furthered the concept of embodied energy. And, SOGES (School of Global and Environmental Sustainability) at Colorado State University has brought together like minded individuals such as Keith Paustian and his work with the Carbon Footprint Group Metric Group, who are recognized researchers in carbon emissions in natural environments and are now translating their work to the built environment.”

Q: What role do entities like the Institute for Built Environment, the newly formed National Academy of Environmental Design, and the USGBC have in furthering discussions of embodied energy as it relates to the built environment?

“What we need very quickly is a heightened awareness and education. We’re in need of hard data that comes in a readily usable form that built environment professionals can use to make informed decisions about embodied energy on projects. USGBC has helped to further the conversation yet there is a lot more to be done. There are few credits that address embodied energy in the USGBC’s LEED system, for example. But we also need tools and resources that are user friendly so project teams can decisively implement the concept of embodied energy in their project decisions.”

Q: How do you see industry rating systems like the LEED rating system and Cradle-to-Cradle assisting in informing the public and industry professionals about embodied energy in the built environment?

“LEED and related systems have done a remarkable job of bringing so many different sustainable building concepts to the minds of the project decision makers. Now we need to think about how and where embodied energy will be a more relevant and pertinent part of the decision making process once the rating systems more overtly define embodied energy as a central part of that process and put it in front of design teams.”

Q:  Finally, what trends do you see emerging around the concept of embodied energy?

“What I have begun to see, thanks to the USGBC and many other partners, is an overall effort towards transparency. There is a growing nucleus of professional leaders pushing for radical transparency where design professionals and industry leaders open their books and show us what is in that product or material. Then embodied energy will be part of a transparent and open materials selection process. I think we will see a growth in materials transparency and selections for design systems and I am anxious to see this process grow to the point where industry leaders consistantly demand more informational transparency as well.”

As you can see, from our discussions with Professor Dunbar, a lot of good work has been done, but more needs to happen. We would like to thank Brian for his time and insights, not to mention his continued efforts to improve the built environment. So what do you think the future of the embodied energy topic in the built environment will be?

Bill Petersen

First, we asked our group what came to mind when they heard about the conference theme, Leadership for Architecture…Leadership Beyond Architecture. David Kurtz and Bob Mooney shared,

“Architects are hired to meet the needs of an owner, comply with health and safety requirements, and meet budget and schedule constraints. However, they also have a responsibility, outside of their contract with a client, to enhance and improve the overall built environment for communities and cultures. To me, leadership beyond architecture means to take those ideas city wide, state wide, country wide and help guide the greater community into a better, healthier and more sustainable progress” (Kurtz, D).

“There are many locations where architects can serve. It could be as simple as being on your Home Owners Association and as complex as serving as a US Senator/Representative. There is also involvement in the peer groups like AIA or community organizations such as United Way. Even when architects don’t have time for these organizations, contacting elected representatives to keep them informed of the social issues is a great way to be involved and engaged with the community”  (Mooney, B).

Then we asked the group who they would nominate as architects as civic leaders or as role models for being advocates and why.

“Several names come to mind when thinking about civic leaders in our community. First, Amory B. Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute who has been influential on the sustainable community side. Second, William McDonough is influential in thinking about outcomes and rethinking how we create things with less waste as a whole. Third, Clark Philip Stevens at New West Land Company is a strong leader in designing spaces that are better for the land and more profitable for the landowner (Kurtz, D).”  And Miguel Burbano from Neenan shared “Cheri Gerou, at AIA, for following her leadership and passion for urban and community concerns by becoming a Colorado legislator.”

Finally, we asked our group how they have been civic leaders in projects and their communities. David Kurtz shared the following ideas…..

The relationship between architects and civic leaders is rather seamless. For example, David Kurtz said, “being an architect on schools puts you in a position of thinking about the current needs of the school, and also the future needs of the community. School clients understand that they are developing a community building, so involving the community in the process is paramount.” In doing so, the role of the architect is to understand the needs of the community and bring the project design and community priorities into alignment through facilitation. Further, “the need for facilitation or the act of facilitating stems from a greater responsibility of providing something of value for the overall community. To make sure school and education development happens in a valuable and sustainable way for a community – I have to fill the role of facilitating the community for the best outcomes” (Kurtz, D).

Which brings us to you, dear reader….How would you answer these questions in your work and projects? Have you recently been a civic leader in the community? What are you most looking forward to at the upcoming AIA conference?

Thanks to Creativity + Timothy K Hamilton for the image.

Carey

Today, the topic of material honesty has become more complicated as design and construction industries have become more advanced. The complex array of material and products that go into a building’s exterior and interior designs can challenge a team designing a building that not only lowers its impact on the built environment during its lifetime, but also has a lower impact in its construction as well. The selection of durable, low embodied energy materials like brick, wood, concrete for example, can have a long-term impact on not just the operability of the building, but its durability for the long term and overall lifetime impact on the built and natural environments. Longevity, flexibility and durability, as core commitments in Neenan’s work with the Powerhouse Energy Institute (PEI) on the Colorado State University campus, drove the teams to embrace material honesty and embodied energy as guiding principles for the new PEI headquarters.

Beyond the use of pure materials however, the task of ‘expressing’ the material’s qualities becomes challenging when time honored materials like ceramics are developed into complex material elements that are not simply decorative but also contribute performative aspects to build exteriors and interiors. These ‘intelligent surfaces’, a component of adaptive buildings, can perform diverse functions, including scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air, and providing privacy through opacity.

As building material complexities and performative attributes evolve for the 21st century, designers are expanding material application opportunities to meet their clients’ needs.  The challenge for architects and designers in the foreseeable future will be in deciding how such materials are applied to express their honesty, meet the complex challenges of design buildings that are sustainable, environmentally responsible, and result in built environments that are still aesthetically pleasing environments where clients and building users can be comfortable and creative. How and where can these new materials be used both aesthetically and expressively while having low embodied energy, life-cycle costs, and performing across several platforms?

Bill Petersen, Jr.