Project Management
Owner’s representative services, from the program of requirements through the eleven month walkthrough.
We represent the district at every table where a decision gets made about its building. We are not the architect and we are not the construction manager, and we hold no contract with either one on your project.
- Program of requirements
- Budget development and testing
- Delivery model advice
- Design document review against client requirements
- Estimate comparison at every design milestone
- Value engineering
- Bid and procurement management
- GMP amendment negotiation
- Communications workflow
- Pre-construction site preparation
- Weekly construction meetings
- On-site observation
- Change order review and recommendation
- Payment application review
- Schedule management
- Quality assurance and quality control
- Photographic condition documentation
- Punch list to closure within 90 days
- Commissioning
- O&Ms, as-builts and maintenance plans
- Eleven month walkthrough
What we manage
Occupied Renovations
Work performed while students and staff are in the building. Phasing, dust and noise control, and a schedule built around the school calendar rather than the contractor’s.
New Construction
A new building on a new or cleared site, from program of requirements through occupancy.
Additions
New square footage tied into an existing building, where the hard part is the connection to what is already there.
Renovations
Rebuilding an existing facility rather than replacing it, usually the cheaper answer and always the more complicated one.
Where we sit at each phase
Every construction project runs through the same six phases. What changes from district to district is who is watching them on the owner’s behalf. Here is where we are in each one.
Conception
A need turns into a project here, and the decisions are cheap to change and expensive to get wrong. We help you write the program of requirements, test what you want against what you can afford, and put a defensible number in front of the board before anyone is hired. Districts that skip this phase discover the gap at bid opening.
Design
The architect leads this phase. We represent you inside it. We sit in design meetings through schematic, design development and construction documents, and we estimate at every milestone so the drawings never quietly outrun the budget. Value engineering belongs here, while it is still a design conversation, not after the bids come back high.
Pre-Construction
This is where the delivery model gets chosen and the money gets committed. We advise on which model fits the project, run the pre-bid and post-bid processes on your behalf, and negotiate the guaranteed maximum price amendment where the delivery model calls for one. Then we help the team prepare the site for what is coming.
Procurement
Materials and equipment get bought here, and long-lead items get ordered or the schedule slips before a shovel moves. We evaluate on price, quality, timeline and budget, and we bring you a recommendation with no interest of our own attached to it. The decision stays yours. We just make sure it is an informed one.
Construction
We are in the weekly meetings, on the site, and in the paperwork. Change orders and payment applications come to us before they come to you, with a recommendation attached. We document conditions with photographs, hold the schedule, and if a claim or dispute arises, you have someone who has been keeping the file since day one.
Post-Construction
The project is not over when the building opens. We drive the punch list to closure within 90 days, get the building commissioned, and secure your O&Ms and as-built drawings while the people who have them are still answering the phone.
Closeout and the warranty year are covered under Post Construction Services, whether or not we managed the build.
Thinking about a project?
The earlier we are involved, the more of the budget is still yours to direct.
MCS & Associates, Ltd. is a full-service construction and project management firm representing Ohio public owners. Based in Chillicothe, built on 30+ years in Ohio public service.