BMa-Gensler-UTK NSSR 2017-10-10_

C. Technical Services
Accessibility
Ed Roether is recognized as one of the country’s most trusted
and knowledgeable stadium accessibility consultants. As a
former employee of Populous, Ed provided comments to the
Department of Justice during the creation of the 2010 Americans
With Disability Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design and
has multiple stadium projects on his resume. He has worked with
members of Gensler for over 20 years and will be huge asset to
the design team.
AV/Data Services
How and where we use video, fascia ribbon boards, multimedia
displays and television monitors will be the creative job of the
architect and University. The current program describes the
work completed by the University and Populous which is well
done. Our process will work through the final solution with that
program document and our consultant, WJHW, one of the most
experienced technical designers in the country. With multiple
collegiate venues as well as nearly every NFL stadium on their
resume, WJHW brings a depth of knowledge and a keen vision for
the stadium of the future. They will build upon the work done to
date and potentially create new opportunities, which will increase
the fan experience and enhance revenue streams. Data will take
on a similar process.
Building Envelope – Overall Quality Management
While the design team believes we have some of the best
technical designers in the country, we are human. Mike Driskill
from BMa and Erick Del Angel from Gensler are in-house quality
management architects. At each stage of the project, we will
submit the documents to them for review. As an added step, we
will also engage Ed Roether Consulting as an outside consultant
to review our documents from not only an ADA perspective,
but for quality management. Ed led Populous’ quality assurance
program for twenty years and if it has happened in a stadium, Ed
has probably seen it. Along with Mike and Erick, they will provide
written comments in memo form, as well as PDF markups directly
on the drawings sheets. We have used Ed on numerous projects
with great success, including projects this year at Texas A&M
University and Texas Tech University.
Interiors
The BMa team has the capacity to provide exceptional Interior
Design for this challenging project. BMa has a talented staff of
five designers and our sports architects at Gensler have hundreds
of the most talented designers in the world. Art Gensler began
his design firm with the realization that interior design should be
integral to the design process. His first client, The Gap, realized
this as well and 52 years later is still a client. Gensler changed
the paradigm for interior design and is recognized as the industry
leader. Interior Design magazine, the top interiors trade magazine,
dedicated an entire issue to Gensler in November of 2015 for
Gensler’s 50th anniversary. One of the Gensler Board of Director
members, and University of Tennessee alumni, Robin Klehr Avia,
was recently inducted into the Interior Design’s 2017 Hall of
Fame. Gensler is extremely proud to have such talent. Born from
Gensler’s Hospitality and Workplace Interiors Practice Area,
Gensler Sports Interiors has harnessed our incredible interior
design talent in a way that brings new and refreshing thought
processes and ideas to sports projects. Great interior design is
not budget dependent, rather it’s about understanding the use of
lighting, materials and focus to create significance. Additionally,
our team’s designers are well-versed in costs of finishes and
understand how to select products at substantial savings from all
corners of the globe.
Cost Estimating and Value Engineering
We have engaged Richard Vermeulen to assist in cost estimating.
Richard is well-versed with the local trades, market conditions,
and local costs and has worked with both the University of
Tennessee and BMa on past projects. His predictions for the
Student Union were within 1.25% of the actual bids. Both BMa,
a local Knoxville architecture fixture since 1915 with numerous
contractor relationships, and Gensler have multiple projects to
compare costs and will question, and defend when necessary,
any anomalies we find with costs, including those from the
construction manager. Our process consists of providing cost
estimates at all major milestones. Prior to the University of
Tennessee reviewing them, we will have in depth meetings with
all consultants and review these costs line by line. If there are
issues or variations, we intend to find them and bring them to
your attention, along with solutions to correct them. We will
attack the costs in terms of value engineering in a similar manner.
We will bring solutions whenever possible and try not to simply
remove items from the project to get in budget.
Sustainability
As described in Section B.1, page 3, BMa and Gensler are
proponents of sustainability and as such have included two
dedicated sustainability experts to this project. Please reference
B.1 for further information.
below left: UNT Apogee Stadium
completed by team members
while at HKS
below right: Texas Tech Football
Locker Room Renovation
Construction Administration
The design team’s role in construction is of utmost importance.
While the construction manager will lead this piece, we intend to
have staff on site during all critical portions of the work. This will
include architecture, MEP consultants, and structural engineers.
We pride ourselves in turning around submittals and RFIs in an
expedient manner. Gensler recently opened a 15,000-squarefoot
locker room and training area for the Dallas Mavericks.
Demolition began on July 5th and it opened September 30th.
We worked extremely closely with the construction manager to
make that happen, including the return of submittals and RFIs
within hours instead of days or weeks. Similarly, we began design
on football locker rooms for both the University of Texas and
Texas Tech University. They were both open prior to the start of
practice this Fall and have been hugely successful. We understand
that sports projects have deadlines and there can be no delay
for game day. Kelly Headden, Terry Morton, and Lance Smith will
coordinate these efforts.
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