Buxton Hall Chad Cromwell, head of university housing, gazed up at the tower at Buxton Hall and…

Buxton Hall

Chad Cromwell, head of university housing, gazed up at the
tower at Buxton Hall and smiled as he walked toward the landmark building.

Buxton Hall was built in 1927 as a residential complex for
over 350 students at Pacifica State University. At the time Buxton was the
tallest building on campus, and its tower had a panoramic view of the athletic
fields and coastal range. Buxton quickly became a focal point at Pacifica
State. Students perched on the tower dominated the campus during the annual
spring water fight with their huge slingshots and catapults. The first intranet
on the
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Buxton Hall

Chad Cromwell, head of university housing, gazed up at the
tower at Buxton Hall and smiled as he walked toward the landmark building.

Buxton Hall was built in 1927 as a residential complex for
over 350 students at Pacifica State University. At the time Buxton was the
tallest building on campus, and its tower had a panoramic view of the athletic
fields and coastal range. Buxton quickly became a focal point at Pacifica
State. Students perched on the tower dominated the campus during the annual
spring water fight with their huge slingshots and catapults. The first intranet
on the Pacific coast was created at Buxton that linked students’ computers and
allowed them to share printers. Around the 1970s, some student artists began
the tradition of painting their room doors. Whether a Rolling Stones logo or
Bugs Bunny on a skateboard, these colorful doors were an artistic legacy that
caught the attention of students and faculty.

Buxton Hall served as a residence hall for the university
for many years, but time was not kind to the stately building. Leaks destroyed
plaster in the interior. Wiring and plumbing became outdated and so dangerous
that the building was deemed unsafe. Buxton Hall’s doors were closed to
students and windows boarded up at the end of the 1996 spring quarter. For 10
years Buxton sat silent and over time became a symbol of the general decline of
Pacifica State. Now thanks to state bonds and generous contributions, Buxton
Hall was about to be reopened after a $20 million renovation.

18 MONTHS AGO

Chad and key representatives from university facilities were
engaged in the second of a two-day partnering workshop. Also in attendance were
managers from Crawford Construction, the chief contractor for the Buxton
renovation project, as well as several key subcontractors and architects from
the firm of Legacy West. During the first day a consultant ran them through a
series of team-building and communication exercises that accentuated the
importance of open communication, principle negotiation, and win/win thinking.
The second day began with the “project from hell” exercise, with each group
describing the worst project they had ever worked on. Chad was surprised that
the people from Crawford and Legacy West descriptions were very similar to his
own. For example, each group talked about how frustrating it was when changes
were made without proper consultation or costs were hidden until it was too
late to do anything about them. This was followed by a discussion of the best
project they had ever worked on. The consultant then asked the groups which of
the two they wanted the Buxton project to be. A genuine sense of common purpose
emerged, and everyone became actively engaged in spelling out in specific terms
how they wanted to work together. The session concluded with all of the
participants signing a partnering charter followed by a picnic and a friendly
softball game.

12 MONTHS AGO

Chad was on his way, with Nick Bolas, to meet Dat Nguyen,
the Crawford Project Manager, on the third floor at Buxton tower. Dat had
contacted him to discuss a problem with the tile work in one of the communal
bathrooms. Dat’s people had completed the work, but Nick, who was a Pacifica
facilities manager, refused to sign off on it claiming that it was not up to
spec. After a 24-hour impasse, the Crawford foreman exercised the escalation
clause in partnering agreement and passed the issue up to management’s level to
be resolved. Dat and Chad inspected the work. While both agreed that the job
could have been prettier, it did meet specification and Chad told Nick to sign
off on it.

Chad met Dat again later in the day at the weekly Buxton
status report meeting. The meeting kicked off with a brief review of what had
been accomplished during the past week. Discussion centered on the removal of
elm trees. Alternative strategies for dealing with the city inspector, who had
a reputation of being a stickler for details, were considered. The project was
two weeks behind schedule, which was an important issue since it was imperative
that the building be ready for students to move in at the 2008 fall term. The
project was also on a very tight budget, and the management reserve had to be
carefully administered. Renovation of existing buildings was always a bit of a
gamble, since you never knew what you would find once you began tearing down
walls. Fortunately, only small amounts of asbestos were found, but rot was much
more severe than anticipated.

The meeting included a partnering assessment. The results of
a Web survey filled out by all the principals were distributed. The results
revealed a dip in the ratings between the Crawford foremen and university
officials regarding timely collaboration and effective problem solving. One of
Chad’s people said that the primary source of frustration was Crawford foremen
failing to respond to e-mail and telephone messages. Dat asked for the names of
his people and said he would talk to each of them. The Crawford foremen
complained that the university officials were being too nit-picky. “We don’t
have the time or money to do A+ work on everything,” argued a foreman. Chad
told Dat and his people that he would talk to the facilities guys and ask them to
focus on what was really important.

6 MONTHS AGO

The project status report meeting started on time. Crawford
had been able to make up for lost time, and it now looked like the building
would open on time. Chad was glad to see that the partnering assessment had
been positive and steady over the past month. The big issue was the surge in
costs consuming all but $50,000 of management reserve. With six months to go
everyone knew that this would not cover all the change orders needed to have
the building ready. After all, there was already $24,000 worth of change orders
pending.

Chad looked across the table and saw nothing but grim faces.
Then one of the Crawford foremen proposed postponing treating all of the
exterior walls. “Instead of cleaning and preserving the entire brick building,
let’s only do the front entrance and the North and South walls that the public
sees. We can just refurbish the interior court walls as well as the West side.
This would be adequate for at least eight years, in which time money should be
available to complete the job.”

At first Chad didn’t like this idea, but eventually he
realized that this was the only way they could have the building ready for the
students. Friendly arguments broke out over which exterior segments needed the
full treatment and which ones didn’t. The whole team ended up touring the
outside of the building identifying what kind of work needed to be done. In the
end, only 70 percent of exterior brick walls were reconditioned according to
plan with a savings of over $250,000. While this boost to the reserve would
still make things tight, everyone felt that they now had a fighting chance to
complete the project on time.

TODAY

As Chad mingled with a glass of champagne, no one talked
about the walls that still needed to be refurbished—tonight was a night to
celebrate. All of the major participants and their spouses were at the party,
and the university was hosting a fivecourse meal at the top of the tower.
During the toasts, jokes were exchanged and stories told about the ghosts in
the west wing and the discovery of a dead skunk in the south basement. Everyone
talked about how proud they felt about bringing back to life the grand old
building. More than one person mentioned that this was much more satisfying
than tearing down an old relic and constructing a new building. The president
of the university concluded the festivities by thanking everyone for their hard
work and proclaiming that Buxton would become a bright, shining icon for
Pacifica State.

1. How successful was this project?

2. What best practices were evident in the case? How did
they contribute to project objectives?

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