"Bigger, Better, Faster, Cheaper"

	When the State of Florida called on Canadian engineer Wayne Dunn to commission a building construction project that had run into problems, neither Dunn nor state construction managers suspected they were starting a counter-revolution in Florida construction practices. When Dunn had straightened out the troubled project down-state, he was invited to commission the prototype buildings the state had begun building in its new Capital Circle Office Complex in Tallahassee.
New Capital Circle Office Complex in Tallahassee	Seven buildings later the state is building the most energy efficient buildings it's ever had in less time for lower costs, and getting more useable floor space and higher occupant satisfaction. More significantly, the practice of building commissioning has become the centerpiece of a quality control effort that is spreading its savings throughout the public sector of Florida. The commissioning agent's principal job is quality control," Dunn says. "That's why the commissioning agent is paid by the owner and reports directly to the owner. Basically, you accomplish quality control by administering the testing of the building, by creating the documentation of the building process and by leaving adequate documentation and operating manuals for those who will run and maintain the building and its systems. In ideal projects the commissioning agent will also train the operating personnel before the building is accepted by the owner." "Another necessary part of any commissioning agent's job is negotiation when things fail," Dunn says, "and issue resolution when matters are in dispute. To quote Bill Scaringe (Director of Building Construction for DMS), 'It's team building.' That means you're not just there to catch mistakes and find flaws, but to prevent screw-ups, and to back out of them as easily as possible and with as little damage as possible when they do occur. The state was already beginning to do some of this, but the formal procedures of commissioning gave it a framework and accelerated their movement. And it worked."
	Indeed, it worked so well that with each new building the state cloned, quality continued to rise while costs and construction time continued to fall. "On this last building there were over 50 different improvements that we made from things we learned on the previous building," says the state's chief landlord and builder, Bill Lindner. Lindner, a former architect/developer who is Secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services is justifiably proud of the elegant new brick and glass buildings in the office complex, and even prouder of their performance, their cost, and their potential durability and flexibility. "Is it bigger, better, faster, cheaper? That's the question I ask every time. Look at this," he says, displaying an analysis of the new buildings.
	"Bigger: We went from 77% space efficiency utilization for office buildings to 87%. That's a 10% increase, which in this case is like gaining $5.7 million in free office space. "Faster: We went from a median 1,158 days project development time to 680 days. That's more than a year saved. Faster occupancy of the building and greater return on investment. "Better: Lower maintenance costs. Built-in access to technology that is adaptable to future developments. And high-performance energy efficiency. Our total energy costs are 90 cents a square foot per year. That's less than half of the comparable cost for this state. "And cheaper: Not just to operate, but to build. We went from an average of over $80 a square foot to $60 on our buildings in Tallahassee and Jacksonville. That made a savings of $11.7 million on over 800,000 square feet of buildings."
	Lindner's enthusiasm for his new buildings is shared by the people who supervised their construction.
	"We set a two-watt per square foot figure as a target and beat it, says Roy Waddell, a DMS design quality engineer. "Other state buildings now run from a high of up to 13.6 watts per square foot down to a low of 4.8. The average was about 5.6. We now have the capability of getting into new buildings at 1/3 of the best energy operating costs we formerly got. And we can retrofit existing state buildings with energy cost cuts of 20%."
	And as building owners who commission their buildings are discovering, the savings come not only from efficient operation after occupancy, but during the actual construction process itself. "Commissioning paid for itself in the first year through improved building integrity alone," Waddell says. Due to an existing project schedule, commissioning of the first Capital Circle Office Complex buildings did not begin until they were already "out-of-the ground and dried-in." Yet, in each case there was an immediate documented one-year payback for commissioning services that ensured the materials, building envelope and systems were exactly as specified.
	Lower Operating Costs: the Long-Term Key to Higher Profits Still, the long-term, year-after-year payoff for the owner comes after a commissioned high-performance building is occupied. O&M (operations and maintenance) costs -- most especially the energy costs Waddell outlined -- provide the kind of clear, bottom-line figures that are sure to please any owner.
	"Energy efficiency didn't seem as important in the days when energy costs were five percent of a building's operating costs," Waddell says. "Today they are over seventeen percent and an area of significant savings potential to the owner. Under the existing system of building, any off-the-street energy consultant can walk into a building that is just completed and almost automatically cut a building's energy operating costs fifteen percent the day after it is accepted by the owner. But at that point getting those savings is an additional and unnecessary cost. At a minimum the commissioning agent allows you to catch these obviously correctable deficiencies during construction - before they become an additional 'cost item' the owner/operator has to bear.
	Waddell says that in addition to installing and balancing the proper air/conditioning and lighting through commissioning, energy costs can be cut by such new technology as variable speed pumps and individual lighting controls. "But there are other savings too," he says. "We have found that when we are saving this much energy we can use smaller electrical transformers and lines. Smaller chillers too. That's a savings that can be made throughout all public buildings - throughout Florida actually. One of the things we do in Florida is consistently oversize the building cooling system. What you often get there -- in the worst case -- is the Polk County courthouse." (A widely-publicized Florida sick building that was shut-down and evacuated for refitting.) "That's one of the reasons why we need to cut the energy costs going to air conditioning systems. Just because you're using a lot of energy does not mean that you are getting a quality environment. In fact it usually means just the opposite."
	So the proof is in the buildings. The DMS system of quality control, including commissioning the total building with an eye to its life-cycle cost, pays off handsomely. The buildings are handsome too. To get a look at them and their specifications you can link directly to the following World Wide Web site: The Capital Circle Office Center Showcased
	Jim Minter, Editor