How we run a project in Los Angeles

The first questions are about your space and what it needs.

Before you commit to construction, you need to understand what the estimate includes and what is still unresolved. If you have built before, you already know that. It is the part from the last project you remember if the estimate and the final budget didn’t align.

At concept, we examine what the design asks of the building.

There is a second worry underneath that one: that bringing a builder in early means giving up competitive bidding, and that a number is hard to judge when the contractor already expects the job. Most owners are also not in the design meetings week to week, so they cannot tell whether the drawings are ready to build until construction has started and the gaps show up as changes.

Scope and assumptions need to be clear before construction starts.

Here is what preconstruction looks like when we run it. Before we price anything, we tell you whether the set is ready to be priced: how far along the design is, whether the utility scope is clear, and the schedule and budget risks if the project starts before design is complete. Then we read your drawings the way we would build them, sheet against sheet. We track an open items list and coordinate with the design team through closure. Whatever cannot be answered yet becomes a named allowance with a clear estimate.

We raise code questions while design is in progress.

We assist the design team as a second set of eyes and with an overall code review, to avoid or minimize the corrections that often come up during inspections in the field, even on items that passed plan check.

Concealed conditions are a part of the site investigation.

The existing building conditions get a thorough review, because most of our work is renovation and the existing building conditions need to be incorporated into the design. We walk the space with the set in hand: the electrical service, the sewer line, the structure the new use will load, the ceiling nobody has been above in twenty years. What the walk cannot settle becomes an investigation with a proposed budget and the value it provides. The code review happens in the same pass, on paper, where it is cheap: accessibility, fire and life safety, the kitchen infrastructure a restaurant needs, and the energy requirements a tenant improvement triggers.

We coordinate the details before the trades meet in the field.

What comes back to you is a detailed plan to execute the project with backup. It lists the detailed scope by trade, every allowance by name, and every hold and exclusion, so you can set it beside any other bid and see what each one left out. We treat every bid and preconstruction engagement as if we are already responsible for building the job, and we ensure the proper due diligence has been completed before our estimate is shared.

Schedules rarely slip all at once. They slip a day at a time.

The month owners remember is the one where progress slowed down and the end date moved. Nobody announced a delay. The job slipped a day at a time, waiting on a decision that nobody had named, and at the end of the month the contractor reported that the schedule had moved by a month.

Each decision gets a date, in advance of the scheduled work.

The schedule slip comes from a gap: a project team that cannot see far enough ahead to say what answers are needed today. The look-ahead is what drives near-term decision deadlines. If a finish has to be released in three weeks, the question is elevated to you and your design team now, with time to think, and it stays on your report until it is answered.

Submittals and long lead items work back from the required-on-job (ROJ) date.

Every RFI, submittal and long lead item works the same way, back from the day it has to be on site to the day it has to be released, so that a question does not reach you as an emergency or after a delay has already been incurred.

Your report shows which decisions the next work depends on.

Your report carries the work in place, the draw-down on the contingency and every allowance, the schedule by milestone, and every decision that is yours with the date it is needed by. It is written to prioritize the information you need to know and the answers we are waiting on.

When we find an unforeseen condition, you hear it first, with a recommendation.

Projects evolve while they are being built, and we expect yours to. Your report identifies the decisions that need your input, the context to make a decision and the date it is needed by. We talk those decisions through with you and your design team, then record what was agreed. When we find an unforeseen condition, such as a beam lower than the drawings assumed or existing MEPs that don’t align with the as-builts, you hear it from us first, with a recommendation and the date the decision is needed by. There is no chain of escalation between the field and you. The person who priced the job and signed the contract is the person who calls. Nobody fears bad news. They fear late news.

Closeout is planned months ahead, not in the last two weeks.

Closeout is planned from the first month. Every trade knows from its contract what it owes at the end, and the final inspections, commissioning and training are scheduled months before turnover.

The punch list starts in the first week, not the last.

Quality is checked with you and your design team as the work goes in, so the punch list stays short. Maintaining an end date means we cannot compress the finishes into your training week.

The inspector should never be the first to find a problem.

The inspections sit on the master schedule from the start as milestones with float on both sides. We do not control the building department. What we know from working with the building, fire and health departments is how inspections run, how long they take to book and where they typically hold up a project. So before the walls close we walk a rough-in checklist, and before the city walks the job for occupancy we walk a readiness checklist by trade: the restroom clearances, the HVAC shutdown, the interceptor access, checked by us first.

Payment documentation is tracked from the first payment, not the last.

Project financials close the same way. We track payment documentation through the job and identify what remains outstanding for final closeout. The payment documentation goes into the operations manual with the warranties, the as-builts and the operating manuals.

At handover, you receive the drawings, manuals and warranties together.

At handover the equipment is commissioned and your operations team is trained on it in detail, and we stay in contact with them afterward. When something needs attention in month eleven, your team calls the same number and the same person answers.