A 19th century school in the town of Harvard was transformed into a library over the course of two years. It was able to open its renovated doors in April thanks to thorough communication between the construction team and the community.
On a late fall morning in 2005, construction began on a long-awaited project in the town of Harvard. The restoration and addition to the town’s 1877 Peabody and Stearns “Old Bromfield” school for use as a new library would revive a beloved but underutilized historic building at the town’s center. While preserving key 19th century elements, the project would incorporate the best of the 21st century.
That same morning, a flurry of e-mails awaited the co-chair of the town’s Building Committee. Despite years of presentations, publicity, and numerous late-night committee meetings regarding a well-known building, citizens were writing with surprise and concern about the construction. All the efforts to conduct extensive outreach, document the case for a library, publicize the benefits of revitalization, and design a sympathetic addition had somehow failed to reach the broader populace.
Confronted with such a disconnect, the architect, contractor and client moved quickly to amplify the project’s communication plan with elements that could be implemented throughout construction to enhance responsiveness while keeping the community engaged and informed.
On most projects, the approval and community input processes from design to permitting are intensive and time-consuming for clients and architects. Approvals prior to construction can take as long as the construction itself and before a shovel hits the ground it is easy to assume that all constituents’ concerns have been heard and addressed. It is at such a moment, however, that a project’s success is either threatened or enhanced, despite the work to date. With actual construction on view for all to see, the effects of implementation are felt beyond what education and description could ever convey.
A plan to address those concerns and communicate back to those affected must be in place before the start of construction. Although impossible to anticipate all the issues that might rise to crisis level, the approval process will begin to identify hot button issues that will undoubtedly be revisited once actual construction begins. A well-planned communication system and quick assessment and solution process can deflate most issues before they grow.
It is not unusual for the effectiveness of pre-project communication to falter at that critical moment of construction startup. And in a small community like Harvard, failure at such a juncture could have had devastating effects on schedule, fund-raising and the viability of the project itself. The team undertook a rapid evaluation to determine steps for maintaining the intensity of community interaction and accessibility among all major players. Elements of their process are applicable to projects that involve community relations.
The client and project team supplemented their longstanding committee structure with key individuals designated as specific and available points of contact for information and questions. Those point-people were empowered to deal with all issues personally, supported by increased committee interface. Issues involving the larger project team were resolved at a weekly, open, on-site job meeting. The individual accountability streamlined accessibility while reducing resolution turnaround time and frustration.
The town, responding to citizens’ need to know, assigned a member of the building committee the task of being the clearing house for issues identified by the town’s various sub-committees and residents.
The contractor’s superintendent was empowered to implement solutions for the issues of primary importance to the town’s citizens. For example, citizens expressed ongoing apprehension about construction impact on the site’s historic trees – chestnuts, elms and a 200-year-old black oak. Preservation of the trees, overseen by a separate sub-committee of the town, had been identified as critical to the success of the project. In response to added concerns and construction progressed, protective fencing was constructed around the trees and the status of their protection was reviewed as a permanent line item at the weekly job meetings.
The architect’s construction administrator facilitated the coordination of information between the client and contractor. The construction administrator supported both parties with sketches and interpretations of the contract documents, monitoring any cost changes due to the implementation of solutions in response to concerns.
Conventional thinking among contractors and architects says that the job trailer is not a place for clients. Frank, and sometimes contentious, discussions can take place there among team members. Clients typically hire an owner’s representative to attend weekly job meetings and to translate the client’s concern to the project teams. Because intimate awareness of the town’s issues and personal contact with town citizens was crucial to the success of the project, a building committee representative joined the owner’s representative as a community liaison for Harvard, resulting in the direct and expedient communication of issues and solutions between the client and the committees. Issue resolution that normally can get bogged down in the fog of construction, was discussed in a timely manner, resolved and communicated back to the town through firsthand knowledge.
The now streamlined communication conduit added an additional element – a Web site. The technological vehicle conveyed project information, progress reports, a look at the month ahead, contacts and resources, along with construction and design images. Updated each month, a new summary was created to involve and engage the larger community of Harvard.
The library opened its doors to the citizens of Harvard on April 2007, bringing Old Bromfield back to its original brilliance as an architectural landmark. The design of its addition has been called “seamless” and “an honor to the historic structure.” The enhanced methods of communications employed by the project team were a significant vehicle for capturing and processing dispute, worries, suggestions, criticism and anxiety in an open and constructive manner. They contributed significantly to community involvement and ownership of this important civic amenity.
