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 Wiring and plumbing became outdated and so dangerous that the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 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 the 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

reserves 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 an online

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 workers 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 reserves. 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 the 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 refurbishedtonight was a night to celebrate. All of

the major participants and their spouses were at the party, and the university

was hosting a five-course 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 he or she felt about bringing the grand old building back to life.

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 all the hard

work and proclaiming that Buxton would become a bright, shining icon for

Pacifica State.

Case study questions

1. How successful was this project?

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

project objectives?