Boldt Company: North Park University names partner for new science & community life building

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Patrick Casey
Phone (W): 920-225-6159
Phone (M): 920-246-4195
Email: Patrick.Casey@Boldt.com
OR
Mary Schmidt
Phone: 920-284-7165
Email: mkschmidt@centurytel.net

Innovative construction approach planned for massive, complex project

Chicago’s North Park University has named The Boldt Company its ILPD facilitator for a planned science and community life building. According to the university board of trustees’ chairman, David Helwig, the undertaking will be the most expensive, sizeable and complex building project in the school’s 120-year history.

The new building will approach 100,000 gross square feet and include classroom, laboratory and conference spaces that will be the most sophisticated on campus, increasing research and learning opportunities for students and staff. The building will also include a café and the offices of high-student-involvement co-curricular programs such as student development, university ministries and career planning and placement.

“In the past we’ve represented ourselves in campus construction projects,” said Helwig. “However, due to the complexity and cost of the planned facility, we chose to bring Boldt into the process in large part because of the unique process it has developed to address diverse sets of challenges in a project such as ours.”

That process is Integrated Lean Project Delivery® (ILPD), an original process Boldt created in order to approach construction management in a new way. Ken Greve, executive vice president at Boldt, said ILPD involves extensive planning, but also seeks to eliminate all waste in order to maximize savings and project scope.

“Heavy collaboration between all parties involved in a project like this is important to the ILPD approach,” said Greve. “Once we’ve established that atmosphere, we can then use our specific ILPD tools and systems to analyze every step of the construction process from planning to completion, replacing all waste with value along the way.”

As of March 2012, North Park, Boldt, VOA and W.B. Olson have completed the project’s feasibility and validation phases and are currently working on the general design phase. Site work will commence this year and the building will be open for the fall semester of 2014.

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ABOUT THE BOLDT COMPANY

The Boldt Company, headquartered in Wisconsin, has 13 offices throughout the United States and is one of the leading sustainable construction services firms in the country. The firm provides professional construction services to customers in a variety of power, industrial, education, healthcare, commercial and renewable energy markets nationwide. The firm has been recognized as one of the safest companies in America.