Hexagon’s Building Solutions Helps NYC’s Collegiate School Locate and Repair Construction Defects to a Savings Of $3.7 Million.
When they noticed high energy costs and low efficiency scores on a brand new, high-end build, this school’s facilities team knew exactly where to start looking—at their construction visual progress tracking photos.
After just two years of classes in their brand new, 9-story, 175,000 square foot campus, facilities teams at the prestigious Collegiate School in New York City began noticing a problem. In one side of the building, school staff were freezing during the winter months. After a building-wide energy evaluation came back with a failing grade, Director of Facilities Mark Gordon turned to his Construction Progress Tracking photo documentation for answers.
POST-CONSTRUCTION: VERIFYING THE PROBLEM & AVOIDING DESTRUCTIVE DISCOVERY
Gordon and his twelve-person team had been using Construction Progress Tracking documentation routinely to monitor the construction of the new school. He knew the most cost-effective way to ensure proper insulation had been installed was to access the building’s Progression photos.
Total savings to the school: $1.7 million
“We found the problem. The Multivista photos showed all these walls without insulation. The progression photos in other parts of the building show the areas with no wall, then studs, then piping and electrical, then insulation, then sheetrock. We used Multivista to verify which walls didn’t have insulation and contacted the contractor. Without those photos, we would have had to cut into every wall to see where insulation was missing. The system worked perfectly.” – Mark Gordon, Collegiate School Director of Facilities
POST-CONSTRUCTION: THIRD-PARTY INTELLIGENCE FOR WARRANTY OR DISPUTE RESOLUTION
The Collegiate School has outdoor play surfaces on the first and 8th floors. When the rubberized flooring product began to fail and come up from the foundation, facilities teams used Construction Progress Tracking date-stamped photo documentation cross referenced with city weather data to investigate if the product had been properly installed.
Total Savings to the school: $2 million
“We had told the people putting the flooring down that we thought it was too cold for the product. Sure enough, when the surface started to come up, we were able to use Multivista to determine the date of installation. On the day they installed the temperature was 17°F, and the product instructions say it’s supposed to be 40°F. That was an easy one.” – Mark Gordon, Collegiate School Director of Facilities
POST-CONSTRUCTION: SYSTEM LOCATION IDENTIFICATION
A school requires specialized systems behind the walls, from extra-braces to hang cabinets from to special gas lines in the science labs. The facilities team at the Collegiate School routinely used Multivista MEP photo documentation to go back in time to see what’s behind their walls, and where.
Total Savings to the School: Peace of mind plus continued savings avoiding destructive discovery.
“People get nervous about gas, so if someone thinks they smell gas, we go into our Multivista documentation and we can see if there is a gas line in that part of the building. Or we can look for fire alarm risers, electrical conduits, sewage clean-outs. Everyone on the team has full access and we use the system all the time to go back and look inside the walls” – Mark Gordon, Collegiate School Director of Facilities
DURING CONSTRUCTION: JOBSITE QUALITY CONTROL
The Collegiate School team was still running regular school sessions while their new building was under construction, so it was not possible to be on the project site every day. Using Multivista documentation, the team was able to watch their new building go up and ensure contractors were using and installing the correct materials.
Total Savings to the School: Hundreds of thousands of dollars
CONCLUSION
Information is power, and the power to see, know, share, and prove where everything is (or isn’t) in your building saves facilities teams countless hours and a lot of money.
Multivista’s team of construction documentation specialists took over 14,900 photos during the construction of the Collegiate School in New York City, (and the school’s facilities team has added over 280 of their own shots to the system). Every picture has a story to tell, and potential dollars to save.
“Multivista is the best tool in my tool box.” – Mark Gordon, Collegiate School Director of Facilities