Hensel Phelps Construction

Firm Flexes With the Market

By Jeff Hawk

Helping save lives by defeating one of the world's biggest health problems doesn't usually fall into the job description of a construction company.

But in September 2000, when Tim Hess, director of preconstruction services with the Southwest District office of Greeley, Colo.-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co., first met with officials and physicians who now occupy the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Prevention Building in Houston, he began to understand what was at stake.

"They told me that they were going to cure cancer in 10 years," Hess said.

"We needed to think like they think and to understand what's driving them," he said, referring to M.D. Anderson's patient-centric focus. He added that his firm also needed to understand that if the center was successful in defeating cancer, the facility would need to adjust to a new mission. "The owners wanted us to understand that we needed an exit strategy," he said. "We had to design enough electrical supply and space so it will accommodate future technologies."

Hensel Phelps built the new $62 million, 380,000-sq.-ft. Cancer Prevention Building and the adjacent $347 million, 1.2 million-sq.-ft. Ambulatory Clinical Building under design-build contracts. Both facilities opened in January.

With two of its six district offices in Texas, Hensel Phelps ranked 6 on Texas Construction's list of the state's top contractors.

The firm's work for M.D. Anderson in Houston not only represents its leading role in the Texas market, it signals the evolution of construction services under the growing influence of privatization.

In the last five years, the use of alternative procurement methods, including design-build, has doubled, Hess said. International construction companies such as Hensel Phelps, which employs roughly 3,000 people worldwide and takes in $2.8 billion annually, are offering owners more flexibility through various design-construction-procurement options.

"Owners can make changes much easier with a design-build contract," Hess said. Hensel Phelps has expanded its front-end services, such as pro forma financial development and conceptual estimating, to respond to the growing market. The services help public owners "cut the fat out" of their budgets by ensuring the pro formas and design estimates are "valid from a construction standpoint," Hess said.

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For M.D. Anderson officials, a lean construction budget means more money to invest in cutting-edge technology, better facilities to attract leading cancer researchers and more space for new developments.

M.D. Anderson wanted its patients to know that it was putting money into technology and equipment instead of the building, Hess said. Everything revolved around the effort to cure cancer, a mentality Hensel Phelps needed to grasp to build an effective research and treatment center, he added.

The builder's level of understanding of the client's long-term needs exceeded anything offered by a traditional design-bid-build process. Hensel Phelps' design-build services allowed input on the early stages of the cancer prevention building's design. The team met frequently with all 32 of the prevention building's user groups to gain a more comprehensive idea of specific needs.

During the design phase, Hensel Phelps recommended changing the prevention center's original two-building concept into one integrated building. The new plan provided better space utilization, and more important, resulted in a less stressful, more convenient environment for the patient, Hess said. The plan included integrated, below-grade parking structures to place patients as close to their destinations as possible.