Dimeo Construction

As Keith Regan learns, Dimeo Construction believes in constantly evolving and improving how it manages projects, as the Ocean House waterfront mixed-use project exemplifies Dimeo Construction knows that when project owners tap it to serve as construction manager or lead contractor, they are looking to the firm to help take risk out of the project. Providence, Rhode Island-based Dimeo has been doing that for almost 79 years, serving the institutional, higher education and commercial and mixed-use markets from branch offices in Boston and New Haven. Dimeo does about $500 million worth of work annually and consistently ranks among the top 100 construction management firms nationwide, according to Engineering News-Record. The firm is also the first in New England to receive the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Blue-level status in conjunction with its CHASE (Construction Health and Safety Excellence) voluntary safety improvement program. Above all, Dimeo focuses on removing risk from the building process on behalf of owners, says Anthony Dematteo, the companyÔÇÖs vice president of business development. ÔÇ£We have a propensity to get involved with projects that are complex in nature in terms of the work or the schedule, and sometimes we get called on to help do projects that havenÔÇÖt been built before,ÔÇØ he adds. ÔÇ£Projects have gotten more risky, and owners and developers want a more collaborative process. They want a team that works together to get through the issues.ÔÇØThe firm can handle work of higher complexity because of the experience of its extensive pre-construction planning group, which works with state-of-the-art technology to estimate project costs and find opportunities for savings and improvements. The firm then shares this information openly with architects and designers as part of a collaborative approach, Dematteo adds. ÔÇ£The nature of these projects is that they can be nothing but a collaboration. You need a construction manager who is adaptable and communicative and can respond to changes and minimize disruption to the actual construction.ÔÇØDimeo is constantly trying new techniques to improve its processes even further, says Paul Aballo, vice president of construction. ÔÇ£The biggest risk is getting complacent, and we refuse to do that.ÔÇØ That approach has been on full display in the work that Dimeo has done on the Ocean House, an 1868 landmark hotel on the waterfront in Watch Hill, a neighborhood of Westerly, Rhode Island. The Ocean House was operated as a resort hotel for 135 years before it was closed due to structural issues in 2003. Improvements, which were begun in the fall of 2007, include structural upgrades designed to help the property withstand hurricane-force winds and waves.Bluff Avenue LLC is redeveloping the site, working to restore some of the propertyÔÇÖs historical elegance while creating a mixed-use facility with 47 hotel rooms and 18 private residences, as well as a spa, pools and other amenities, including underground parking facilities meant to address neighborhood concerns that arose during the permitting process. The project is unique in that residential materials such as wooden windows, wood shingles and masonry, and wooden accents and moldings are being used on what is essentially a commercial scale, says Aballo. Given the scope of the project, Dimeo brought new quality assurance and quality control modeling capabilities to bear on Ocean House. Once the architectÔÇÖs designs were in hand, Dimeo used extensive three-dimensional modeling to take a look at all the systems that would be included in the project, from heating and air conditioning to wastewater and plumbing. Dimeo used that information to make suggestions for changes to minor design elementsÔÇöthe revamped Ocean House was designed by CenterbrookÔÇömany of which were implemented at a cost savings. ÔÇ£The modeling showed us that we couldnÔÇÖt go with traditional heating and cooling systems, and as the architects looked at our models, they saw opportunities for improvements in the design as well.ÔÇØThe 3-D images are also used for construction monitoring and quality assurance during the building part of the project. Field supervisors equipped with tablet computers loaded with all the information rvelating to the project can automatically note changes or issues as they arise, instantly alerting the entire project team. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs just a whole different way of operating,ÔÇØ Aballo says. ÔÇ£YouÔÇÖre not shuffling through a lot of paper. All the information is right there in front of you.ÔÇØ The Ocean House is set to be completed early in 2010. The construction firm and the other partners on the project recently held a topping-off ceremony, and interior work has begun. Since the new 3-D modeling and field tablets approach was put in place on Ocean House, Dimeo has used it on eight other projects. ÔÇ£It truly makes a big difference in terms of the overall operations and in terms of the deliverables to clients.ÔÇØ The approach looks beyond the end-of-construction time frame to include the time that the owner takes control of the finished product. ÔÇ£Sometimes itÔÇÖs the things that you find out a year after people have been working in a building that affect how much of a success a project is,ÔÇØ says Aballo. ÔÇ£You get in there and find out maybe that system isnÔÇÖt as good as you thought it would be, or the facilities people arenÔÇÖt quite totally happy. If you use an approach that involves total engagement of all the stakeholders, you have a much better chance that the deliverable at the end does meet the objectives you set out to accomplish.ÔÇØDimeo was careful to manage the rollout of the new approach, to ensure that the data being collected could be handled by the project leaders. ÔÇ£There could be a risk of information overload if you donÔÇÖt have it managed properly or organized properly. We made sure we have a very definitive way of implementing it,ÔÇØ says Aballo. ÔÇ£In the end, a building is still a building. ItÔÇÖs the same basic process, and weÔÇÖre using technology and improvements to try to enhance that process, not hurt it.ÔÇØ ÔÇô Editorial research by Jason Moore┬á