Advanced scheduling needs, materials staging and handling, and planning and coordination all contribute to complexity. What's more, with so many more stakeholders to handle—city inspectors, developers, adjacent businesses—project managers must develop sophisticated, wide-branching communication plans.
Urban development project management skills are worth learning because, according to the United Nations, half of all human beings will live in an urban environment by the end of 2006. Recent estimates point to an urbanization level of 61.1 percent by 2030. And with that high growth comes the possibility for economic and social progress, according to “Habitat Agenda,” a report issued by the United Nations Human Settlement Programme. Because 17 percent of the world's housing currently consists of a one-room shelter, that's promising indeed.
These three urban projects—New York's Harlem neighborhood, London's Trafalgar Square and Manila's revital-ization—exemplify best practices and show how organizations that engage in structured project management reap the benefits.
Bradhurst Court, Harlem,
New York, N.Y., USA
COST: US$23 million
OBJECTIVE: Build 128 market-rate residential units, a courtyard for the residence, parking garage, Pathmark grocery store and small retail space
TIMEFRAME: July 2003 to July 2005
Bradhurst Court, Harlem, New York, N.Y., USA
RENDERING COURTESY OF MELTZER-MANDL ARCHITECTS P.C.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Urban development projects demonstrate a need for careful communication with multiple stakeholders and extensive pre-planning analysis.
In a revitalization project in New York's Harlem neighborhood, project managers used local workers to build resident confidence.
In London's Trafalgar Square, project managers held frequent meetings with the public and accounted for their needs in execution.
Project managers working to revitalize neighborhoods in Manila, Philippines, hired local supplementary project managers who worked directly with governmental agencies and potential homeowners.
KEY LEARNING: Advantages of using a panelized wall system to value engineer the project in terms of cost and time; overcoming challenges of an urban renewal project due to complex site conditions.
ROI: Residents in Harlem get a grocery store; 128 low-income families own their homes.
New York's Harlem neighborhood, a once poverty-ridden area, is getting a facelift with cash infusions from local government as well as private investors. Bradhurst Court, located at West 145th Street and Bradhurst Avenue, is mixing the best of both worlds—public and private—to create a living, working neighborhood.
The effort, which features 128 new residential apartments, a 40,000 square-foot supermarket—the first national grocery chain in Harlem—retail space and 10 duplex townhouses, began five years ago as a joint project between the NewYork City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement Inc. and commercial developers. With New York City's average housing prices skyrocketing to just over US$1 million and a lack of local chain and retail stores, lower-income families desperately need affordable housing and convenient shopping.
By purchasing multiple independently owned lots, developers were able to create a large enough plot to accommodate their vision. While it might seem that building a single complex on a larger lot would make things easier, Ian Pinto, associate architect, Meltzer-Mandl Architects p.c., New York, N.Y., USA, says the scope actually made it more difficult. “Because of the different uses—residential, retail, a loading dock—and the height of the building, we needed a variance,” Mr. Pinto says. “And we knew we'd need to divert traffic on W. 144th street. We were also creating a courtyard in the center of the entire building so we could have a little piece of suburbia within an urban fabric.”
Mr. Pinto says one of the first things his firm did was also one of the smartest: hiring a construction manager rather than a general contractor. The reason: a general contractor, says Mr. Pinto, has the bottom line to think about at the end of the day. The construction manager works directly for the clients and the architectural agency. Because of this, Mr. Pinto's firm had the ability to incent its construction manager, asking him to save money and time. This move saved the company 20 percent and three months, he says.
For example, after the initial cost projections came in, Mr. Pinto's team realized a traditional brick-and-block design was too expensive. They proposed steel beams with a wall-panel system, and the construction manager helped make the change.
The company also hired a local expeditor who knew the ins-and-outs of New York's building department to handle small day-to-day problems. Along the way, Mr. Pinto kept track of the project's progress with weekly—and eventually biweekly—meetings with all the stakeholders present, he says. This minimized surprises and kept communication lines open. It also created a written, detailed record as milestones were archived.
“We talked about the need to redirect traffic at an early meeting but let it drop because it would come much later,” he says. “As [the grocery store] got close to moving in, we could then look back, see that we had detailed the process, and do what we needed to do. We made a presentation to the Community and Community Board district manager Richard Harley on the importance of the re-direction of the traffic on W. 144th Street in order to prevent congestion on that corner. A traffic study was done, and with the help of HPD and the district manager this was achieved.”
Today, all of the complex's apartments have been purchased, and a restaurant and store are being readied on the property. It moved along quickly, Mr. Pinto says, because they implemented another best practice: involving local residents and businesses. Local construction workers were hired for the project, which built community spirit. Another best practice: designing the buildings to blend in with existing brownstones across the street.
“We didn't displace people,” Mr. Pinto says. “We catered first to people in the neighborhood. Even a certain number of contractors and workers were from the neighborhood. There was a constant dialogue all along the way.”
Trafalgar Square,
London,U.K.
COST: £22 million
OBJECTIVE: Rebalance traffic and pedestrian use of Trafalgar Square
TIMEFRAME: November 2001 to June 2003
KEY LEARNING: Communication with stakeholders vital for community, business and political support.
ROI: Increased public use of the Square.
A meeting place and a cornerstone of British life, Trafalgar Square is as much a part of the London landscape as its famous Tower bridge. But by 1999, it was fast becoming just another traffic roundabout, says Steve Child, director of project management at TPS, London, U.K.
“In the early days we put together an outline of our objectives: improvement of public access to the square, improvement of historic information, reduced pollution and improved traffic management,” Mr. Child says. “Because it was a public project, we weren't doing it to make money. There was no business case, which made it more difficult to understand the true objectives.”
Brain child of London-based architectural firm Fosters and Partners, the project, part of the “World Squares for All” master plan, would return the Square to a meeting place, redefine its traffic pattern, and introduce a café, toilets and public seating by July 2003.
Because the overhauled Square was being redesigned for the public, TPS started with the people, conducting extensive public consultation via a leaflet campaign, press coverage, a Web site and public comment meetings. The team then could program from a strategic level, taking the public information it received and combining it with data from the major organizational stakeholders. TPS used critical milestones such as committee lead-ins and funding applications to create a schedule and provide targets. This information was fed into a monitoring tool for activity streams such as design development and approvals. “The schedule tool was simple—Microsoft Project—but combined with the extranet system ProjectNet, it enabled a wide project audience to view and understand how the project needed to be delivered,” Mr. Child says.
Trafalgar Square, London, U.K.
Communication continued once the design phase was over and the construction began, he says. Press was notified and interested parties—surrounding businesses and residents as well as government agencies such as Transport for London, English Heritage, the Mayor's office, among others— were kept informed at all times. Internally, communication was enhanced by creating a partnering or contractual agreement so if a problem came up, the team dealt with it. It was a natural progression, Mr. Child says. “When the selection of the contractor and the procurement route was discussed, TPS made a case for a partnering approach. The selected form of contract was the New Engineering Contract (NEC), designed to create a team and partnering solution for construction projects. On site, the client, TPS and the contractors all shared office space creating a unified team.”
These strategies helped keep costs within the detailed budget, which was only put into place three months after project inception. In addition, there were no major shutdowns or issues, thanks to a strong risk management program. For example, design risks were constantly identified and monitored for management action to mitigate the impact. “We handled construction risks with strong pre-planning of construction activities, early surveys and on-site problem solving,” Mr. Childs says.
Finally, the team paradigm enabled a unique solution for dealing with traffic in and around the square, Mr. Child says. “The team approach encouraged the contractor to come up with some good ideas on delivery of the project since he would share in any cost savings that came up,” Mr. Child says. “He came up with a different way of approaching traffic management, which meant we could save six months on the project overall. The contractor was appointed early to form part of the project team. In planning, the contractor proposed an alternative road close-down and rebuild strategy. This strategy enabled work to start on the top terrace parallel to the road works instead of sequential construction, thus saving six months.”
Because of the NEC contract arrangements, the cost savings benefited both client and the contractor. The six-months time saving was used to incorporate additional toilet and café facilities into the project while achieving the original opening date.
Revitalization Project,
Manila, Philippines
COST: US$6.92 million, including $3.6 million from Asian Development Bank and $2 million in private funding
OBJECTIVE: Upgrade slum into viable community
TIMEFRAME: September 2002 through December 2006
KEY LEARNING: Managing strategic partnerships.
ROI: Providing homes for more than 6,000 indigent people; improving infrastructure; providing entrepreneurial skills to new homeowners.
Picture a small shack made out of timber with electrical wires criss-crossing the dull tin roof. There's no sewer or running water, so a strong stench hangs in the air. When he began a 6,000-household slum revitalization project— called the Strategic Private Sector Partnerships for Urban Poverty in Metro Manila (STEP-UP) Project—Mike Lind-field didn't have much to work with.
The project, which gained approval in September 2002 and is more than 50 percent complete, is designed to help squatters who are living on government and private land by providing them with grants and loans totaling US$3.6 million. The money goes to both real estate and community development—rebuilding and purchasing land and homes as well as upgrading community infrastructure, such as roads and sewer systems. The funding also encourages and fosters small enterprises in the area. “We can provide training to people in the area or finance local initiatives to invest in small businesses,” says Mr. Lindfield, principal housing and urban development specialist for Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, Philippines.
Revitalization Project, Manila, Philippines
Mr. Lindfield works in a project management capacity, overseeing the NGO project manager, who acts as a liaison with the local and national government as well as the community. From the beginning, he and the NGO project manager, Eden Garde, realized the immensity of the task. The first order of business, project analysis, helped Mr. Lindfield identify key institutional and financial issues. For example, on the surface one might say that the slum residents simply needed better housing. “The problem isn't that they are in substandard housing,” he says. “There are underlying conditions. They might have low income. If you build them a home, they may sublet it to make more money. But if you improve them and help them build their own assets, they are better off in the long run.”
Because the stakeholders at ADB aren't out in the field, they don't know how to screen candidates to find those who have the best chance at success. To that end, ADB hired a microfinance specialist in addition to the NGO project manager who worked directly with potential clients. This move, says Mr. Lindfield, paid off enormously. Today, the housing finance arm of the project reports 100 percent repayment of loans.
All three project managers—Mr. Lindfield, Ms. Garde and a microfinance specialist—have worked hard at communicating with all of the stakeholders, building links between them. “The NGO has put in systems at the community level to plan, initiate, seek approval and monitor activities under the project. It also monitors local government activity in relation to the project,” Mr. Lindfield says. “Progress with physical works and finance are collated centrally by site workers, analyzed for trends, indicators of problems and lessons learned, and put in a concise report for ADB.“This, says Mr. Lindfield, helps get funds dispersed quickly because Ms. Garde put systems in place to make request for approval and documentation go smoothly. “The local government is aware of what's going on at all times, and because of this, is engaged and has a vested interest in helping us get approvals,” he says.
Although Mr. Lindfield can't employ as many traditional project management skills as he would like—for example, it's impossible to perform critical path analysis because of the complexity of the interacting political, technical and bureaucratic systems involved—the unusually close contact with project monitoring has given him better insight into progress. He is aware of small problems before they can become large ones. For example, repayment for the livelihood loans that help residents own their own businesses was only at 80 percent—well below the desired rate.
“The non-specialist group didn't prepare or select or support the group of candidates as well as a specialist would have, so we diverted funds from that program to a more successful one such as housing finance,” he says. This saves time and money.
Today, more than 6,000 families have had their homes and neighborhoods upgraded in 24 communities and nine cities in metro Manila. Many more will benefit before project completion simply because it is running so smoothly, Mr. Lindfield says.
“We're almost halfway done and we've already built what we originally planned for,” he says. “The upshot is much better infrastructure for these people, a huge increase in value of their properties and a reduction in gastrointestinal disease. We're really making a difference.” PM