Take me out to the construction documentation game

Author: Rosie Knox

In a busy urban centre, such as Washington, D.C., USA, staying on top of the building process is critical for a successful completion – especially if you’re across the street from Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team.

Verity Commercial, one of the nation’s fastest growing commercial real estate companies, is more than equipped for the challenge. Verity has worked on some of the most complicated projects in the Mid-Atlantic region. Providing construction management services, the company has the experience to simplify the complexities of technical projects, ensuring it will meet all expectations in terms of scope, budget and schedule.

To make certain the project met the highest of standards, Billy Frye, Verity Commercial’s Senior Construction Manager was assigned to the team. Frye’s 15 years of experience in construction project management offers expert level insight into complex conditions like this.

He turned to Multivista for help. Multivista provided visual documentation and tracked the construction process from start to finish on two multifamily residential projects in the Ballpark District.

Play (construction) ball

With more than 700 residential units and nearly 800,000 square feet (243, 840 metres) of space, Frye understood the challenge of not just completing this project on time and within budget but also the impact of complex logistical circumstances. Due to its proximity to the stadium, heavy traffic and dense population, he had to coordinate with the Nationals, District Department of Transportation, and adjacent developers/contractors for vehicular and pedestrian traffic modifications, and road closures.

“Additionally, this area of D.C. is extremely busy with many construction projects occurring simultaneously,” said Frye. “Coordination among the various development and construction teams is a must to make each project function efficiently.” 

The appropriate technology on complex projects is essential, and the integration of Multivista’s photo documentation services were crucial to staying on target, according to Frye.

“Multivista delivers relevant project photos that are correlated to the building plans, where the construction process is documented and tracked from construction start until completion. This is a key tool to assist with progress tracking.”

“Documenting the project during the building process is a valuable tool for property management and maintenance staff,” said Fry. “They have the ability to determine what and where items are located within walls and ceilings.”  

Hitting a triple

For these two buildings overlooking Nationals Park, Verity Commercial wanted to have a complete record of the outside of the building as it went up as well as the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) on the inside. The services included:

• Waterproofing Exact-Built^®
• MEP Exact-Built^®
• Elevation Exact Built^®.

Maintaining quality over a large quantity of living units is crucial and can be a difficult task for all involved.

Subcontractor trade resources are spread thin in this booming market and can be overextended. Using technology tools to help manage trade resources and project schedules should be considered on every job. Multivista provides the necessary oversite with full-service photographic documentation.

Multifamily residences are one of the largest segments of Multivista’s customer base, contracting on more than 2,450 projects and 460 million sq ft (140,208,000 m) of space since 2003.