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Breaking Down Walls for Building Enclosure Design and Construction

December 22, 2017

The difference between a great project and a challenging one can come down to one key detail: communication. Especially when designing and constructing complex building enclosure systems, it is important to have open lines of dialogue between architects, engineers, and construction teams.

To help encourage this shared understanding on project teams, we recently teamed up with our colleagues at Payette Architects and Turner Construction in Boston to offer a five-week cross-training program for mid-career team members from each firm. These rising professionals volunteered their time throughout the fall to gain a better perspective of the challenges each team member faces and discuss common issues that can arise on our projects.

Each session featured an interactive panel discussion with senior members from each firm, followed by Q&A and a learning activity that included project site visits and plant and lab tours. The sessions – held at various locations in Boston in October and November – focused on a range of issues, including the design process, project budgeting and procurement, pre-construction and mockups, construction and quality, and subcontractor perspectives.

I know that my colleagues Jeff Ceruti and Casey Williams – who helped to organize the program and SGH’s participation – are proud of the team members that took part in the program and excited to see them put these lessons to good use.

Special thanks go to our friends at Payette and Turner for joining us throughout the fall, and congratulations go to our first SGH class of Marvel Ang, Mary Arntzen, Kelsey Dunn, Chris Grey, Luke Niezelski, Brendan Shannon, Emily Wartman, and Cedric White.

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