Rowynn Ricks
Woodward News
Woodward, Okla. — After approving a new building design during their last meeting, members of the Woodward Conference Center Building Committee approved a revised floor plan Monday to reflect the new building design.
The committee members were presented with two similar floor plans that essentially only varied in square footage.
Via conference call, Associate Architect Josh Hill explained that “Scheme A” represented a smaller version with a total of 26,531 square feet with an exhibit hall that measured 118 feet by 80 feet to provide seating for 560 people in a round-table banquet type setting.
“Scheme B” has a total of 29,293 square feet with an exhibit hall measuring 127 feet by 83 feet that can seat 608 people in a round-table banquet type setting, Hill said.
While Hill said he felt that to go with the plan with the bigger square footage “seems like a big price to pay for gaining so little,” most of the committee members kept true to what they’ve felt from the beginning and noted that they want as much square footage as the city can afford and approved Scheme B.
“If we can afford the bigger one, then it’s better to seat 600 than 560,” City Commissioner Steve Bogdahn said.
To help achieve this with the city’s limited budget of $5 million for construction of the building itself, Principal Architect Jim Hasenbeck and City Manager Alan Riffel discussed approaching the project through a construction manager process, similar to what is being done with the county jail and the Early Childhood Center.
Hasenbeck explained that a construction manager “is usually a contractor who is actually hired to manage the bidding process.”
So instead of the city bidding the whole project out itself, the construction manager would bid out different aspects of the project, such as concrete, steel, HVAC, to separate subcontractors, he said.
The architect noted that the benefits to this process include the fact that the city won’t have to wait until the project goes out to bid to know if bids will come in under budget because the construction manager “can guarantee a cost not to exceed so much ($5 million).”
Hasenbeck said this guarantee would even include “a construction contingency” and if the project comes in under the price guarantee, then the city would keep that difference because the construction manager “has a set fee.”
Committee members seemed to support using a construction manager, agreeing with Gary Whitcomb, from the Tourism and Convention Bureau, who said, “I think this is the way to go.”
Hasenbeck told the committee that he could have a Request for Proposal (RFP) to present to Riffel for approval “by the end of the week.”
Riffel then noted, “once we get the RFP, (then) sometime next week we can start to advertise.”
The city manager added that he thought it was important for the committee to be involved in the interview process when it came time to select a construction manager, which could be as soon as next month.
