Building Relationships, Not Just Structures

3 minute read

How DPR's Team Navigated an Active Life Sciences Facility to Deliver a Seamless Expansion

Two people wearing personal protective equipment smile at each other in a lab space that is under construction

When David Arellano and the rest of DPR’s project team arrived on the site of a major life sciences expansion for a client in southern California, they knew they’d be working inside an active facility. But they had a plan.

“The drawings, even when you’re using VDC to generate them, lack an important thing: people,” Arellano said. “Contracts are similar; they define your working relationship, but all of these documents don’t fit in with the human side of relationships. We try to think long-term. Short term project success is important, but lasting relationships are a cornerstone of how we want to operate.”

On a major expansion to a facility where active life sciences work is taking place, DPR’s team took several steps to unlock success and cultivate those relationships. The roadmap could be scaled for similar types of work in the future.

Do Your Homework

A high-level understanding of a facility is a great first start, but it’s just that: high level.

“It was vital for our team to understand the day-to-day work on the front lines of the facility,” Arellano said. “You have to roll up your sleeves and talk to the facility managers and even people who are just showing up to work every day to work in the building.”

Getting clear on those aspects affected how the construction team planned to execute the project, especially isolating construction work from existing cGMP, cleanroom and biocontainment spaces. By connecting the dots with all stakeholders, the team had clear notifications to share with plant personnel about planned work, how it would affect high-traffic areas—even simply letting people know what was happening behind the walls.

Don't Cut Corners

When it came to temp walls, the team made a key decision that helped ensure success: go big.

“At first glance, it looked like overkill, the types of barriers we installed to separate active areas from the work,” said Arellano. “We did full height walls and sealed them. To look at them, you’d think they were permanent walls. But when you have cGMP space on one side and we’re digging footings into the dirt on the other, it ensures quality and mitigates risk for contamination.”

Such robust construction barriers added some cost to the project, but they served their purpose. There were no contaminations over the course of the project, which would have added significantly more cost and disruption for the customer.

Leverage Experience on the Front Lines

Throughout the project, Houston Stover, a DPR superintendent, was engaged with the work and existing building occupants.

Stover had experience with other pharmaceutical and life sciences clientele under his belt prior to the project, and it helped him navigate the right relationships at the plant to steer construction operations throughout.

“Houston worked well with all of the facilities folks from the head down to the front lines,” Arellano said. “This was critical as we were modifying lab spaces. Being in full communication with the right folks meant seamless integration to our crews and self-perform teams. That made the flow of the project run smoothly.”

It sounds like table stakes, but the team came to find they were the exception.

“This is a customer with projects all over the world,” Arellano said. “Our team got feedback that many of the things we were doing would be considered best practice for any of their projects. It really drove home the importance of great teams.” 