Anyone out there working on (or have worked on...) a VA hospital?
By far one of the most frustrating clients I've ever worked with.
As a whole, their facilities group is not very well qualified.
Always hurry and wait...never top drawer design...so why do we
do it...steady $ from the govt...easy to get a change order for additional services...
we do work on va projects. have one going right now.
actually, for me, not a bad client at all. they have boilerplate specs that, once you know how to use them, save a lot of spec-writing time. not that you can't modify them to meet your design intents, just that you don't HAVE to where you don't want/need to.
they do all/most of c.a. for their projects and invite you to review and inspect at certain points, buffering you from a lot of the day to day construction drama.
maybe not 'top drawer' design, but respectable, and we've been able to do some nice things here and there. they definitely AREN'T interested in anything that might be (or might be perceived to be) trendy.
most importantly, they're stable and need projects on a fairly consistent basis (good once you've got a relationship), they want good projects, and they're reasonable people to work with.
I worked on a few Kaiser Permanente hospitals before.....errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I hate it.
It was generally easy b/c there was no room for design...I mean the architect in this situation was just the coordinator of all drawings. Basically Kaiser has room layouts already figured for all the equipment they use. Has bulk materials stored in warehouses...same color paints, same types of cove base, same windows, doors, floor surfaces, lighting. Everything is figured out...the architect places these pre-designed rooms. I believe the most amount of design we did was weather its was a double loaded cooridor or not!
Do you know if project funding for all VA projects runs off of
a fiscal year that ends in Sept/Oct?
The VA we are working with has given us an impossible deadline
of 7/31/08 for 3 projects when we just has our 35% review meeting
and comments on 7/7.
In the past if they are running behind they negotiate with a contractor
to get the money committed before the end of the fiscal year.
Have you had any experience with their "Annual Get it Done" rush?
We also have about a 8 month lag with getting paid. I know this is
GSA/VA stuff and it takes time for them to cut checks ...many approvals for work etc... but 8 months!
Our office has been working at this VA Hospital for about 9 years.
My boss is ready to move on! Yeah!
Curious...just the VA we are working with or is it common with all.
Any more insight into your working with the VA is greatly appreciated.
the fiscal year finish date and the commitment of monies has been part of the deal before, but never a deal-breaker. depends on your relationship with your cotr whether you can negotiate a different way of handling the project.
payment has not been an issue with us. when they agree that our 35% is finished, our 35% billing to the contracting officer is usually routed to texas and dealt with directly. it's occasionally taken some time to make its way through the routing, but nothing nearly as excessive as 8 mos.
so much with these projects depends on the cotr (project engineer) and the contracting officer and how well they work together.
-if they don't feel the need to run things 'by the book', it often makes things easier on us. a looser process means that field/construction decisions can be made more quickly and that the needs of the construction process can take precedence.
-on the other hand, if it is a station that runs 'by the book', you can make sure that it goes both ways. if they're pressuring you to hit marks, you can show them the mark$ that they need to hit as well.
-if there is friction between the cotr and the contracting officer, all bets are off. like anything, this is a relationship-dependent organization. if you have to get in there and foster better communication and more smiles in meetings, it might be worth your while. (i learned early, luckily, that part of being an architect was to be a marriage counselor. it is useful in a lot of scenarios...)
more generally, i've worked on a VA hospital project, and like most healthcare projects, there is a tremendous amount of red tape, but it does allow you to take on several projects at once due to the lag in scheduling. also, the healthcare sector is generally recession-proof, and if you do a good job, you are pretty much guaranteed lifelong repeat clients. i worked on these projects back in 2003 when the country was undergoing a pretty bad recession or freeze due to the iraq war. i found that it was mostly healthcare firms that were hiring at that time.
What has your experience been with the various phases
of review...
how detailed and critical do they get with your red-marks?
we've had experiences where the project engineer goes too
far in calling out what they feel is necessary...or what THEY want...
if we are the professional of record and the local project engineer
is calling for something like 36" high casework ...no ada?
it is a facility standard to have 36" countertops no ada heights...
their response has always been..."we're the government...
we don't need to comply..."
no good answer for that one, salty. you should comply, of course, as it should indicate in the va boilerplate specs (meet state/local codes, etc) but they are allowed to change things station by station.
i haven't had trouble with this in the past, though, again it depends on your cotr. you might point out that ada is also federal law...
Jul 23, 08 10:12 pm ·
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VA Hospital Work
Anyone out there working on (or have worked on...) a VA hospital?
By far one of the most frustrating clients I've ever worked with.
As a whole, their facilities group is not very well qualified.
Always hurry and wait...never top drawer design...so why do we
do it...steady $ from the govt...easy to get a change order for additional services...
any thoughts...or advise?
just wanted to commiserate
we do work on va projects. have one going right now.
actually, for me, not a bad client at all. they have boilerplate specs that, once you know how to use them, save a lot of spec-writing time. not that you can't modify them to meet your design intents, just that you don't HAVE to where you don't want/need to.
they do all/most of c.a. for their projects and invite you to review and inspect at certain points, buffering you from a lot of the day to day construction drama.
maybe not 'top drawer' design, but respectable, and we've been able to do some nice things here and there. they definitely AREN'T interested in anything that might be (or might be perceived to be) trendy.
most importantly, they're stable and need projects on a fairly consistent basis (good once you've got a relationship), they want good projects, and they're reasonable people to work with.
do you care to tell me what city(or cities) you are working in?
louisville and lexington ky
I worked on a few Kaiser Permanente hospitals before.....errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I hate it.
It was generally easy b/c there was no room for design...I mean the architect in this situation was just the coordinator of all drawings. Basically Kaiser has room layouts already figured for all the equipment they use. Has bulk materials stored in warehouses...same color paints, same types of cove base, same windows, doors, floor surfaces, lighting. Everything is figured out...the architect places these pre-designed rooms. I believe the most amount of design we did was weather its was a double loaded cooridor or not!
And b/c it was easy did not mean I liked it!!!
sounds like SCA design in NYC...
To Steven Ward:
Do you know if project funding for all VA projects runs off of
a fiscal year that ends in Sept/Oct?
The VA we are working with has given us an impossible deadline
of 7/31/08 for 3 projects when we just has our 35% review meeting
and comments on 7/7.
In the past if they are running behind they negotiate with a contractor
to get the money committed before the end of the fiscal year.
Have you had any experience with their "Annual Get it Done" rush?
We also have about a 8 month lag with getting paid. I know this is
GSA/VA stuff and it takes time for them to cut checks ...many approvals for work etc... but 8 months!
Our office has been working at this VA Hospital for about 9 years.
My boss is ready to move on! Yeah!
Curious...just the VA we are working with or is it common with all.
Any more insight into your working with the VA is greatly appreciated.
the fiscal year finish date and the commitment of monies has been part of the deal before, but never a deal-breaker. depends on your relationship with your cotr whether you can negotiate a different way of handling the project.
payment has not been an issue with us. when they agree that our 35% is finished, our 35% billing to the contracting officer is usually routed to texas and dealt with directly. it's occasionally taken some time to make its way through the routing, but nothing nearly as excessive as 8 mos.
so much with these projects depends on the cotr (project engineer) and the contracting officer and how well they work together.
-if they don't feel the need to run things 'by the book', it often makes things easier on us. a looser process means that field/construction decisions can be made more quickly and that the needs of the construction process can take precedence.
-on the other hand, if it is a station that runs 'by the book', you can make sure that it goes both ways. if they're pressuring you to hit marks, you can show them the mark$ that they need to hit as well.
-if there is friction between the cotr and the contracting officer, all bets are off. like anything, this is a relationship-dependent organization. if you have to get in there and foster better communication and more smiles in meetings, it might be worth your while. (i learned early, luckily, that part of being an architect was to be a marriage counselor. it is useful in a lot of scenarios...)
more generally, i've worked on a VA hospital project, and like most healthcare projects, there is a tremendous amount of red tape, but it does allow you to take on several projects at once due to the lag in scheduling. also, the healthcare sector is generally recession-proof, and if you do a good job, you are pretty much guaranteed lifelong repeat clients. i worked on these projects back in 2003 when the country was undergoing a pretty bad recession or freeze due to the iraq war. i found that it was mostly healthcare firms that were hiring at that time.
To Steven Ward:
What has your experience been with the various phases
of review...
how detailed and critical do they get with your red-marks?
we've had experiences where the project engineer goes too
far in calling out what they feel is necessary...or what THEY want...
if we are the professional of record and the local project engineer
is calling for something like 36" high casework ...no ada?
it is a facility standard to have 36" countertops no ada heights...
their response has always been..."we're the government...
we don't need to comply..."
what is our role...really?
if you people need a model for one....let me know.......
on a side note.... i heard that hospitals are nothing but a big code problem
b
no good answer for that one, salty. you should comply, of course, as it should indicate in the va boilerplate specs (meet state/local codes, etc) but they are allowed to change things station by station.
i haven't had trouble with this in the past, though, again it depends on your cotr. you might point out that ada is also federal law...
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