Over the past 20 years, HPM has assisted in the execution of an ongoing capital development program at the The University of Alabama totaling over $2.2 billion in more than 1,200 projects.

We have worked alongside the university on projects that include academic buildings, student housing, dining facilities, athletic facilities, fraternity and sorority housing, roadways, utilities, renovations and more. We’ve guided extremely demanding construction projects to build extremely high-tech science and engineering facilities that must sustain marine life and withstand earthquake-level forces. We’ve expanded a stadium to seat record numbers of passionate fans. We’ve managed the construction of stylish, comfortable residence halls to house hundreds of students and still feel like home. We’ve helped to upgrade infrastructure to support it all, and we consider it an honor to have such a significant role in the university’s growth.

A Matter of Trust

With the amount of growth always underway on the University of Alabama campus, a student could — theoretically — spend four years at the university and never see a view uninterrupted by a construction crane. It’s a priority to HPM that that not be the case. We consider concern for the students a crucial part of our responsibility to the university. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the needs of student life. Wayfinding signage and proactive communication help them navigate campus while avoiding construction sites. Fencing, site security and explicit instruction to the construction team protect the students from the site (and the site from the students). Much of this relies on our strong collaborative relationship with the university — they’re open to innovative approaches to scheduling, packaging and budgeting, and together we are able to deliver high-quality projects quickly, safely, on budget and with minimal disruption.

The new STEM building at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) will provide more than 200,000 square feet of classroom and lab space for classes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Built in the footprint of the university’s former engineering building, central heating plant and old power plant, the massive project has required extensive site work and will require relocation of all existing utilities to support the new, high-tech facility. HPM will provide service from preconstruction all the way through project closeout and warranty. With the design phase complete, the project is on track for construction to begin in 2021, with a brand-new facility ready for Ole Miss’s budding scientists and engineers in 2024.

Administrators at the Macon Campus of Middle Georgia State University (MGA) recognized an increasing need for on-campus housing since it opened as a small commuter college in 1968. MGA acquired a private apartment complex adjacent to campus in 2010, but it couldn’t meet the demand, often leaving nearly 100 students on a waitlist every year.

HPM was engaged as program managers to oversee and manage the planning and construction of Lakeview Pointe, a 73,480 square-foot residence hall that roughly doubled the number of students who can live on campus when it was completed in 2020.

The new residence hall has a traditional design that will serve freshmen and sophomores at the university. Each unit will have two bedrooms with a shared bath, along with eight single-occupancy units for resident assistants. In addition, Lakeview Pointe will include lounge areas and multi-purpose rooms for social and educational programming for students. The Macon Campus Recreation and Wellness Center is a few hundred yards away, with the dining hall in the Student Life Center just over the Macon Campus Lake bridge.

Overcoming Delays Despite a Pandemic
The Lakeview Pointe project was briefly interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and weather delays, but the contractor was able to overcome the delays and finish the project on time. Maintaining the Substantial Completion date was challenging due to COVID-19; however, the contractor was able to get subcontractors to mobilize multiple crews after demobilizing from the project for three weeks. HPM maintained and updated the overall project budget, which included both owner and construction costs.

Photos by Piedmont Construction

In 2018, HPM partnered with Atlanta-based consulting firm Hendessi & Associates to deliver services to universities in Georgia alongside The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Having worked for and with the Georgia Board of Regents in the past, Gardner had established long-term relationships, professional history and a thorough understanding of the way the Board works. HPM brought to the partnership extensive experience in higher education, particularly large-scale undertakings (like the University of Alabama and the ACCS, among others).

HPM and Hendessi worked together on nearly a dozen projects at Georgia Southern University, Dalton State College, Middle Georgia State University, Fort Valley State University, and Albany State University. We also worked directly with the Board, assessing, improving and implementing its policies and procedures for on-campus development.

From the outside, the Yu Hak Hahn Center for the Sciences blends nicely with the traditional brick architecture on Kentucky Wesleyan’s campus. From the inside, however, the facility is clearly exceptional, comprising 28,000 square feet of space dedicated to scientific education and discovery.

When Kentucky Wesleyan received a financial gift directed for the construction of the center, the college needed a program manager to efficiently utilize the available funds. HPM assisted with budgeting and cost engineering for the labs and high-end scientific equipment to make the most of the financial gift. The HPM team scheduled the highly complicated build around a harsh Kentucky winter and even acted as general contractor, bidding out subcontractors and overseeing construction. The resulting building doesn’t have a big footprint, but it has left a major mark on Kentucky Wesleyan and on scientific progress.

ENGINEERING MAXIMUM SAFETY AND COMFORT IN MINIMAL SPACE
An essential part of any chemistry lab, the fume hood is responsible for protecting scientists from the volatile, toxic or even biohazardous airborne byproducts of their research. The system requires constant positive air pressure, with air brought in from the outside, conditioned for the scientists’ comfort and then filtered and exhausted from the building. To avoid the incredible heating bills that come with such a system, HPM installed a heat recovery unit, recovering heat from the outgoing filtered air and applying it to the incoming air from the outside. The equipment to perform this task is approximately the size of a small car. HPM determined that the only place it would fit in the relatively small building was in a crawl space at the top — and had to be in place before the roof was built. So on top of the value engineering and sheer complexity of such a high-tech build, HPM managed the construction schedule to make room for a car-sized installation before roofing began.

WINTER IS COMING
Anyone who imagines Kentucky as a land of year-round sun and rolling green hills has never visited northern Kentucky in the winter. The Bluegrass State becomes a land of snow and frozen ground during the winter, making construction scheduling a delicate affair. HPM laid out a tight sequence, beginning in early May, to get and keep construction on track. Steel was pre-ordered. Foundations were begun as soon as the ground was thawed enough to dig, so the entire building would be enclosed — and builders shielded from the elements — before cold weather hit in November. Interior work had to be completed by the time the weather broke in the spring, so workers could go outside to pour sidewalks and put in landscaping. By holding construction precisely to the detailed schedule with minimal deviation, HPM completed the project on time and on budget, giving Kentucky Wesleyan’s scientists and students a new, high-end facility before the end of spring.

DETAILS:

• 2-story science education building
• Wet lab with fume hoods
• Water, gas and vacuum lines
• Greenhouse
• Associated Builders and Contractors, Excellence in Construction Award

HPM’s work with Wallace State Community College began in 2007, overseeing the site work package for the Burrow Fine Arts Center. That soon expanded into construction management services for the project, and on to management of a complete re-skinning of the Bevill Health Building and further work all over campus.

Throughout, HPM acted as a tireless advocate on behalf of Wallace State, managing both cost control and quality control in the midst of a major recession — and, at one point, in the wake of a regionally destructive tornado. HPM’s team coordinated action with multiple prime contractors as well as inspectors, insurance adjusters and even FEMA officials to keep projects on schedule and on budget.

Projects

• Burrow Center for the Fine and Performing Arts
• Tom Bevill Allied Health Building
• James C. Bailey Center

FIRST RESPONDERS FOR A PROJECT IN DANGER
Of all of the parties HPM deals with during the course of a project, Mother Nature is by far the most unpredictable — and the most destructive. In April of 2011, when tornadoes ripped through north and central Alabama, Wallace State was struck with devastating straight-line winds and buffeting rain. At the time, the Bailey Center project was underway and the building was open and exposed to the elements. Ninety percent of buildings on campus were damaged, losing doors, windows and roofs and suffering water intrusion. As the Bailey Center team worked with insurance inspectors to get the project up and running again as quickly as possible, HPM immediately deployed a second team to campus, working with FEMA, inspectors and college officials to address the storm damage. With HPM’s quick action and expert guidance, teams were able to shore up buildings, repair roofs, dry out building interiors and test infrastructure, so that by the time power was restored to campus, Wallace State was once again a safe place for students and faculty, and the damaged buildings could soon be returned to their former glory.

DETAILS:

• 52,000 total square-feet museum
• 5,000-square-foot art gallery
• Administrative and teaching spaces
• Recital halls
• 250-square-foot auditorium
• Practice facilities
• American School and University Educational Interiors showcase for outstanding design
• ABC Excellence in Construction Award

HPM has worked with Jefferson State Community College on projects totaling more than 230,000 square feet, but the real footprint is more significant — four separate campuses, ranging hundreds of miles across north central Alabama.

HPM started with program and construction management services for a multi-purpose facility on the Shelby-Hoover campus in 2000. The JSCC St. Clair Center in Pell City houses not only tiered classrooms, labs and faculty offices but also offices for the St. Clair County Economic Development Council. For the Health and Sciences Building on the Shelby-Hoover campus, HPM advised the owner and served as an extension of staff throughout the build. And the building in Clanton is called the Academic Building but is that and more — classroom, labs, faculty offices and a separate 54,000-square-foot, multi-purpose civic center for the City of Clanton, all constructed at the same time under HPM’s guidance.

PROJECTS

• Multi-purpose facility (Hoover, AL)
• St. Clair Center (Pell City, AL)
• Health and Sciences Building (Hoover, AL)
• Academic Building (Clanton, AL)

SHARING SPACES
With projects worked on all four Jefferson State campuses, adding an additional client — the City of Clanton — wasn’t difficult for HPM. JSCC’s Academic Building in Clanton housed computer labs, science and biology labs, a library and offices for faculty. Yards away, a complete civic center for the City of Clanton was constructed at the same time, with a 1,800-seat auditorium, classrooms, meeting space and offices for the Clanton Industrial Board, as well as industrial commercial kitchen space shared by the college and the city. By managing budgets and construction schedules, HPM was able to build two facilities for separate owners simultaneously, with time- and cost-efficiency.

Named after the P-40 Warhawk (in honor of AUM’s Warhawk mascot), Auburn University at Montgomery’s fourth residence hall was built in response to a growing demand for housing in the middle of the university’s downtown Montgomery campus.

The building is styled after an airplane hangar made of brick, glass, and metal, with exposed beams and wide-open hallways. It offers fully furnished “two-passenger” and “four-passenger” suites, as well as community areas, study rooms, and lounge and dining spaces — and as residence halls so frequently are, it was built on a tight timeline. HPM was able to push an aggressive schedule, compressing the design phase, getting the project bid on time and managing construction and utility work in the middle of campus as students went about their academic activities, to deliver a roomy and attractive residence hall to AUM.

CONSTRUCTING A RESIDENCE HALL AND BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP
While Auburn had relied on HPM for a number of on-campus projects, P-40 Place was our first project with AUM — and administrators who had no relationship with HPM, little construction experience and an unfavorable experience with construction managers in the past. While HPM was laying the foundation for a residence hall, we also had to lay the foundation for a working relationship. It started by installing a project manager on campus, alongside AUM’s chief services officer, supporting him through the process and keeping him informed every step of the way so he could trust the work that HPM was doing on his behalf. When the time came in the construction process for the project manager to give way to a field coordinator, the three worked together for a smooth transition, so the relationship held. By the time the new residence hall was open for business, AUM also had a new friend and ally in the program management business for future building projects on campus.

HPM’s relationship with Auburn University spans more than 15 years, ranging from capital improvements and infrastructure updates to residence halls and fully equipped facilities for education and research.

Naturally, academic facilities are a main focus for the university. The Shelby Center for Engineering Technology was designed to be an iconic fixture for the university and a center for leading-edge engineering education. The growing Health Sciences Sector offers educational opportunities for the ever-increasing number of students looking to Auburn in pursuit of a career in healthcare.

For comfortable student living, the eight-building Village residence hall community is home to more than 1,500 students. And the nearby Village Dining Hall has five separate serving areas, a coffee bar, a convenience store and seating for a total of 600 diners — plus all the commercial-grade kitchen equipment necessary to serve a crowd. All aspects of college life — the academic and the personal — are addressed and continuously improved to offer a positive student experience.

THE MOST IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDERS

HPM is experienced at managing construction projects with minimal impact on the owner — few companies can afford to shut down operations to accommodate construction or renovation. Working on a university campus teeming with more than 27,000 students, however, presents its own new level of difficulty. An active campus means careful scheduling of construction, to the month (making use of holidays and summer break), the week (knowing when special events will make campus particularly active) and even the hour (knowing when students are likely to be in the academic areas or the residence halls). It means wayfinding signage and barricades to keep students with their head in their lecture notes from wandering into a construction zone. And it means after-hours site security to keep out curious wanderers. From the earliest stages of the planning process, HPM made student safety — and parental peace of mind — a priority and a metric for project success.