Pre-Construction: A Lost Art

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“Another example that I’d like to highlight is one that I feel truly demonstrates how well we work with our clients. Having built the original Toys R Us store in Times Square years prior at an enormously rapid pace, it was gratifying to hear many years later from the same building owner, The Bow Tie Building Partners, who called to discuss a major conversion to convert it into locations for multiple retailers in what is now known as the Bow Tie Building. It was a huge structural job, in terms of demolitions, excavation, shoring and structure, and there was no way to price something like that given all of the unknown conditions, phasing requirements, and on-going commitments that the owner was making to future retail occupancy. The owner understood that to price it lump sum was not feasible given the time constraints and unknowns. This project involved many of T.E.A.R.’s aspects, especially studies of means and methods, value engineering, constructability, phasing, logistical studies and most importantly, the tone the owner set for this major collaboration, with full transparency and accountability.”

Providing additional context on the aforementioned project is Jeremy D. Billig, President of McLaren Engineering Group, which led the engineering aspect of it. “Challenging renovation projects require a constant revisitation of the balance between constructability, cost, and time. On the Bow-Tie Building, the project team effectively kept an open-mind to what may, at face-value, have seemed to be an atypical solution; yet when factoring in all criteria, produced the best end result for our client.”