Windham Millwork, Inc recently signed a contract to provide the architectural woodwork for the new Maine General Regional Hospital. This new hospital is being built in Augusta, Maine to bring state of the art medical services to the Augusta area. It represents one of the largest single building construction projects in the state of Maine’s history.
This is not just another construction project; it is a true partnership between designers, the owner, the construction managers, and the major subcontractors in a team environment. Maine contractor, HP Cummings Construction has teamed with Robins & Morton from Birmingham, Alabama, a nationally recognized leader in health care construction, to construct this enormous project.
The Maine General Regional Hospital project represents the first of its kind in this market area. It is being constructed under the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) method of construction. This is where the entire team works in concert to produce an end product. By providing the best value and virtually taking the adversarial aspect common to large projects out of the equation. Windham Millwork, Inc worked for the past year to position itself to be a part of this team. We believe that it represents something very special and really is the way construction should be accomplished. We have had our plant FSC certified to help achieve the silver level of the LEED certification program. As well as adding 3D CAD to our design credentials to allow us to contribute to the Building Implementation Model (BIM).al
Over the years we have teamed with HP Cummings in a similar “informal partnership” on Maine General projects. Furthermore, this represents the first time under a formal arrangement. We have already been attending design concept meetings to work with the design team, the owners, and the rest of the team. In order to work out the most cost efficient and value added details to maximize the owners dollars. While maintaining the architectural design intent. We will also work with a goal to reduce the typical construction period from concept to completion.
Under and IPD concept, the structure is going up as we are working on the interior design and other architectural and mechanical systems. Instead of waiting for all the design work to begin the excavation and steel erection. The intent is to pre-fabricate as much as possible, once again shortening the overall field installation duration.
The most unique aspect of this project is that Windham Millwork, Inc is just one of many subcontractors on the project that are Maine based and local. The Robins/Cummings team and the owner had very precise goals to contract as much as possible with Maine companies; this is again unique in large projects just due to the relative size of the subcontracts. By teaming former competitors or creating partnerships with larger out of state subcontractors, the team has been able to keep a large percentage of the contracts right here in Maine providing Maine jobs. In a tough economy this project has provided a great base for many of Maine’s construction related companies.
Contact us if you have any questions.