WESTFIELD – The Senior Center Building Committee directed the project managers and architects to revise the building design by chopping nearly 5,000 square feet from the footprint and $3 million from the estimated cost.
The designers were tasked yesterday to bring the project back to the original budget of $7 million, which would require that it also be significantly reduced in size. That funding is intended to cover both the hard (construction) costs and the soft (furniture and equipment) costs.
Members of the committee discussed revised desigsn yesterday with Tim Singleton of Diversified Project Management of Newton, the city’s project manager, and with architects Dan Garte of Dietz & Company Architects of Springfield and Joe Rizza of Courtstreet Architects of Newton, the two firms chosen to work in collaboration on the $7 million, 20,000-square-foot facility.
The revised design, presented by Rizza, is based upon the fact that the city is prepared to relocate a stormwater drain pipe, which crosses the former Mary Noble Estate from west to east, toward the north property line which will allow the designers to move the building footprint closer to the north property boundary, increasing turning radius of the access driveways and to increase the buffer around existing mature trees for greater protection of the tree support structure, its roots.
The relocation of the building footprint also give the designers opportunity to increase the square footage of the ground floor and reduce the area of the second floor.
“The original plan (presented July 31, 2013) was very tight,” Rizza said. “We now plan to move the drainage pipe which frees up a lot of space. We’re talking about a slightly larger (ground floor) footprint and the area of the second floor will be reduced.”
Rizza said that the parking lot is still designed for 120 parking spaces, but that as many as 30 percent of those spaces will be smaller and designed to accommodate compact vehicles.
“The site is essentially filled with parking and building,” Rizza said. “Two weeks ago we were at a 26,436-square foot building, we’re now at 25,680 square feet.”
There was considerable discussion of the construction cost based upon a square foot estimate. The figure initially used was $330 per square foot, which would pit the cost of the 25,680 square foot building at about $8.5 million, substantially over the $7 million budget set by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik.
Tammy Tefft, the city’s purchasing director, and Peter J. Miller Jr., the community development director said that the budget has not changed since the project was launched nearly two years ago.
“Tammy and I spoke with the mayor. There’s not a lot of wiggle room above that $7 million,” Miller said.
Tefft said that the “size of the building will have to come down” to bring the project back into budget.Tefft also warned that the square-foot cost could be higher when the project is put out for bids.
“The last two contractor projects that I’ve put out for the city have come in substantially higher than the estimates,” Tefft said. “People aren’t as hungry as they had been.”
Rizza said the design team “will need guidance. Nearly $3 million will have to come out of the building. The soft costs will not change that much, so it’s the construction costs that have to be cut.”
Rizza suggested that the committee use a cost number of $350 per square foot for the project estimates because as the economy continues to recover, construction costs are increasing.
“We have to have a smaller building,” Rizza said. “We want to get down to a building that you’re happy with and get down to the $7 million budget.”
Council on Aging Executive Director Tina Gorman said that one of her priorities is to maintain the parking lot capacity at, or over, 122 spaces even if the building footprint is reduces to accommodate future expansion of the facility.
The committee set its next meeting for Sept. 4, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. at a location yet to be determined.
