Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Princess Anne Middle School

Virginia Beach City Public Schools was interested in conducting a value engineering (VE) workshop to assist them in designing and constructing high-efficiency schools to support a modern educational program with high-performance building systems.

Challenge

The workshop was facilitated for the Princess Anne Middle School–a new, two-story, 257,000-gross-square-foot replacement school serving a student population of 1,500 and 122 faculty and staff. The facility was constructed on a 24-acre site at the location of the existing Princess Anne Middle School. This building has a separate classroom wing for each of the three grade levels. In addition to the classroom wings, the building program includes the following elements: school administration; music, orchestra, and choir rooms; physical education gymnasium; design and innovation center; visual arts; theater, auditorium, and performance space; and kitchen and dining. Site components include: football, soccer, baseball, and softball fields; competition track; basketball courts; bus, faculty, staff, and visitor parking areas; and greenhouse and amphitheater curriculum teaching spaces. The original estimated project construction cost was $60 million.

Solution

MBP facilitated a formal VE workshop utilizing an independent team of architects and engineers to identify value-enhancement ideas on the design development documents. The VE study was conducted in accordance with the practices recommended by SAVE International.

Result

The five-day VE workshop identified 103 value improvement ideas during the creative phase of the study. After these ideas were evaluated based on subjective criteria for project improvement, 54 of these were determined to enhance the value of the project and were developed as formal proposals. The 54 proposals are estimated to have cost impacts with a total potential savings of approximately $8,484,000, or 14.1% of the project’s construction cost. Virginia Beach City Public Schools accepted cost reductions of approximately $6,000,000, or 10.0% of construction cost. The cost savings resulting from the workshop represented a return on investment (ROI) to the school system of 100:1.

The VE workshop identified 103 value improvement ideas during the creative phase of the study. After these ideas were evaluated based on subjective criteria for project improvement, 54 of these were determined to enhance the value of the project and were developed as formal proposals. The 54 proposals are estimated to have cost impacts with a total potential savings of approximately $8,484,000, or 14.1% of the project’s construction cost. Accepted cost reductions of approximately $6,000,000, or 10.0% of construction cost.