'Keep The Pace, Keep The Peace': How SBI Stops Construction Problems Before They Start

Cost overruns, missed deadlines, communication breakdowns: The things that might slow or even halt progress on a construction project are numerous and daunting to fix.

But no matter how bad the situation, Wajdi Atallah, president of SBI Consultants, says “there is always a solution.”

It is the job of SBI, a New York-based strategic advisory firm of construction professionals, to help bring complex projects in line when things start to go wrong — or better yet, Atallah said, to work with its clients to anticipate and mitigate risks before they occur.

“The whole idea when I started this company nearly 30 years ago was to provide solutions for the building industry,” Atallah said. “We help clients understand the risks as well as outline the opportunities and provide options. Everything can be solved with the right mindset, with the right stakeholders around the table, and that is our mantra.”

SBI applies this approach to projects large and small. 

For example, the challenge at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, or NS11MM, was how to communicate interdependencies in a 500-page critical path schedule among project stakeholders. These included the NS11MM, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New York State Department of Transportation, mayor’s office, utilities, and contractors.

After several meetings, the solution was to develop a one-page distilled plan based on the structural grid, color-coded for critical activities highlighting a handful of pinch points. 

With a visibly clear plan followed by weekly progress updates, key stakeholders made decisions and took action that enabled the museum to open on time to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attacks. 

“Projects require informed decisions to be made weekly or even daily,” said Alex Lachaud, SBI partner and director of technical solutions. “We call this ‘keep the pace, keep the peace.’ It’s an approach that prioritizes identifying and tackling issues immediately with the right stakeholders at the table.”

Whether it’s The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami, or the Rockefeller University River Campus in New York City, the process has proven effective in mitigating risk, driving schedules and saving money along the way, he said.

Bisnow spoke with the SBI team, including Michelle Grossman, partner and director of leadership solutions, to learn more about their approach and how they apply it to the challenges they see on worksites.

Bisnow: How can unexpected challenges take even an experienced building team by surprise?

Atallah: Project success lies in the details, and a typical project may have a cost estimate of several thousand lines based on several hundred drawings that presumably have been coordinated.

Due to the scale and complexity of information, in many cases, we find that project stakeholders are too busy to give their project the attention needed. Similarly, inconsistent or delayed decisions by owners directly impact project team momentum, which ultimately causes delays and may affect the quality of the design or construction. 

Bisnow: How might a team start to lose control of a project?

Atallah: Delayed financing, for example, can impact a project start date, placing the execution of weather-dependent activities in the dead of winter and causing unanticipated, costly delays and increased expenses. 

In other instances, a team’s regional experience may influence its approach to scheduling and program costs when working on a job in a new city. A building in Manhattan’s most congested corridor may be 45% more expensive than one in another city in the U.S. Failing to factor the project location’s unique opportunities and hardships will directly delay programming and increase redesign fees and construction costs.

Bisnow: How do teams try to address these problems when they come to light?

Atallah: Construction is a very dynamic process, and challenges arise at all stages of a project’s life cycle, from early planning through completion and final sign-offs. Addressing an issue may take different forms: Some will ignore it, hoping no one will notice and that the issue will miraculously go away, while others may engage in paralysis analysis. The more experienced teams are more likely to tackle the issues immediately. 

Lachaud: Some developers do not want to spend money up front for experts or cost managers to develop an accurate cost model and implement controls. They think it's going to be OK if they do it by themselves when their resources are beyond capacity. 

But construction is a complex industry that requires owners to invest up front to get the right subject matter experts in place for success. This way, they can use their time towards more productive tasks, such as sales or developing new projects, instead of putting out fires. Successful developers understand this.

Bisnow: At what point does SBI usually get the call asking for help?

Atallah: We are called in at various stages. If, ideally, it is at the onset of the project, we engage with our clients to frame the discussion around the visioning of the investment, the historical data and connectivity to market. We can then leverage our experience and assist them in developing the scope, timeline and budget. 

At the feasibility stage of a complex project, early engagement over the course of a few weeks with the right stakeholders at the table will yield a high ROI by boosting decision-making, identifying opportunities, mitigating risks and providing cost and schedule certainty.

Otherwise, we are engaged to troubleshoot specific issues that may have come up at different stages of the project and to provide the required guidance. We are not afraid to tackle high-stakes negotiations even though the process may be more painful as the team is trying to recover or minimize the damage going forward.

Lachaud: It is much more impactful if we are involved from the inception of a project, at the programmatic or conceptual phase, rather than being asked to fix a problem later. We can help set project standards from the very start, provide options and then monitor progress regularly to keep everyone informed in making the right choices. 

Bisnow: What's an example of how SBI's early involvement helped a client? 

Grossman: We started working with a major institution programming a new facility. Even though there was substantial historical data, the effort was one of teaming. SBI developed the cost model and project risk register by maintaining control of the information flow among the various stakeholders.

Through transparency, all project participants agreed to an execution plan that was prepared several years in advance of the client’s decision to move forward with the project. 

Bisnow: What is SBI’s approach to performing project forensics?

Atallah: We strive to implement pragmatic solutions that are easy to understand by project stakeholders. While, at our core, we are engineers, we have perfected the art of distilling complex data into manageable information that guides decision-making. To achieve this, we leverage the skills of in-house software architects with current tools customized to meet the needs of each client. 

We also ask a lot of questions and have a very thorough checklist that tells us, at any given moment of a project, which core documents should be available to understand the client’s vision, financing structure, responsibilities of the parties and timing. We start with a very big picture before we get into the details. 

Ultimately, our work activity is collaborative, transparent and supported by pragmatic working templates to measure project performance and avoid future pitfalls.

Bisnow: What is the best way for a construction team to avoid problems in the first place? 

Atallah: The programmatic and conceptual phases are crucial: A clear definition and outline of project objectives, expectations and priorities are necessary for success. These have to be coupled with human talent and the implementation of efficient systems and applications.

This article was produced in collaboration between SBI Consultants and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.