Research from universities across the nation shows: students who live on campus have better outcomes. Higher GPAs, developmental gains, retention, and satisfaction with their college experience are just a few. Looking at these benefits for CSU Fullerton, which enrolls 40,000 students per year yet only has around 2,000 on-campus beds, the potential return on investment in new student housing adds up fast.
However, not just any building—or builder, for that matter—can immediately become an extension of campus and create a culture of learning. It takes vision and experience. At CSU Fullerton, the 14th CSU campus where Sundt has built a project, our California Building Group is constructing a $106 million, 182,000-square-foot housing complex. With our design-build ability, self-perform concrete and team chemistry, this group is showing why Sundt’s higher ed projects operate at a higher level—and a higher speed.
For Project Manager Nick Aguilar, the team’s quick progress began when operations leadership sat in on preconstruction meetings. Essentially, when all positions know the play, you don’t fumble the hand-off. “We’re always one step ahead with collaborative design-build,” said Nick. “There’s no confusion on scope directives. We can get drawings faster, and our subs all know their piece of the puzzle.”
True to form, Sundt’s ability to control schedule has come from our concrete work and BIM coordination. “As soon as Concrete finished a floor, we installed vertical forms on columns on the same day and shear walls for placement the next day. This was all to keep pace of a 14-day cycle duration per deck,” said Nick. “For all of those MEP scopes, the drawings were sent straight to the shops, then the systems were all pre-fabbed and marked with piece numbers. So, when they arrived on site, our subs just put them in place without any major fit-up issues.” For a PM like Nick, it’s a thing of beauty. The team is well on their way to completion next summer, in time for fall semester of 2022.
Our culture of teaching and learning is the reason we’re able to win and build projects the way we do. Sundt’s success on the Cal Poly Pomona project has carried over here at CSU Fullerton. We continue to incorporate lessons learned, and train up our newest engineers, making a point to teach them how to do things right the first time.
– Project Manager Nick Aguilar, California Building Group