Residents in Weyburn Terrace, the new graduate student housing
complex, have criticized the quality of the construction work done
on the project, citing problems such as flooding, insects and
unfinished construction in their apartments.
Factors affecting that construction may stem back to well before
construction began.
UCLA, as a public institution, must allow formal bidding and
award construction contracts to the “lowest responsible
bidders,” according to California public contract code
10780.
Michael Foraker, director of UCLA Housing, said their inability
to choose a general contractor, or to sit down and negotiate, can
sometimes have negative effects.
“It is at times disconcerting. The lowest bid is not
always the best bid,” he said.
Foraker added that generally UCLA is a “name-ranked”
institution, and its quality is held in high regard.
“When you don’t have direct control over who’s
doing work, sometimes you get a quality builder. Other times you
end up with a tier two or a tier three,” he said.
Architecture and urban design Professor Dana Cuff said the
practice of taking the lowest bid emerged from sound reasons, but
has devolved into an ineffective way to build for public
institutions.
The volatile market conditions, including worker’s
compensation issues and material shortages, put both the building
owner and the contractor in a difficult position, she said, adding
that the price of construction materials has varied extremely.
“Nobody then can stay with a guaranteed maximum price
under those conditions. So then if you have to start cutting
corners, then you’ve got a bad process,” she said.
Cuff said the current bidding process is plagued with faults,
including the possibility of hiring a contractor that might not be
the best qualified and variations in materials costs that could
force contractors to cut corners to keep from going out of
business.
Cuff said that if she had to make a generalization, she would
say public sector housing construction tends to be of higher
quality than in the private sector. The public sector does not have
the same incentive to keep all costs down, and owners plan to hold
onto the property, so they want it to last, she said.
Tom LaVanne, the director of construction with Capital Programs,
who manages construction for UCLA Housing, said in general it has
worked out “fairly well” for UCLA to accept the lowest
bidder.
He said while there would be some business advantage in being
able to select from other than just the lowest bidder, it has less
to do with quality and more to do with contracts.
“In this industry, people are as much a factor as the
company they work for. You could end up with an individual involved
with your project that tends to buck that notion that it’s a
good company,” he said.
Other factors may have negatively affected construction, such as
high competition, especially in Los Angeles, and building material
shortages.
Construction companies said building material shortages due to
the war in Iraq and rapid development in China delayed construction
and affected costs significantly.
Kip Baker, the contract manager with Capital Programs, said once
a company is contracted, the price they bid becomes locked.
“If a contractor were to find that materials were more
expensive than they thought, that they didn’t estimate well,
they can’t come back to us and say it’s more expensive
(than they thought it would be),” he said.
Baker said the Weyburn project was divided into three major
construction package contracts, each of which included several
apartment buildings. The first and third had only two bids. The
second had only a single bid, $32.2 million from Swinerton
Builders, who have worked on construction projects at UCLA for five
to 10 years, including the new Wooden West.
The first package went to the Los Angeles-based Fassberg
Construction for $34.6 million, with the other bid at $42.5
million.
The third package went to the Irvine-based Gordon and Williams
General Contractors for $29.7 million, compared to $32 million from
the other company.
The relatively small number of bids for the contracts was
typical in public works for the past few years in California, Baker
said, because it is currently a contractor’s market. In the
last two to five years, there has been an abundance of work for
contractors, so they can afford to be more picky, he said.
“We certainly like to see as many bidders and quality
bidding as possible, but that’s not always a reality,”
he said, adding that they go through an extensive estimating
process throughout the design period to ensure that bids are fair
market value, and that the university can always reject all bids if
it feels it could get a better price.
“(But) if we felt that we were up against the wall because
students are contracted to move in by a certain date, all that goes
into consideration,” he said.
Fassberg Construction and Gordon and Williams General
Contractors have never worked at UCLA, but Baker said this was not
unusual, because housing builders do not often work within the
public works.
Baker said that in selecting the lowest responsible bidder, the
university can examine proof of previous experience and financial
standards that are basic requirements by the UC, such as insurance
and worker’s compensation.
The only prequalification he could recall is one of the
companies having to submit proof that they had prior experience
building multifamily housing. The university cannot reject a
contractor because of past complaints against them, Baker said,
adding that complaints against construction are common.
“Construction tends to be pretty well riddled with complaints
from one owner or another,” he said.
Typically the university will reject a contract if there has
been a judgment against a contractor by a public entity, he said,
adding that there is currently no California database to track such
lawsuits.
LaVanne said all the Weyburn buildings are safe, secure,
functional and comparable to similar housing in the market at
large, and that any variations in quality between the three
construction companies on the project were only in the “fit
and finish” department, referring to what he called
“superficial” aspects of the building that don’t
affect its functionality, such as imperfect application of stucco
on exterior walls.
“If a wall isn’t straight, it doesn’t mean the
wall doesn’t work, you just don’t like the way it
looks,” he said.
“Because of the inspection department that we have on
campus, which is really focused heavily on being code compliant, we
should be seeing a result across the board that’s fairly
consistent when it comes down to the functionality aspect of
it,” he said.
LaVanne said furnishings and fixtures should all function,
regardless of who the contractor was.
“And structurally, the integrity of the buildings
can’t be compromised, regardless of whether it’s a high
or low bid,” he said.
It is difficult to compare housing in the public and private
sector, he added, because private apartment buildings may
prioritize fit and finishes such as expensive faucets, which would
be reflected in the rent.
“(Regarding) places that are renting for similar dollars
and are built at same time, I would have to say these probably
compare,” he said, referring to the Weyburn Terrace complex.
“Again, it’s all in what their desired outcome
is.”