The real cost of a facility is not in the purchasing of land or the construction materials and labor, which comprise only 15 percent of a facility\'s life-cycle cost. The real cost of a facility is measured by how much it will cost to operate the facility over 10, 30 or more years. This eBook describes 7 characteristics to help you identify the A/E firms that want to help you lower your costs.

1. 7 Ways to Know Your A/E
Really Wants to Save You
Money
DO YOU WANT A GLAMOROUS
BUILDING THAT WINS
ARCHITECTURE AWARDS OR A
FACILITY THAT MEETS YOUR USERS'
NEEDS, SAVES RESOURCES AND
DELIVERS OPERATIONAL SAVINGS?

2. Choose an A/E That Wants to Save
You Money
The real cost of a facility is not in the purchasing of land or the construction materials and
labor, which comprise only 15 percent of a facility’s life-cycle cost. The real cost of a facility is
measured by how much it will cost to operate the facility over 10, 30 or more years. The
selection of an A/E firm for your project is critical to containing and lowering those
operational costs. This eBook describes 7 characteristics to help you identify the A/E firms
that want to help you lower your costs.
While you may receive a glamorous building that wins architectural awards and is
photographed for industry publications, if you don't use the ideas presented in this eBook
you will end up trapped inside a facility that doesn't meet your users' needs, wastes
resources and misses operational savings.
A firm that wants to save you money: If you don't use the ideas
1. Has a Front-End Planning Process that Results in Proven Operational Savings presented in this eBook
2. Listens to All Users and Owners and Separates “Wishes” from “Needs” you will end up trapped
3. Understands the Value of Your Existing Facility Before Building New
4. Understands Your Near-, Mid- and Long-Term Needs inside a facility that
5. Recommends Property Acquisition with the Future in Mind doesn't meet your users'
6. Creates a Repeatable Design Concept for Multi-Facility Organizations
7. Provides Design Concepts That Allow for Multiple Client Configuration Strategies needs, wastes resources
and misses operational
savings.
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3. 1. Does the Firm Have a Front-End
Planning Process that Results in
Proven Operational Savings?
Too often correctional facility projects begin at a detailed level or use a micro level of
analysis . Plans are made. Construction crews begin their work, and a mass of problems arise.
Gaps are seen. Errors were made. These problems aren't easily remedied and major
amounts of time and money are wasted or you end up in a facility that stunts the
effectiveness of your organization. Solving these problems in the front-end relies on
choosing an A/E firm that has a proven front-end planning process.
As an example, the macro analysis process breaks down the major concepts of a project; it
avoids drilling down into the micro level of detail. This method resolves avoidable problems
in the beginning. Downstream, you will avoid spending unnecessary funds and time and will
receive a facility that enhances your organization.
4 Steps of Macro Analysis:
1. Set your overall mission, goals, or objectives with your team.
team.
2. Create a set of criteria, key concepts, the facility model must embrace.
embrace.
3. Create an evaluation criteria for measuring and achieving success.
success.
4 . Create alternative facility models and evaluate them against the evaluation criteria.
criteria.
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4. 2. Does the Firm Listen to All Users
and Owners and Separate Wishes
from Needs?
Any firm can design a building, but it takes shared understanding to create an environment
that will help your organization achieve its strategic objectives today, tomorrow and in the
future. A firm that shows they listen will ask the following questions during first encounters
with your organization:
• How will the project support or enhance your strategic business vision?
• How will a capital investment enable or enhance a growth strategy?
• How will this project bridge capital assets with the long-term business strategy?
• What impact do you want the new built environment to have on all employees?
• How will this project affect employee workflow to increase productivity?
• How will this project impact the working environment today, tomorrow and in the
future?
The answers to these questions defines the need behind brick and mortar. You believe the
facility shapes your organization, the firm you select should design accordingly.
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5. 3. Does the Firm Understand the
Value of Your Existing Facility
Before Building New?
Rushing to build or expand without first understanding how your current facility assets can
be modified and reutilized to fit business decisions may result in a significant waste of
resources and capital.
As part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the existing Ramey Border Patrol
Station in Puerto Rico needed to support the growing demands of the Customs and Border
Protection Agency. Before building a new BPS, CBP wanted to know if an existing vacant
facility, adjacent to the station, Support Facility #723, could provide the space requirements
that were needed. The two-story building consisted of several office spaces, a
communications room, break room, arms vault, storage rooms, restroom and a large service
area.
A physical condition assessment was performed on the support facility, evaluating the
architectural, structural, plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems as well as the amount of
useable space within the facility. The assessment revealed that the functions identified by
CBP could be accommodated within the existing square footage of Facility #723 and the
systems would require minimal upgrades.
By spending the time to identify CBP’s needs and then assessing the capacity and condition
of the existing systems at Facility #723, DHS was able to reduce the overall schedule and
cost of the project.
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6. 4. Does the Firm Understand Your
Near-, Mid- and Long-Term Goals?
Before designing, the firm should devout adequate time on-site with key user groups. This
time should be spent understanding and mapping out current operating methods, workflows,
processes and facility utilization. From these interactions the following items should be
determined:
• Short-term and long-term staff and space forecasting
• Operational patterns assessment and development
• Critical adjacencies requirements for the site and within the facility
• Cost estimate of the identified requirements
In addition to understanding how the current facility operates, the firm should work with
your team to understand if any operational efficiencies can be captured in the new facility.
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7. 5. Does the Firm Recommend
Property Acquisition with the
Future in Mind?
Feeling the pressure of the demanding need to house the ever-growing inmate population,
prison developers often rush to build and ignore how their biggest resource, land, affects
their facility strategy for the present and the future.
The shape and contour of the land you expect to build your facility on will bring with it
opportunities and constraints. A sober analysis of the land before it is purchased and a
designed facility will ensure your selection best fits your project objectives and works to
bring down your operational cost now and in the future.
Avoid being handcuffed by the land you choose:
• Understand the constraints and build on the opportunities: Understanding
opportunities:
your organization's organizational, operational and functional requirements
and then developing a facility that minimizes dimensions between the physical
elements will result in a compact "lean" development plan that increases
productivity and drives down operation costs.
• Define the end and move backward: An ounce of prevention is worth a
backward:
pound of cure or, in the case of capital asset development, worth hundreds of During the project’s pre-
thousands of dollars in construction and operation costs. During the project’s
pre-thinking process, start at the end and then move backward. Keeping the thinking process, start at
end in mind while land is purchased will ensure you have enough in order to the end and then move
attain your end goal. Rushing to get a facility built to meet today's demands
does not ensure you will be able to grow to meet the demands of tomorrow. backward.
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8. 6. Does the Firm Provide Employ
Facility Prototyping?
ability:
The benefits of utilizing prototyping include the ability:
• For staff to move from facility to facility with minimal training and ease: The National
ease:
Institute for Corrections (NIC) reported that when direct supervision was introduced in
the 80s, most correctional officers had at least initial adjustment problems. Even though
direct supervision was proven to be safer, with fear at the root, officers were not trained
how to be in direct and solo contact with prisoners. Creating consistency within prison
systems will allow for easy facility transfers and standard training.
• To promote the same efficient operations throughout all locations
• To solidify branding impact: As a business, private or government-run prisons need to
impact:
brand their services and appearances in order to be recognized by both investors and
clients.
• To reduce up-front construction costs: When using a proven facility model, the cost of
up- costs:
designing is significantly reduced, as only minor tweaks to the standard need to be made.
• To expedite construction, move-in and start- up dates: A standardized design will be
move- start- dates:
repeated. After the first-of-its-kind is built, the construction team, already having had
experience with it and the materials, can move more quickly to build the facility.
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9. 7. Does the Firm Provide Design
Concepts that Allow for Multiple
Client Configuration Strategies?
A design concept that supports the housing of multiple, diverse clients allows private or
government-run prison operators to get the most out the existing space. A diversified
housing strategy allows flexibility to house segregation, dormitory and cell units as well as
clients from completely different jurisdictions in one building. In a traditional model, each
section has its own building, which drives up cost and makes the facility more dependent on
today's inmate population versus future trends.
With a diversified housing strategies and design to support it, an entire building does not
have to be dedicated to one inmate type. For instance, if one inmate type only requires a
quarter or half of a building, then instead of the rest of the building sitting empty, the other
pods can be utilized for other inmate types, creating a facility that can be efficiently filled to
capacity.
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10. Make Sure Your A/E Really Wants to
Save You Money
To discriminate a firm that wants to save you money and drive down long-term operation
costs, use this check list as a set of criteria:
1. Has a Front-End Planning Process that Results in Proven Operational Savings
2. Listens to All Users and Owners and Separates “Wishes” from “Needs”
3. Understands the Value of Your Existing Facility Before Building New
4. Understands Your Near-, Mid- and Long-Term Needs
5. Recommends Property Acquisition with the Future in Mind
6. Creates a Repeatable Design Concept for Multi-Facility Organizations
7. Provides Design Concepts That Allow for Multiple Client Configuration Strategies
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11. Get Your Project Started on the Right
Foot
If you need to move your capital asset project from the "idea" stage to the "strategic
decision" stage and ensure it meets or exceeds cost/schedule and performance objectives,
such as reduced staffing costs, Performa would like to show you how with a free initial
planning workshop. David Robillard, President of Performa's Federal Programs Group, will
lead your team through a day-long work session that will help define a high level project
scope of work which will examine:
• Facility staff/space requirements
• Site selection and acquisition/evaluation criteria
• Site configuration/land use plan alternatives
• Project’s order or magnitude cost estimate
Learn more about the free initial planning session HERE.
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12. Performa, Inc.
Performa Inc. is a Wisconsin-based corporation licensed in 42 states in all areas of the
practice of Planing, Interior Design, Space Planning, Architecture and Engineering.
Performa was founded in 1995 by a small, tight-knight group of experienced planners,
architects and engineers for the single purpose of creating more practical solutions
for clients' business challenges- solutions that deliver measurably higher operational
and financial performance.
A strategic planning and design process
Performa strives to understand the client- the business, the people, the operations
and the objectives.
To make this possible, Performa brings two key constituents together: the owners and
the users.
Project Planning focuses on the owners. Performa leads a one-day work session with
senior management and their team to clearly define and document their strategic
objectives and priorities for the project. The Performa team digs deep into the core
drivers behind the project’s expected outcomes and priorities.
Needs Assessment focuses on the users: those individuals who work and function
within the facility. Performa's team facilitates a week-long series of on-site workshops
with the key user-groups. Performa maps all existing operating methods, workflows,
processes and facility utilization.
This collaborative approach ensures the owners achieve their strategic objectives for
the facility and that the users embrace the new facility and become champions of it,
rather than opponents.
www.performainc.com

13. David Robillard
David Robillard is the President of Performa’s Justice Program. He has worked with
numerous local, county, state, federal agencies and private sector clients, providing them
with strategic business, land and facilities consulting services.
David’s 25 years of commitment and dedication to justice work has allowed him to be a
strategic resource, helping clients achieve their goals by bringing to them the most recent
organizational, operational and functional standards/guidelines and industry trends. He is
personally involved in technical studies in the areas of design guidelines, proto-type facility
models, site master planning, needs assessment, architectural programming and design.
www.performainc.com