David Bernstein

As construction on the Memorial Plaza progressed, changing conditions made it necessary for reengineering design of Plaza to be better aligned with current schedule and logistical/budget requirements. Ownership had to be convinced that the cost and time to redesign and reengineer the Plaza would in fact better align with budget and schedule requirements.

Compiled and presented detailed, side-by-side cost and schedule analysis. Demonstrated how implementing changes in design, phasing, and logistics could result in more "constructible" Plaza at lower cost as well as on schedule. Included Design Team and Contractors, giving additional level of credibility with analysis.

Ownership accepted recommendations and costs were reduced approximately 16%, or $8 million.

In order to take advantage of changing conditions in residential marketplace, developer of Marriott Residence Inn project at Bryant Park wanted to convert 97 apartments at upper portion of tower into 93 high-end luxury condos. At this time, building's core and shell was already well underway so slowing down construction to allow for re-design, procurement, and construction of new residential units was not a consideration as any slowdown could jeopardize Hotels opening only 12 months away.

Worked with architect and owners representative to put forth plan that outlined critical steps necessary to move forward with expedited schedule. This collaboration resulted in delivery of design documents that met owner's budget in addition to accelerating procurement and construction schedule. Coordinated field and operations staff for both Hotel and Residential portions of project to ensure both schedules were properly aligned.

Hotel and Residential construction progresses to completion as scheduled. High-end luxury condos came onto market as scheduled and without impact to Hotels opening.

During foundation pile driving operations for Settlement Health Medical Center project, movement was observed on walls of two adjacent buildings. This shut down operations and put construction on hold indefinitely. These two adjacent buildings were 100-year-old brick structures with foundations built on fill material.

Working with Foundation Contractor, Engineer, and City Officials, adjacent buildings were stabilized, foundation system was re-engineered, and construction resumed in accordance with recovery schedule. To support this effort, agreements were secured with adjacent property owners that allowed construction to resume.

Project would have been shut down for 12 months and bankrupted the non-profit organization; however, project was back on track and stayed alive.

During construction of New Bronx Housing Court, one of five Wicks Law prime contractors had failed to perform and was defaulted for cause. When bonding company failed to honor terms of bond by funding or replacing contractor, decision was made to default bonding company. Pending resolution to matter, construction on project had come to standstill.

Deliberated with City of New York to default bonding company, which was something that had rarely ever been done by City with any success. Worked directly with City's attorneys to produce critical documents and provide expert testimony. Served as Chief Witness for City.

After year of litigation, settlement was reached for over $4 million, which provided necessary funds to resume and complete project.

USPS General Mail Facility project in midtown Manhattan involved construction of new 800,000 sq. ft. facility and renovation/modernization of existing facility. During construction, entire South side of existing facility would be opened up to facilitate connecting two buildings, and there were concerns regarding downtime.

Studied how General Mail Facility worked and talked to key managers. Prepared detailed construction phasing and logistics plans. Presented plan to key USPS personnel along with construction schedule. Included providing temporary utilities, protection, and access for USPS personnel during construction operations.

Plan was implemented and modified as needed, but USPS was never shut down during construction.

Developer of $900 million AOL Time Warner Center project needed way to allocate and control project costs at both project level and each of its eight separate stakeholders levels. Construction manager's budget and schedule controls were typically designed for managing project and not for cost sharing. However, due to complexity of project, this was something developer required.

Met with developer and studied limitations of current project management software. Identified what was needed to improve situation. Retained programmer to reengineer software in order to serve organization's requirements. Tasked software company with training key staff on software in order to make future modifications possible.

As result, organization had proprietary project management program that allowed for better management of $900 million GMP and to efficiently manage and process more than 3,000 requests for change.

9/11 Memorial is a highly visible public-private project with multiple funding sources, which made it subject to repeated audit and review. Project Controls system that worked for all parties needed to be developed. However, the public-private partnership of the Port Authority and Memorial Foundation required unique controls to ensure public and private funds were properly managed.

Developed controls to address actual needs of hybrid project and custom formatted report documents to look similar to what Port Authority was familiar with. Included anticipated cost reporting, change management, general conditions and cash flow reporting into controls. Recommended modifications that addressed additional review, approval, and cost accounting requirements.

Project controls were implemented and provided ownership with ability to effectively manage project and withstand audits.

Despite project backlog up from prior years, actual profitability on projects continued to decline. Concerned with quality of existing controls, company President believed project teams were not reporting accurately and timely on status of projects, which was ultimately impacting company financials. Additionally, each team was using different reporting system.

Established Cost Management/Project Controls Department and filled role of Director, as tasked by President. Developed new tools to standardize how organization reported on things such as anticipate cost, cash flow, general conditions, change management, and schedule compliance. Trained staff of Cost Engineers on using new tools and rolled out new procedures to company. Scheduled monthly meetings for Cost Managers to perform audits and verify that all controls were in place.

Project controls and reporting helped standardize operations and enabled company to more easily identify cost overruns and other problems.

With 9/11 Memorial, publishing Monthly Progress Report became an increasingly political matter. Ownership's concern with presenting very positive picture often directly conflicted with Construction Manager's responsibility to accurately report on progress of project and critical issues requiring resolution.

Asked ownership to take shot at rewriting areas of report that were deemed objectionable. Learned how ownership would describe problematic items and used that same language. Moving forward, problem items were identified, but would include positive language that described actions taken/to be taken that would address problem.

Monthly Progress Reports were published and deemed acceptable to both owner and Construction manager.

As 9/11 Memorial was working under very aggressive and politicized schedule, current bid-to-award time frame under Port Authority's Procurement process was averaging from 8-10 months and had to be improved if project was to be completed on schedule. Likewise, contractor requisition-to-payment process was taking on average 60 days impacting cash flow to trades.

Working with key Port Authority staff, plan was implemented which identified gatekeepers and what each was responsible for. The current processes were re-engineered to included performing more activities concurrently rather than sequentially and then progress was closely monitored to keep people accountable.

Over several months, Procurement bid-award time frame was reduced from 8+ months down to 4 months. Requisition process was reduced from 60 days to 30 days.

Design for 9/11 Memorial at World Trade Center site did not align with desired budget. Architects and Engineers continued to add scope, which subsequently added cost and impacted design team's ability to complete construction documents on schedule. For political reasons, 9/11 Memorial Foundation was reluctant to take aggressive action with design team, and looked to its construction manager to lead where they could not.

Prepared detailed cost and schedule estimates that demonstrated how failing to finalize design added substantial cost and continued to impact construction schedule. Developed series of cost savings recommendations to help realign design with budget and produced drawing delivery schedule showing design team how to support the required procurement schedule.

As result, project was put back on track and approximately $150 million in cost savings was presented to re-align design with budget.

Rutgers University was undertaking major capital improvements program involving 14 buildings across three campuses. However, University required that program be implemented in manner that minimized any impact to staff and students.

As Sr. Project Manager, worked directly with University staff to develop detailed schedule and logistics plans. Phased work so any impact on University operations would be minimized. Created presentation and showcased to University officials for acceptance.

Proposed plan and schedule were accepted and used as basis for procurement of work.

As 9/11 Memorial Project progressed, workload increased. It was necessary to build staff to manage and support project. However, residential market was at its peak and most qualified candidates chose to work on private projects, which offered more lucrative pay.

Made efforts to find best people that could be trained and grow into positions that needed to be filled. Asked certain Managers and junior staff to take on more senior roles and responsibilities. Hired, trained, and mentored some smart and energetic new people to work with team.

As result, team was successfully expanded from 10 to 50 individuals.