By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

December 21, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – JE Dunn Construction Company will officially handle pre-construction services related to the upcoming renovation of the Kansas City Museum.

A $100,000 agreement between the Kansas City Museum and JE Dunn was approved by the Kansas City, Missouri Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners on Tuesday, December 20. JE Dunn will work with project architect International Architects Atelier – who also had their contract extended Tuesday in order to line up with the JE Dunn agreement – to start putting the renovation plans in motion.

After the agreement was finalized, KCMO City Architect Eric Bosch discussed how exactly the two groups will work together on pre-construction.

“We’re hiring a General Contractor up front, so they’re going to be working with our architectural firm early on,” said Bosch. “What they’ll do is review any drawings that we have so far, give some opinions on that, and then work side-by-side on the development of those drawings so that we can get costs.”

Project leaders are utilizing a process called the Construction Manager at Risk for the renovation efforts. The CM at Risk calls for the construction manager to offer a guaranteed maximum price for the project following the pre-construction process. The process offers Kansas City Museum stakeholders protection from cost overruns, shifting the responsibility to the construction manager to deliver the full scope of work at the promised price point.

“The big advantage is that once JE Dunn gives us a construction cost number, which we call a final guaranteed maximum price, they are putting themselves at risk; that’s the price they’re going to build our renovation for,” said Bosch. “Then they go out on the streets to subcontractors and bid each one of those different types of work – plaster repair, sheetrock, electrical, lighting, all that stuff.”

If there are issues with JE Dunn between now and when the company delivers its final guaranteed maximum price later this spring, the Kansas City Museum is under no obligation to retain them for the construction phases of the project. Similarly, the Museum would not be bound to proceed with JE Dunn if the proposed cost of Corinthian Hall renovations is deemed too high.

“If we get to a point when they give us their number, and we’re not in agreement with that, or our relationship between today and that time period doesn’t work out well, then we’re at no obligation to continue,” said Bosch. “We can move on.”

In describing what set JE Dunn aside from other bidders hoping to lead the pre-construction efforts at the Kansas City Museum, Bosch pointed to a pair of preferred qualifications within the Request for Proposal that pushed the company over the top.

“There were really two main things that I put in the Request for Proposal that went out: one is that we wanted someone that had good experience with museums. The other one was historical preservation restoration,” said Bosch. “That’s what JE Dunn had over some of the other companies.”

Kansas City Museum Director Anna Marie Tutera expressed her support of the JE Dunn agreement during a conversation with the Northeast News on Monday, December 19.

“We’re super excited about this agreement with JE Dunn Construction,” said Tutera. “It spotlights the city’s commitment to the Museum as well as the Northeast community that we’re starting this phase of the Museum’s restoration and redevelopment. This is an extremely exciting time in the Museum’s history.”