Can project maintenance preserve design integrity?
by: Jo Kellum, ASLA
Landscape architects have historically played the role
of biological parents, giving birth to a project and
then handing it over to an adoptive family to raise.
Trouble is, many such families are composed of owners who don't understand what it is they've just inherited and a steady stream of maintenance
workers who drop into and out of a project's daily life. As any
landscape architect who dares visit an adolescent
project can tell you, what was once a pretty site is no
longer a pretty sight. Design intent, so important at
conception, often fades the minute the designer walks off the job.
Perhaps the terminology is all wrong. Landscape architecture is
not meant merely to maintain a steady course. Landscape projects
must be shepherded, guided, and shaped into maturity The dynamic nature of the product belies a static approach to stewardship.
Plants grow and hardscape ages. Elder
projects require replacement parts,
modem analysis of use, and sensitively
applied freshening touches.
It isn't easy. Doing it right requires
education, money, communication,
and commitment. Subtract any one of
these four essentials from the equation
and the maintenance effort will fail.
The extent of the education, money,
communication, and commitment required is difficult to quantify; each must be evaluated on a project-by-project basis.
Education must begin with the designer. If the landscape architect doesn't know how his product must be cared for, then he
can't expect maintenance companies or owners to know either.
And what they don't know, they can't do right. Education must
extend to the client. How well does the client understand the
design intent? Does he understand the amount of money and effort needed to shepherd a project's growth? Education is essential for the maintenance
contractor. Laborers must be given clear
standards of acceptable practices. The hand that wields the pruning shears holds the future of the project.
Money, communication, and commitment all fight for second
place in importance behind education. The amount of money
available to maintain a site properly is finite. An understanding
on the designer's part of what mainte-
nance funds are obtainable, coupled
with an understanding on the client's
part of what he will get for those funds,
form an important factor affecting design decisions. Maintenance goals,
needs, and capabilities—including operating budget—must be considered an
essential concern during the formulation
of the design program, written before drawings are begun. Money rears its green head again when the
subject of on-going designer involvement comes up. No matter
how noble the mission to ensure the good of the project, landscape
architects are in business to make a profit. The client must understand that continued participation means continued payment.
Communication is the crucial glue that holds the effort together. Without precise understanding of expectations, designers
can't design to meet the owner's needs, owners can't understand
what it takes to shepherd the design through time, and maintenance companies can't understand how to do it right. Whether it
be graphic, oral, or written, communication must flow between
landscape architect, owner, property
manager, maintenance foreman, and laborer. Effective communication takes
commitment, which is usually enhanced
by a good source of money. Commitment is what keeps design intent alive
long after installation is completed.
Must every landscape architect personally oversee the maintenance of every
single project he designs? Will he sacrifice good design to mediocre maintenance if he doesn't? Should Maintenance
Observation follow Construction Observation in each project's Scope of Work? Meet five professionals from the design and green
industries who have applied creative problem solving to the sticky issue of project maintenance.
HORACE AlKMAN, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Senior Associate, Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc., Boston
Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc., began in 1959 and through the years
has expanded to become an award-winning 76-person firm. The company tackles both landscape architecture and environmental planning projects, including
complex sites requiring innovative technologies and design
solutions. This mission led to the formulation
of maintenance standards.
After years of bitter experience of
watching one site after another
not receive the maintenance necessary,
we had to devise some avenue," says Aikman. "A couple of years ago, we had
the opportunity to create a landscape
maintenance specification for a corporate client. It was one of those Godsend
contracts where they needed a specific
service and we could devote the fee to
doing the development work."
The result was a set of contract documents
that establish standards for maintenance, specify when maintenance has to occur, and stipulate how to bid maintenance. The specifications
are tailored to form bid documents dealing
with two kinds of maintenance: in-house, such
as municipal workers, or out-sourced, such as a
maintenance company.
Maintenance contracts are designed to help
control cost and quality by eliminating guess work. Base bids cover week-to-week
services that have to happen. These
include mowing, litter pickup, monitoring lights, and control of disease
and pests. Basic seasonal concerns are
also included: sanding walks, irrigation, snow removal, cleanup from
winter, spring start-up, lawn fertilizing and edging, mulch replacement,
and pruning. Unit prices are established for unforeseen needs. The contractor provides an up-front unit price
for a supervisor, two laborers, a dump
truck, and tools so there is some cost
basis already set when an unanticipated maintenance need arises.
Quality control is written into the
specifications that form the basis of
the bid document. An initial walk through is required before maintenance work commences. A landscape
architect from CRJA meets on-site
with the owner of the project or the
facility manager and the foreman of
the maintenance company. When a
company is contracted for monthly
services, payment is made upon performance. Aikman sees poor crew
management as the biggest problem
with which maintenance companies
struggle. Good supervision keeps
workers intent on separate tasks; poor
supervision groups crews together,
lowering the productivity rate.
"Often we'll have it written in to
our contracts for us to go in once a
month and inspect the site. Our inspection report is used by the owner to
determine what payment is made to
the contractor," Aikman says. "We always hope to get somebody on board
who wants to do the work. But we use
the moneystick when we need to get
something done."
"The best time to alert clients to
the need for a follow-on maintenance
contract—after the installation contractor has turned over the site—is
right at the beginning of the design phase,"
Aikman explains CRJA's up-front approach.
"It's a process of saying, 'We're going to provide
you with a beautiful design, you're going to get
an excellent installation, everything is going to
look great, but then it's turned over to you.
You're going to need to do a weekly maintenance to keep it looking good.'"
Aikman credits client education,; with preventing a negative backlash from owners who
realize that construction expenses are
just the beginning. By making maintenance costs a concern at the beginning of the design process rather than
an afterthought, CRJA can share with
the client the process of forming design expectations that march operating budgets
LOUISE SCHILLER, ASLA
President, Louise Schiller Associates, Princeton, N.J.
Louise Schiller established her firm in
1981, devoting a large part of her lauded design efforts to public and academic
institutions. This is in keeping with the
company's belief that urban work is at the
frontier between man and nature.
For maintenance motivation,
Schiller cites Dan Kiley's design
for New York's Lincoln Center. Kiley's concept called for London plane trees in planters, contributing shade and a horizontal roof formed by leafy
canopies high above the ground plane. Twenty-five years or
so later, the Lincoln Center management replaced the plane
trees with Bradford Gallery pears. The upright, oval forms
were poor substitutes for the large, spreading branches of
the plane trees. "They completely destroyed the feeling he
created," notes Schiller. "That's why you need to have a
long-term relationship with the owner and his landscape."
"The landscape architect and landscape maintenance
firm are there to please the owner," says Schiller. She
draws from an ongoing relationship her firm enjoys with
a client of the past six years, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute campus in Chevy Chase, Maryland. "You're
not just working for your own company; you have to form
a team. We always try to make a personal connection with
the person doing the maintenance. It goes beyond writing up formulas and descriptions. You really have to get
in there and form a relationship."
Schiller begins relationship-building before the maintenance company joins the picture. Her firm makes maintenance a consideration at the start of the
design process. "It starts with the landscape architect having an excellent
working relationship with the owner," she explains. "Then
the owner will reinforce his landscape values to the maintenance company."
LSA firm members don't sit in the office and dictate to
the maintenance contractor. Though written and graphic
instructions are provided to maintenance crews, on-site education is paramount. Meetings take place at the project
with the landscape architect explaining to the foreman why
things are in their particular places, why things are planted the way they are, why it is necessary to keep it that way,
and how the whole is integrated into a work of art.
Turnover within the maintenance industry means that this
process must be repeated time and time again. LSA sees
communication time as an investment in the project. Ongoing site inspections are billed by the hour, "Its worth it
to the owner," notes Schiller. "We're under contract to the
owner, so fees are built in to do this training. Meeting time
is covered, as is time spent back in the office writing up reports and staying in contact with the maintenance
company by phone and fax. We fax drawings of small areas where
we think things aren't done correctly: We call the manager and visit the site to follow up."
Such personal communication results in long-term relationships with maintenance companies, even though
personnel changes are frequent. Schiller credits time spent on
site to keeping relationships intact as well as keeping an eye
on the status of the property "I found out that there's only
so much you can do by paperwork," she says. "Maintenance
people don't pay as much attention to the written word as
we would like. They are craftspeople. Its better to show
them how to do it than to write to them and tell them how
to do it. I believe that making a personal connection with
the site manager is a critical step in the process. The landscape architecture firm ought to be willing to devote the
time and the owner should be willing to pay
for field time to make sure that the message is very, very clear. It's one-on-one
communication."
When maintenance companies perform
unsatisfactorily, LSA turns to withholding
contractor payment only as a last resort.
"You don't want to make them angry,"
points out Schiller, "You want to make
them do it right. This is a work of art and
they [maintenance workers] are conservators of a work of arc, just the way someone
in a museum would be, but it's live material they are dealing with. You have to convince them that they are part of something
more interesting than just mowing the
lawn."
LSA solved the common problem of overpruning by setting pruning schedules instead of leaving it up to the contractor.
Schiller explains: "I call the owner and say
it's time to prune. The owner arranges for
the pruner to be there—we're all out on the
job on the same day I tell the maintenance
team exactly which branches they can take
off and which they can't. We do a sample
tree. Then they're supposed to use that as
an example of how to continue. It's not always perfect, but on the other hand, the
owner can't pay the landscape architect to
stand there and direct the pruning of each
tree." Though such a proactive approach
sounds time-consuming, LSA finds it necessary to visit each sice an average of four times
a year. Landscape architects within the firm
are trained to conduct the visits.
By incorporating maintenance concerns
in the design program, LSA was able to
help the Howard Hughes building committee evaluate their design needs in relation to their operating budget. Ballpark
annual maintenance cost estimates kept
expectations realistic. "One of the first
things I ever discuss with a client is, 'I can
tell you what it will cost to maintain a low,
medium, or high level landscape and what
the design implication of those levels are,'"
says Schiller. "Every design decision the
client and I make together will have long-term cost implications. That's why it's very
important for me as the designer to understand what the client is willing to
maintain; the client muse understand what
he will get at each level of maintenance."
Schiller sees it as the landscape architect's responsibility to convince the owner
that the designers long-term involvement
is necessary. "Maintenance companies often go off on their own imaginative journeys and start changing things so that
projects are unrecognizable in a year or
two. Convincing an owner to be a wise
steward is easily done by showing him
photographs of poor or invasive maintenance practices on other projects, illustrating how a maintenance company can
embroider a work of art and distort it.
Why buy a Picasso and then let your
friends play with magic markers on it?"
THOMAS V. MEDLOCK
President, OLM, Inc., Atlanta
OLM, Inc., was founded in 1988 for the specif-
ic purpose of assisting clients by developing com-prehensive maintenance specifications. The
company is the largest commercial real estate
landscape consulting company in the country,
with more than .500 bidding processes completed
and some 9,000-plus site inspections performed.
We specialize in developing
maintenance specifications,
contracts, and requests for proposals for
owners of commercial real estate," says Medlock. "We help owners identify problems as well as preventing key problems
from developing. The old way is really
quite frustrating: When does the owner
call a consultant? When the wheels are
falling off. That's the wrong time to call
someone. A good management system
that's methodical and never-ending should
be put into place. We're continuously on
site so we don't ever let the wheels fall off."
Medlock sees his firm offering what many
landscape architects do not: an on-going site
observation. A horticulturist by training and
a landscape installation contractor by experience, Medlock realized after working for
Post Properties that management was the
catalyst for predictably good results. Atlanta
landscape architect Bob Hughes, ASLA,
helped back the formation of OLM, Inc.
The company's not-so-secret weapon is
its Performance Payment system. Maintenance companies who bid an OLM job know
that 75 percent of their payment is called a
base bid, which they can count on collecting monthly. The remaining 25 percent is
called the performance payment. It is
awarded each month only if maintenance
specifications are met satisfactorily. If they
aren't, the performance payment is withheld for the month. The contractor can improve performance and collect the full payment the following month, but
the amount forfeited the previous month is gone for
good.
"We put together very specific performance-based specs," says Medlock. "I call
it USA Today type specs as opposed to military-style specs to which no one can adhere." The specifications are the basis of a
monthly site inspection. The owner pays
an OLM representative to meet on site with
the property manager and the maintenance contractor's representative. The OLM
inspector creates a simple but detailed list
of what needs to be done, from keeping
the ivy pruned within the edge of curb
lines to implementing the landscape architect's original intent through structural or
rejuvenational pruning.
Each monthly site inspection yields a
grade sheet. If the maintenance company
scores an 87 or above, they pass and receive
full payment. If they score below an 87,
they lose 25 percent of the payment for
that month. On a large job, the performance payment, which may or may not be
awarded, can run close to $10,000 a
month. "We've gotten away from, 'Can I
come back out and clean up what I should
have done three weeks ago?'" says Medlock.
"This system makes everyone become
proactive instead of reactive."
Contractors are aware of the system before they bid, so an informal prequalification process takes place. Bids become more
uniform, eliminating owner temptation to
contract a substantially low bid. Though
maintenance firms initially view performance-based payment negatively, Medlock
is quick to point to data that shows that of
more than a thousand yearly site inspections
performed, contractors stay on the job an
average of five years or longer. The grade
sheet is hard communication to ignore;
owners and out-sourced maintenance
workers know just where they stand. This
makes it easier to correct problems instead
of letting them fester and destroy the
working relationship.
"Many times the contractor does not
know how to maintain a particular plant
correctly. The owner gets frustrated and
winds up taking the plants out," says Med-
lock. "It's really just a lack of expertise. We
make sure it doesn't get to that stage.
Keeping it under control saves the cost of
removal and replacement as well as the loss
of aesthetic value of the landscape architect's original plant choice."
Interpreting design intent isn't always
done in conjunction with the landscape architect. Often OLM must rely on experience
and exposure to many different design
styles on a multitude of projects. "Typically the designers are done when the
construction is done," Medlock notes. "We try
to stay in touch if at all possible with the
landscape architect. When we can, we'll be
on site when the actual turnover is taking
place from construction to maintenance."
While making sure the owner gets his
money s worth for his maintenance dollar
is a primary goal at OLM, it can't be done
correctly if maintenance expectations exceed operating budgets. Clearly specified
bid documents result in apple-to-apple
bids, helping to set realistic operating
costs. "It's not uncommon for us to have a
$400,000 bid with less than a 6 percent
spread among 4 bidders," Medlock notes.
ROGER WELLS, FASLA
Principal, Wells Appel Land Strategies, Philadelphia
Wells Appel Land Strategies has specialized in
land planning, strategic planning, and large-
scale landscape architecture since 1979. The
firm is headquarted in Philadelphia with a regional branch in New Hampshire.
WALS designed two projects near one
another. The first, for Merrill Lynch,
was tailored to suit chat company's self-image. Photos from other projects were used to
analyze the corporate culture. The results
indicated that an American version of an
English estate suited the conservative atmosphere of the company. "We approached
them with the idea that we'd take the ecological foundation of the site and apply
English aesthetics," says Wells. "The goal was to create a series of gardens for them
that became more and more natural the farther you went from the building."
The experience taught the designers that
the aesthetics of informal design must be
carefully explained to client and maintenance personnel alike. Hedgerows in the
parking area were intended to be maintained
as natural thickets; instead, there was a tendency to shear them. WALS also concluded
that wildflower meadows, an excellent solution for wide-open spaces requiring low
maintenance, were best limited to areas seen
from a distance. "We learned that there
needs to be a manicured lawn area to serve as
a transition zone whenever someone is walk-
ing or driving close to a wildflower meadow," Wells explains.
The company discovered that client education is the answer. "To a very large degree, maintenance is driven by a client's
image of themselves," observes Wells.
"However, as we learn how to an educate a
client, we can made a big difference in how
they approach a project."
The landscape architects applied what
they learned to Bristol-Meyers Squibb,
whose site is across a parkway from Merrill
Lynch. This client was using only a portion
of its large property until future development could occur; wildflower meadows
were once again a good design solution.
This time, WALS ensured a positive client
reaction to the less-than-manicured appearance of the meadows. "We showed
them pictures of what a wildflower meadow looks like its first year when you have
annuals in it," says Wells. "Then we showed
them what it looks like the second year
when the annuals don't come back but the
perennials are growing. Next, they saw
what it looks like the third year when the
perennials are just starring to look okay; and
finally, the meadow's appearance the fourth
and fifth years when it comes into its own."
The communication effort paid off.
WALS also recommended a signage program so the client could educate its own
employees about the natural landscape.
Maintenance techniques to keep transition
zones manicured combined with planting
clumps of trees adjoining the meadows to
echo old field succession also assisted in acceptance of the design solution. "We found
that the education process worked well. It
resulted in a client buy-in to the idea that
although the design concept takes time
and patience, it's going to look good and
save them money," says Wells.
The firm also writes guidelines to make
maintenance decisions a natural result of
the design process, instead of unrelated
practices imposed upon a project. "The
guidelines are like a bible for the project,"
he explains. "They keep the original concepts in front of people's faces. They're a
tool we use to make sure that whomever
the client representative is who deals with
the maintenance people, he understands
what the intent was and how it should be
maintained. That's important as the project rep may not have been around when
the design was being done."
Though some clients embrace a low-maintenance naturalistic design approach
after proper introduction to the idea, others still resist if the look does not fit their
company's established self image. WALS
evaluates corporate culture and designs accordingly. If the client sees themselves as
having an expansive lawn by the front
door, that can happen, but the whole site
doesn't have to be high maintenance. "We
say, 'You can have this wonderful lawn out
front where you want it, then back here,
where nobody is going to be close by, why
don't you make that into native grasses
that will only have to be mown twice a
year and don't have to be watered. It will
look like this,'" says Wells. "Running the
numbers to show cost-effectiveness often
will sell a client on areas of low maintenance, even if they don't want to have the
entire site designed that way,"
ROBERT RINCK, ASLA
Principal, Site Design and Management
Systems, Inc., Laming, Mich.
Robert Rinck founded Site Design Management
Systems, Inc., in 1996 with a particular mission in mind, one that is reflected in the company name. Drawing on his years of experience as
both a state-employed landscape architect and a
design firm principal, Rinck believed a new firm
could enable hard core designers to offer cradle-to-grave landscape management service.
What we see in our profession is
most landscape architects walk
away after construction. We believe that's
where the project stares," says Rinck. "Once
a project is built, it might be an award winner. But come back in five or ten years and
if it doesn't look like an award winner then,
you've failed. Either you didn't address
maintenance and it was too costly to maintain or perhaps the client misunderstood
what it took to take care of it."
SDMS specializes in maintenance-responsive design. Good site layout, materials and
product selection, and site details are the
gears that drive this approach to the design
process. The firm also creates maintenance
plans that stay with the site. Everything is
quantified: square footage of lawn to be
mowed, lineal feet of line-trimming needed. If the maintenance company or even the
owner changes, there's still a resource for understanding how that site operates. "This
puts the site manager in the driver's seat because he knows everything about the site. If
he's maintaining it internally with his own
staff, there's accountability because he
knows what it takes to get the job done,"
explains Rinck. "Or if they put the project
out to bid, there's no guesswork. They put
out the numbers: here's what we have to
mow, give me a price. We find that bids are
extremely right."
He continues, "The site manager is often at a disadvantage when it comes to
evaluating competent bids, so they go
with the low bid, because that's what the
owner wants to hear. But that's not such an
issue when bids are close together."
SDMS prefers to work on a retainer basis,
much the same way an attorney does. Fees
are charged hourly against the retainer. This
enables the firm to devote the time it takes
to handle the details of maintenance. Much
of their work involves existing projects,
some designed years ago. The first step is a
front-end assessment of current maintenance practices; many clients don't know if
they're getting what they need. SDMS develops improved maintenance strategies as
well as pointing out areas that require re-design. "Often uses change over time, so
consequently game plans have to change
with regard to maintenance," says Rinck.
"If you look at a 30-year-old site, the uses
may have changed so much that the site is
a miserable statement of what it should be.
Often we can turn it around. We'll solve the
immediate maintenance problems and
make recommendations if redesign is needed. You can show them an alternative."
The firm develops maintenance plans
for their own designs as well as for built
sites. The plans are graphic to ensure quick
communication with property managers;
a range of symbols represents required
tasks. Work is prioritized and tailored to
meet operational budgets. Baseline tasks
indicate maintenance practices that must
be done to prevent project decline. Discretionary tasks improve the project as
budget and manpower permits. Fertilizing and aerating are examples of discretionary tasks; mowing is a baseline task.
SDMS finds their approach to client development scores big. "If you look at new
construction versus built sites that need
help, the built sites far outstrip the market
for new design. Operational budgets out
there are very substantial, but most operations people have never involved a landscape
architect in the process," explains Rinck.
"We can give them an alternative that saves
them money and improves the site."
The relationships that develop lead to
new design work at times. The owner of a
built site is introduced to the concept of
maintenance-responsive design. As new
sites are developed, the same client wants
to apply the value of what he has learned
using a designer with whom he is already
comfortable. As a result, new design work
for existing clients is frequently negotiated by SDMS instead of designer selection
through bidding.
Regular site inspections by SDMS landscape architects keep project quality under
scrutiny. When maintenance plans aren't
implemented correctly, out-sourced maintenance companies can lose the contract. In-house
work must be carefully analyzed to
see where the problem originates. "When
it's internal, such as a school district or public housing, the workers initially feel that
management is hiring this guy to tell them
what a rotten job they're doing. But we get
them involved right from the start and they
soon realize that we can become their best
ally. Typically we find that no one has ever
identified the tasks and the time and manpower it cakes to adequately achieve a specific quality standard. In many cases, the
allotted manpower is inadequate."
Though that's not good news for operational budgets, SDMS restructures the
maintenance plan so that the work is prioritized. This keeps baseline tasks covered
even if the manpower does not increase. The
result is a project that has a better overall appearance and workers who aren't continually criticized for what is beyond their ability
to complete. Redesigning specific areas can
also eliminate maintenance problems and
reduce time spent on needless tasks.
Jo Kellum, ASLA, is a landscape architect, writer,
and garden photographer who lives atop Signal
Mountain, Tennessee.
References
Bibliography courtesy of Horace Aikman,
CRJA
Arboriculture, Integrated Management of
Landscape Trees, Shrubs and Vines, 2nd edition, Richard W. Harris, Prentice-Hall
Career & Technology, 1992
Computer-Aided Facility Management, Eric Teicholz, McGraw-Hill Inc., 1992
Grounds Maintenance Handbook, 3rd Edition,
Herbert S. Conover, McGraw-Hill, Inc.,
1.977
Professional Landscape Management, David
L. Hensley, Stipes Publishing L.L.C, 1994
The Complete Book of Pruning, D. Coombs,
P. Blackburne-Maze, M. Cracknell, R.
Gently, Ward Lock, 1992
Tree Pruning, A Worldwide Photographic Guide, Alex L. Shigo, Shigo and Trees,
Associates, 1992
Turfgrass Maintenance & Establishment, A
Teacher's Manual, Pennsylvania State University, College of Agriculture, Volume 9,
Number 4, 1968
Turfgrass Management, 4th edition, AJ. Turgeon, Prentice-Hall, 1996
Turf Manager's Handbook, Comprehensive
Practical Instruction for All Turf Professionals, W.H. Daniel, R.P.
Freeborg, Harcourt
Brace Johanovich, 1979
Urban Trees, A Guide for Selection, Maintenance, and Master Planning, Leonard E.
Phillips, Jr.. McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1.993
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