Professor’s
Study of Enviromental Studies Center
To
the Editors:
I have commissioned a study of the Environmental Studies Center’s
design and construction records in order to learn exactly how and
why the energy systems in the building were designed as they were.
This study is being conducted by the firm of Facilities Resource
Management (FRM), which currently manages Oberlin’s physical
plant. Once this study is complete, I will communicate its findings
to the campus and to the larger Oberlin community, as well as to
the many others who have taken an interest in this building.
This study was completed last winter and the report forwarded to
the President. Despite several requests I have not been given access
to this report nor have its findings been communicated to the Oberlin
Community. (My own summer Oberlin Alumni magazine article was based
entirely on my own research.)
When President Dye commissioned this study I questioned her decision
to assign the task to Michael Bolanos of FRM/Aramark due to his
obvious conflict of interest. The problem is that Mr. Bolanos advised
the President with regard to this project through the latter part
of its design phase and FRM has managed the College Construction
Office ever since. Even before officially taking over management
of College Facilities and the Office of Facilities Planning on July
1, 1998, FRM billed the College $54,000 for Mr. Bolanos’ work
on the project. FRM managed the August 1998 value engineering process
that resulted in the elimination of key building features. The decision
to undertake the final mechanical redesign, the redesign process
itself, the signing of construction contracts, and the entire construction
project all took place on FRM’s watch.
In view of my recent criticism of FRM I thought it might be useful
to examine FRM’s role in the Lewis Center project. When President
Dye, on Sept. 16, 1998 asked the Executive Committee of the Board
of Trustees to increase the budget from $6.11 to $6.61M to cover
the cost associated with mechanical system design changes it was
Mr. Bolanos who assured board members that the design team had finally
gotten the design right, that it met the stated energy criteria
and that there would be no more changes. Not only was Mr. Bolanos
incorrect, but engineers had not even produced blueprints for the
new mechanical design; these would not be provided for another six
weeks! What was in hand, however, was a Sept. 7, 1998 memo from
the engineers outlining their intended design. The memo explicitly
stated the key design flaw that would haunt this project, the incorporation
of a tempered-water (rather than geothermal) heat pump system. On
Nov. 4, 1998 following completion of the mechanical drawings, the
architect, at the College’s request, instructed their engineers
to forward these to FRM (c/o Michael Bolanos), presumably so that
FRM would use their engineering expertise to advise the College.
No available evidence suggests that FRM’s experts detected
any problems or provided useful advice. Yet all of the mechanical
design flaws that have now been identified were clearly present
in those drawings (electric boilers, wrong heat pumps, and an inefficient
design for the main air-handler).
For years the College’s physical plant has turned to outside
consultants for engineering assistance and project management, services
now contracted to FRM. Prior to 1998-9 these services were often
contracted to Fuller and Associates, a Columbus engineering firm.
(Fuller, for instance, was hired to comment on the Lewis Center
mechanical design in the summer of 1997. His firm provided a detailed
analysis of that earlier design which identified major flaws.) It
is regrettable that FRM, rather than Fuller, was asked to comment
on the final design. But with FRM managing our facilities and construction
office, it is FRM who decides to whom such contracts should be let.
In this role as gatekeeper FRM has managed to funnel extensive College
work to itself, greatly enhancing their annual revenue over the
$900,000 they charge Oberlin for routine operations. In the 2001-2
fiscal year FRM has billed the College $1,700,000 for its services,
nearly double its basic fee.
– John Scofield
Associate Professor of Physics
|