NCKRI Architectural Firm Terminated

[Taylor]

Cave and Karst contract with architectural firm terminated
By Stella Davis
September 18, 2006

CARLSBAD — The city of Carlsbad has terminated its contract with the local architectural firm hired to handle the design of the National Cave and Karst Institute. But the firm will not refund the $193,000 already expended by the city for the design work. "We couldn't reach an agreement," said City Administrator Harry Burgess. "Our other choice was to seek arbitration. That would have been costly for everybody. The termination of the contract was a mutual decision. The money we have already paid for the design is basically lost. It cannot be recouped."

He said the termination of the contract was through a mutual agreement following a mediation meeting last week between the city and the architectural firm of Durham and Associates Architects Inc.

The dispute boiled down to interpretations of two clauses in the firm's contract with the city —who is to blame for delays of the project that led to rising construction costs and money that had already been paid for the design work.

Burgess said that the architectural firm was awarded the bid for the original design of the building, which is to be the anchor point of the Carlsbad Department of Development Cascades project along the Pecos River.

According to the agreement, the firm would be paid $240,000 or 8 percent of the construction bid, whichever is lower based on the $3 million budgeted for the project. The project went out for construction bid in November, and the low bid came in at $6.8 million.

"With deductions, that brought the price down to $6.3 million. At that time, the city had $3.4 million, and the construction bid come in about double that. The Legislature and the Environment Department this year gave us some more money so that brought what we had for the facility to $4.4 million," Burgess explained. "When the bid came high, we pursued some contractual remedies that said if the bid came over the budget, the contractor has to do a redesign. The city felt that the architectural firm should handle the project at no additional cost, or at least very little additional cost. It all hinges on definition. Instead of redesigning a new building, they cut out various portions of the building and the design they brought us suggested the project be done in phases, beginning with the $4.4 million. They suggested that we could add on in time as more money came available."

Wanda Durham, Durham and Associates president and chief executive officer, said that there were several factors that led to the parting of ways. "We did what was asked of us," Durham said. "Our contract was to design a one or two story 20,000 square-feet building with actual useable space. In order to accommodate the space requirement, the footage of the building had to be 24,000 square feet plus. We agreed at the time to do a building design carrying through what the city had budgeted, which was about $3 million."

Burgess said that when the architectural firm was asked to redesign the Cave and Karst facility, it had envisioned at no additional cost a new design that does not call for construction phases and fits the city's budget. "They said it would cost the city an additional $190,000 for a new design," Burgess said. "We disagreed with that."

Burgess said that an option the city plans to explore is the possibility of utilizing the National Park Service's architectural services.

The National Park Service and the state of New Mexico have each agreed to pay half for the facility, but the NPS has additional Leadership in Energy Environmental Design requirements for the project.


Rest of article: www.currentargus.com/ci_4359430

[L Roebuck]

NCKRI a costly debacle
The Current-Argus

A mediation process between the city of Carlsbad and Durham and Associates ended last week with both sides walking away from a failed contract. The contract, signed in June 2003, was for design of the National Cave And Karst Research Institute building - to be located as an anchor structure at the Cascades development along the Pecos River. But multiple delays, miscommunication, and changing requirements led to a stalemate.

In the end, Durham retained the $193,000 the city had already paid, though they had sought a total of $250,000. The city - with an expensive set of drawings in the trash - is back to square one, and plans to ask the National Park Service to design the building this time around.

There's plenty of blame to go around on this failure, but there was a huge aggravating circumstance: key players, central to the plan and contract, are no longer present. The original architect, Beryl Durham, has passed away. The city manager, Jon Tully, has retired. And, the original executive director for NCKRI, Louise Hose, is no longer employed by the institute.

Here's a brief timeline of the project, gleaned from the NCKRI website: The institute was established by act of congress in 1998; an interim director was appointed in 2000; a permanent director was appointed in 2002; in 2003, a Memorandum of Understanding formed a partnership between the National Park Service, the City of Carlsbad, and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology - who is to develop and operate the institute; groundbreaking for the facility was set for 2004; and the institute was to be fully operational by 2006.

Of course, we're now nearly three-quarters of the way through 2006. And the project is nearly starting from scratch.

The real lesson here is that a lack of clarity in communication can be very expensive. Hopefully, the city will be able to pick up the pieces, work with the park service, and see this project through to a promising end.

Article

[madratdan]

Sounds like NCKRI may never get a building at this rate. NPS is going through cutbacks at a lot of their parks. Too bad. It's a great idea. $250,000.00. ffor a set of building plans, sounds like too much money to me. I'll have to ask around and see if I can find out what a set of plans typically cost.